We now come to the last part in this present series, based on the first verse of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Several expositors over the years have commented on the beauty of this verse, a transcendent beauty of numerical design that simply could not have been the result of human workmanship. In this paper I should like to mention the work of Dr Bullinger, Ivan Panin, Dr Charles Ozanne, and Dr Vernon Jenkins, to mention but four sources, the first two from the turn of the century, and the last two of the present time. [Read more…]
Archives for March 1998
112. The Secret of 276
In the 27th chapter of Acts, Luke gives a graphic account of the tragic sea voyage in which the Apostle Paul, as prisoner, sailed from Caesarea to Italy, in the custody of Julius the Centurion. And in that account, he tells us that 276 souls were saved alive from the shipwreck, not one being lost to the raging sea. This is the location of the number 276 in the New Testament, and in due course we shall find that this precisely stated number is full of significance, in exactly the same way that we saw the significance of 153 in the last paper. But the secret must remain until the end of this paper. [Read more…]
111. The Secret of 153
In the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel we find the story of the 153 great fishes that Peter brought ashore after the resurrection. The number has caught the imagination of Bible students through the centuries. Dr. E.W.Bullinger, in his “Number in Scripture” tells us that Gregory of Nyasa commented on it, saying that it is found by multiplying 17 by 3 and then by 3 again. St.Augustine found that by adding 1 to 2, and then 3, and 4, etc up to 17, it totals 153, which shows that it belongs to the concept we have called “Triangle Numbers”, related to an ‘Arithmetical Progression’.
110. Triangle Numbers
Please don’t be put off by this title! Although this study is about number patterns, it will have a progressively spiritual lesson to offer us as we proceed – indeed, a most important lesson. In P.T.105 we looked at some of the Biblical secrets locked up in numbers. Some may find it boring to contemplate numerical studies, and we are quite aware that interests and enthusiasms are very diverse amongst the Lord’s people, but we feel that the truths we now have to offer are so strange, so pointed, so wonderful, that we wish to encourage our readers to pause for a while and read these four papers. We think you will be astonished. [Read more…]
108. El-Shaddai
There are many titles ascribed to our Lord in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. These have been variously translated by Lord and God using different type faces. It would have served English readers better if in a forward an explanation had been given, and a transliteration used instead of a translation. For example, the sacred name YHVH, known as the holytetragrammaton, and which no one knows how to pronounce because the Rabbis have kept it a secret over the ages – the A.V. Bible uniformly translates as LORD. [Read more…]