Numbers and Patterns in the Bible

Fred R. Coulter—October 1, 2011

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On Trumpets I changed my sermon and I did a couple of things to show patterns. So, I got to thinking, maybe I ought to bring a sermon on patterns and numerics in the Bible, because these things become very important in helping prove the creation. In Isaiah 45 we have something of an enigma. God reveals Himself, yet, He hides Himself. How can it be that God reveals Himself and yet, at the same time hides Himself? Isaiah 45:15: "Truly You are a God Who hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior." Who does He hide Himself from?

Let's see something that God says that even though He says He hides Himself, yet, He pleads with people to seek Him. How's He going to reveal Himself? Isaiah 55:6, it says: "Seek the LORD while He may found; call upon Him while He is near.... [How do you do that?] ...Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (vs 6-7).

That is very interesting, because here is how God hides Himself, yet reveals Himself. And we're going to see how that fits into everything here, especially the Word of God and especially the numbers that are involved in the formation of the Bible and the patterns and things that are here.

Verse 8: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts..." That's the first place that has to begin. It's not what we think; it's what God thinks. If God hides Himself, how are we going to know what He thinks? It's in the Bible! And especially in the end-time this becomes really important, because God is revealing Himself in a tremendous and fantastic way:

• through everything that's going on in the world
• through fulfilling prophecy
• through His Word

The way that people begin to find God is to begin to understand about His Word, about His Truth.

Verse 9: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.... [How do we find out where God is? This seems like an impossible chore—doesn't it?] ...For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and does not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be... [you find Him beginning in the Word of God] ...which goes out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do" (vs 9-11). Part of that has to do with the creation as well.

Let's come to Romans 1 and let's see that God reveals Himself if people are willing to look. Now, evolutionists obviously will not be able to understand this, because they see things through the lens of evolution. Have you ever, in watching the History Channel, said to yourself, 'Boy, one of these times I'm going to write them and ask them: Why do you always bring the evolutionary point of view?' And when they try and show something about the Bible, like the Flood, they go to extremes to show what they believe proves that the Bible is not true and that the Flood covered a certain part of the earth.

I saw one the other night where they postulating—because they won't look in the Bible, and the answers are here if they would look in the Bible. They were postulating, 'How could we get a flood on the earth?' Rather than read what the Bible says that God broke up the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep.

If you want a little bit of extra water, they are always stored somewhere. Plus if you lower the land, if He breaks up the deep, don't you think that lowers the land and raises the ocean bottom? No, they wouldn't want to read that. So, they said, 'All right, there was an asteroid, a huge asteroid that came and hit the earth. What they failed to show is that there's a magnetic protection around the earth and very few asteroids really get through that are of super size. But they said, 'No, this hit the water and it raised everything 200-feet around the world.' Well, they don't believe God.

Romans 1:18: "Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness." How do you 'suppress the Truth in unrighteousness'? They edit a little bit here; they get rid of a little bit there; they say that all of the writings about creation are myth. They don't get into the Bible to understand basic things.

As I've said before, God showed that all the angels rejoiced when He created the earth. If all the angels did, that making the earth then had to take place before the rebellion of Lucifer and a third of the angels he took with him. So it's there!

Verse 19: "Because that which may be known of God... [even though He hides Himself] ...is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them; for the invisible things of Him are perceived from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that were made—both His eternal power and Godhead—so that they are without excuse; because when they knew God... [there was a time they knew God] ...they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful; but they became vain in their own reasonings, and their foolish hearts were darkened. While professing themselves to be the wise ones, they became fools" (vs 19-22).

How did God manifest it to them? By the things that are made! Let's come back here to Isaiah 40, and let's see the challenge that God gives. Then we will look at some of the numbers and things and see how they fit in. We will see numbers and patterns that prove the existence of God, the inspiration of the Word of God. God says to all the evolutionists, 'Try this on for size':

Isaiah 40:12: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span? And who has comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighted the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, and who was His counselor that he might instruct Him?…. [so He gives a challenge]: …With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and make known the way of understanding to Him?" (vs 12-14). In other words, how was everything created? If there is no God, you explain it, and they can't explain it. They have their theories of evolution, but you listen to what they say and soon you understand that it all falls apart.

