Numerology

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Dear Bishop Manchester, is numerology an occult subject or can it be studied in regards to God's Word ? What is your opinion of all the "bible code" information available now? - Carol

Taking your last query first, the Bible code (also known as the Torah code) is a series of messages alleged to be found within biblical text that when decoded form words and phrases supposedly demonstrating prophecy. I do not feel the results actually make predictions. I think they reveal probabilities. The unravelling of the codes found in the first five Books of the Bible are nevertheless uncanny in their accuracy.

The two most commonly used numbers in the Bible are the numbers 7 and 40.

The number 7 is seen as being representative of perfection or completion. This number is often referred to as God’s number due to the fact that He is considered the only one to be perfect and complete.

The number 3 is also considered to be representative of divine perfection as well due to the fact that the Trinity is comprised of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The number 40 is considered to be a number that is associated with trial or difficulties. For example, in the Bible, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years and Moses was on the mount for 40 days. Also, Jesus was tempted for 40 days and there were 40 days between the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension.

There are also other numbers that are repeated in the Bible as well, such as the number 4. This number is considered to be the number of creation; such as the four seasons. The number 6 is considered to be the number of man because man was created on the 6th day and man is meant to labor only for 6 days. There are also other examples of how numbers are used in a significant manner in the Bible, such as the way the number 666 is used to represent the Antichrist in Revelation.

Hebrew numerology is sometimes referred to as Gematria. In this system each letter is represented by a numerical value. Gematria uses the calculation of the numerical equivalence of words, letters and phrases in order to gain insight into a variety of concepts as well as to explore how words and ideas are interrelated.

The basic idea behind this method is that numerical equivalence is not merely a matter of coincidence. This system is based on the idea that since the world was created as a result of God’s speech then each letter is represented by a different creative force. As a result, the numerical equivalence of two words would reveal an internal connection between the potential of each word.

There are four different ways in which the equivalence of individual letters can be calculated.

They are:

- Absolute value

- Ordinal value

- Reduced value

- Integral reduced value

Notice the following simple facts about the Hebrew sentence:

1. It contains 7 words.

2. The total number of letters is 28, or 7 x 4

3. The sentence divides into two equal parts: the first three words, 'In-the-beginning God created,' contain 14 letters, and the remaining four words contain 14 letters.

4. The second half of the sentence divides again into two equal parts: The two words for 'the heavens' contain 7 letters, and the two words for 'and-the earth' contain 7 letters.

5.The three nouns, God, heavens and earth have together 14 letters.

6. The numeric value of these three nouns is 777, or 7 x 111.

7. The numeric value of the verb, created, is 203, or 7 X 29.

8. The middle word (2 letters) and the one before it (5 letters) have together 7 letters.

9. The middle word and the one after it have together 7 letters.

Even more remarkable are the numerics which fix the individual letters so that they cannot be changed. Hebrew is what is called a synthetic language, that is, the meaning to be expressed is indicated largely by the use of prefixes and suffixes. In some instances the changing of a prefix might completely reverse the meaning of the whole sentence. It is therefore most important that the first and last letters of the words should be protected against alteration. Now see how the numeric structure accomplishes this:

10. We saw just now that the sentence could be divided into equal parts having fourteen letters in each half. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the first half is 42, or 7 x 6.

11. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the second half is 91, or 7 x 13.

12. If the first and last letters of all the words are taken together, their numeric value is 1,292, or 7 x 199.

13. The numeric value of the first and last letters of the first and last words only is 497, or 7 x 71.

14. This number is so divided that if only the first letters are taken of the first and last words, these two letters have together a numeric value of 7. Similarly, the last letters of these two words have together a numeric value of 490, or 7 x 7 x 10.

15. Taking the first and last letters of the first word but one, and the last word but one, then their numeric values add up to 896, or 7 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2

16. This number is peculiar in that it is seven multiplied by two seven times, and furthermore the sum of its factors is 21

It is clear from these extraordinary phenomena that the prefixes and suffixes in this sentence could not possibly be altered without throwing the whole design into confusion. Not only this, but it is impossible to construct another sentence which incorporates such an amazing set of numerics. I would never have believed that such a sentence could exist if it were not for the fact that it is there.

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