Verse 18: "To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?" Then he talks about the idols that men make. Can any of the idols do anything? No, people are really superstitious!

I look at a lot of cars and I see they have rosaries, they have their good luck charms, and these things are supposed to keep them safe. How can that do it? Take your good luck charm or your rosary, put it on the table and if it's supposed to have power, tell it to stand up and walk. Won't do it.

Verse 21: "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth..." (vs 21-22). That verse is in there for all flat-earth believers to read.

Another little thing that follows a pattern: Of the foods that we eat, how many of them are round? Eighty percent of them—right? Yes! What does that tell you? Same Creator! If He sits upon the circle of the earth, then the earth has to be round.
"...and its people are like grasshoppers; It is He Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in" (v 22). And now they're even beginning to understand that the speed of light can be slowed way down and it can be speeded up greatly going out into the universe. This tells us what? All of the things that we think that we know about the universe and we think are established facts, may not be established facts.

Verse 25: "'To whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal?' says the Holy One." Let them stand up. Show us what you can do. Show us what you have created. Men are fervently working to try and give themselves near immortality. But God said back in Gen. 6, man's life is going to be 120 years. From that time forward it began going down, down, down, and how many 120-year-old people are around? None!

"Lift up your eyes on high... [You start understanding God by looking at the creation that He made.] ...and behold, Who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number?... [We're going to get into numbers and patterns.] ...He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one fails" (v 26). Think of that!

Today we have all of the information about what we can see out in the heavens that we can even bring right into our living room, watch it right on the television—right? What a fantastic thing that is. If people who lived clear back in the 500s—B.C. or A.D., whatever number you want to take—resurrect them and bring them into a full-fledged high-tech house and building, let them view things, they would be amazed! They would say, 'You're gods!'

And what is Satan's plan? The counterfeit of God! Satan says, 'You'll become god, like me, so let me lead you.' God says, 'You'll become a son or daughter of God through My plan.' Here are the two competing factions that are on earth.

Verse 26: "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, Who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one fails. Why do you say, O Jacob, and O Israel... [or that is, any man on earth] ...you speak, 'My way is hidden from the LORD and my cause is disregarded by my God?' Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary? And His understanding no one can fathom." (vs 26-28). But we can see the evidence of what He has done, and we find that in His creation.

Let's come to Psalm 147:4 where He talks about the creation: "He counts the number of the stars... [We now know that that number is so absolutely fantastic. The most that they've been able to estimate, the number of stars and galaxies in the universe is 360-trillion. How's that for weight of evidence that there's a Creator? How many stars have the evolutionists created?] ...He calls them all by names." He spread them out like a curtain.

Let's look at what men are trying to do, now on the other hand. They look at the sun and they have been able to analyze that the sun runs on fusion power, self-perpetuating. Men are trying to re-create that so they can capture that fusion power. They figure that if they have a small amount of fusion power that will continuously work, it will give them power to do many, many things for a long time.

Over here at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories they have this huge sphere. They are trying to, through laser lights, to try and get fusion to be held in a magnetic center so that they can control the fusion and then derive the power from it. It's taken billions of dollars, best brains in the world, and they haven't figured it out yet.

Over in Europe they have this big cyclotron, I think it's seventeen miles around. Because they know there are particles that are so small and powerful that when they come to the earth they pass all the way through it without even slowing down. How's that for a solid earth? So what they are trying to do is to weld those two technologies together. They have spent $17-billion in building this cyclotron that has the largest magnetic forces on earth concentrated in the cyclotron that's seventeen miles, so that they can capture these particles. Hopefully, they can do it. So they have run experiments already and their experiments are not working.

So again, the best brains, the best men, the best ability. God says here, He speaks and it's created. He numbers the stars, He calls them all by their names. "Great is our LORD and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite" (v 5).

To make this easy, let's understand some things; let's come to chapter two of The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version Bible, page 9. Now this is part of the commentary that we have in the Bible. I've given some sermons on numbers and patterns, but not very many. However, we're going to use this as a guide to help us understand the power of God.

If He is able to create all these things, which He is, and remember, every evolutionist has to start out with the big bang and God's soil. They don't even ask the question: 'How did I really get here and why am I able to think of these things?' I know when going through numbers sometimes you get to taking so many notes, it's hard to follow along. I think that this will help us a lot here.

God's Divine Design of the Holy Bible and Its Numeric Connection, pg 9, chpt. 2, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version.

God designed and created the universe based on mathematical laws—laws that continue to govern the entire creation.

This is how He reveals Himself, yet hides Himself. Just as there are laws in the physical creation, there are numbers and laws within the Bible. This is why—and we have the reference right here in the paragraph:

Emphatically, the Bible is not the product of human ideas... [As Peter wrote:] ...Rather, "Holy men of God spoke [and wrote] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2-Pet, 1:21). As the Apostle Paul wrote, "All Scripture is God-breathed."

As I mentioned before, I've mentioned this number before, but it's very interesting and we'll see how that breaks down. God used 40 men to write the Bible—32 for the Old Testament, 8 for the New Testament. Now part of this is taken from the book by Dr. Edward F. Vallowe, Biblical Mathematics. Here's what he writes about it. Can men discover these things if they apply themselves and are willing to follow along with what God has said? Yes!

Biblical Mathematics by Dr. Edward F. Vallowe, pg 9: "Numbers are the secret code of God's Word….

What have we found concerning the Holy Days and the Sabbath?

…Only to the students of the Word, those to whom God's Spirit has given spiritual insight, will the code be made plain. God has been called 'The Great Geometrician' and is said to do everything after a plan by number, weight and measure….

What did we read back there in Isa. 40? 'Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hands? Who has weighed the hills in the scales and balance?'

…If God is the Author of the Scriptures and the Creator of the Universe, and He is, then the Words of God and the Works of God should and will [numerically] harmonize" (p. 19).

Then he mentions concerning the different authors of the Bible. Take a look at anything that men have written. Let's take all the traditions of Judaism, for example. Now they say that these traditions are inspired, yet they contradict one another. But the Bible does not contradict itself. Sometimes it looks like there's an apparent contradiction, but it's not. So, the numbers and the way that it's written becomes very important.

Let's come to Mark 13; I want to bring this out, because it's very important in relationship to understanding the numbers and how things come together. This also helps answer the question concerning the Sabbath and the Holy Days and the creation of time.

Mark 13:30, Jesus says: "Truly I say to you, this generation shall in no way pass away until all these things have taken place.... [That's the end-time we're living in now.] ...The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but My words shall never pass away" (vs 30-31). Think of that for a minute!

We know that in Gospel of John, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And nothing came into being that He did not create.' How did He create it? By command! Everything but man, which He personally fashioned to show the intimate relationship that God wanted to have with mankind, but giving us free choice, we have to choose.

But let's look at 'words shall never pass away.' All right, let's see something else back in Matthew 5. Scriptures we've gone over in the past before, but let's emphasize it from the point of view of what God has created.

Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until the heaven and the earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the Law until everything has been fulfilled" (vs 17-18).

Why does God use the heavens and the earth? And remember when He told Israel when they were going into the land. He says, 'I call heaven and earth to witness to you this day. I've set before you life and good, death and evil. Therefore, choose life that you may live.' He also says to love God. Why? Let's talk just a little bit about the Sabbath.

Since God is one Who creates things and numbers them and did He not number each day of creation? Yes, He did! Let's see what He set in motion on the fourth day. This is why when people say the Sabbath has been done away, has heaven and earth been done away? No! The Holy Days have been fulfilled or they're just rituals. No! Which came first, the day or the ritual? The day did! Genesis 1:14 is when He set the sun and the moon and the earth in relationship to each other for keeping time on the earth. That's why God has given a calculated Hebrew calendar so today we know exactly when to keep the days.

Genesis 1:14: "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide between the day and the night and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons, and for days and years.'" What is this telling us? All of these have been built in to the creation of the earth with the sun, the moon, and the earth. It's all been created right there. Unless you do away with the heaven and the earth:

• you can't do away with the laws of God
• you can't do away with the days of God
• you can't do away with how God calculates time

You may have another method that you devise time, like our Roman calendar, which then is very convenient to bring in pagan things when you reject the things of God. But you can never do away with what God has created. You may take something and blow it up, but you're just changing the image of it. You haven't done away with it.

Let's see what God says, v 15: "'And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. And God had made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and God had made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth… [He established the sequence of the days and months and years right in the creation.] …and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good" (vs 15-18). So, He marked out each day as He went along—correct?

Let's look at the Sabbath. Remember Jesus said He is Lord—present tense—of the Sabbath Day. Because 'the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.' Once you put together the things properly that He was the Creator, the Lord God of the Old Testament, He came and He is the Savior, the Lord of the New Testament. When He says He is Lord of the Sabbath that is continuous. The Sabbath has never been done away. The Holy Days have never been done away, because the heavens and the earth are still here.

Let's ask another question, after we read this, Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And by the beginning of the seventh day... [That's what it means. The King James says 'and on the seventh day,' which is not true, because He didn't work on the seventh day.] (The Hebrew means): ...by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work which He had made. And he rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made" (vs 1-2).
Someone will pop up and say, 'Well, does God get tired? Why would He have to rest?' It says He did. Didn't say He was tired. He was doing this on the Sabbath Day and He instructed Adam and Eve. Notice what God did: God blessed the seventh day. And if it's what God has made, even though men have tried to do with it, the weekly cycle has never been changed. We'll get to number seven when we get into the numbers here.

Verse 3: "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it..." If God makes something Holy, is it Holy? What if men don't believe it's Holy? Does that make it unholy? What if Satan the devil, who is 'the god of this world' says, 'Oh, let's get everybody involved. We'll destroy the knowledge of the Sabbath and we will have God continue to be hidden from them by their disobedience, but we'll make it fun.' Look at everything that takes place on beginning of the Sabbath through the whole Sabbath Day.

And he always starts with the young ones—doesn't he? 'Oh, Friday night, we've got to have our parties. We have to go here. We have games here.' You can see some of the reviews of the sports. You can look at that after the Sabbath. But when it shows all these fanatical college students out there with the games, where's God? Nowhere! What do they teach them? There is no God! What do they teach them? How to debauch their lives and ruin it with immoral sex! And now we just heard, Mexico is trying to cut down on the cost of divorce so they are giving marriage at two-year increments. You get married, and two years later you decide you don't want to continue in the marriage, then it's over with. You want to continue, you come back and pay $100 fee.

Does that do away with what God said? No! It confuses and mixes it up—right? From the beginning Jesus said, 'A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.' And we know from the rest of the Bible 'until death do they part.' Of course, life becomes difficult, but you have to do it God's way and you can work through all the problems.

Just like the Sabbath here. He blessed it. He made it Holy and it is always a remembrance of the creation of God. Why do we have the Sabbath Day? So that we never forget that God is Creator! That's why He says, 'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth.' Rested on the Sabbath Day.

Let's look at the numbers and their meaning in the Bible. With this, what we're going to see, numbers are everywhere through the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. They're important. They reveal what God is doing. And especially when we get to the book of Revelation, we're going to see unless you understand the numbers that are there and the meaning of them, you're not going to understand it.

The Significance of Biblical Numbers, pg 10, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version—second paragraph:

Biblical numerics is a vast subject….

Which it is, so we're going to get an overview.

…Several books have been written which discuss the numeric connections of the Scriptures in great detail. Therefore, only the most significant numbers that relate to the divine design of the Bible and the numerics of the biblical Holy Days will be presented….

I've taken quotes from the book, Biblical Mathematics by Vallowe, so we note that with a (V). I've added others in there, which I have put in, which we note with a (C). The first one is:

Number 1: Signifies unity and oneness (V). The unity and oneness of God: "Hear, O Israel. Our one God is the LORD, the LORD" (Deut. 6:4)....

And within that One it reveals two. Because the

...Hebrew: "Our one Elohim is Jehovah, Jehovah." The unity and oneness of God the Father and Jesus Christ (John 10:30; 17:21). By His one sacrifice...

Let's tie that together. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is there forgiveness of sin. Only through His shed blood do we have the remission for sins that are past. God never gives us a blank check for the future that we can just live in sin and say, 'God's laws are done away.' Never happen. His one sacrifice! And what else did Jesus say in John 14:6? 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.' So, all the religions that men have, violate the Bible, go against what the Bible says and are only men's inventions under the inspiration of Satan the devil.

Let's see what it says more about Jesus here:

…Jesus is the one Mediator and the one Shepherd (1-Tim. 2:5 John 10:16). There is one body, the Church; one spirit... [which comes from God] ...one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:4-46)….

You can't have a multitude of different ways. And yet the whole movement of the coming world religion is unity through diversity. 'We all have a religion, so therefore, we're all going to the same place.' That may be a true statement, if you never repent of your sins you are going to the same place.

What does this do for the Catholic doctrine of the virgin Mary being an intercessor in addition to Jesus? John wrote that no one has ascended into heaven except the Son of man who came down from heaven and who is in the bosom of the Father in heaven now.' Where was His mother? In the grave!

What happens when you leave the Truth of God and you start theorizing various things? Then you're led further and further and further away from God. What did Jesus say concerning the bread or wine? 'Take eat, this is My body which is broken for you. Take drink, for this is My blood which is shed for you.' These are symbolic.

What has the Catholic doctrine said concerning Mary? Since Mary was the mother of Jesus, then Jesus had Mary's genes within Him. From her He had her genes—that's correct! 'Therefore, when you take of the sacrament you have part of the flesh of Mary and part of the blood of Mary, so therefore, Mary now is on a near-equal basis with Jesus.' You see where those things go? Logically that follows. But remember this: all logic is not Truth. All Truth is logical! One baptism!

The eventual unity and oneness of true believers is with God (John 17:21) (V).

That was part of Jesus' last prayer—wasn't it? 'That they all may be one in Us as You are in Me, Father, and I in You, that they may be in Us. That we all may be one.' So, it starts out with one and it ends up with one through God's way, only greatly expanded.

Number 2: Signifies union, division...

Two shall become one. One shall become two.

...and verification by witnesses. The union of husband and wife as one... [they shall become one flesh] ...The union of Christ and the Church (V)... [Eph. 5] ...The unity between the Old and New Testaments.

Let me mention here. You also have based on this, this principle: You have the physical, then you have the spiritual. How does that fit in with the Law? The letter of the Law tells you, let's just use the one Jesus did, 'You shall not commit adultery.' The letter of the Law carries over to the New Testament, but it now becomes spiritual. 'You shall not lust after a woman in your heart, because if you do, you've committed adultery with her already.' A lot of people read where Jesus said, 'Take out your eye, cut off your hand.' Why did He say that? To show that the letter of the Law could never bring the perfection of the spirit! You need the Spirit of God so that you can overcome the lust within.

Everything in the New Testament becomes a higher standard, doesn't do away with anything. It takes the Law and it magnifies it and makes it spiritual. In the Old Testament you could hate your enemy. Jesus said, 'Pray for your enemy'—totally different! It magnifies it! It makes it honorable or glorious.

You're to keep the Sabbath. A lot of people will just do it by the letter. BING! It's over. But you can't keep the Sabbath if you're sitting there lusting all day long, 'Ah, man, I miss those college games. I can't watch them on television anymore.'

• Did you keep it in the letter? Yes!
• Did you have lust in your heart for things you shouldn't do? Yes!
• Did you keep the Sabbath spiritually? No!

You're to focus on the things of God on the Sabbath.

He puts His presence in the Sabbath for those who are seeking Him. Those in the world, they're not seeking Him. They don't care about the Sabbath. They're just interested in what they're doing. We'll cover that. I can see this will be quite a few sermons before I'm done.

Scriptural References:

• Isaiah 45:15
• Isaiah 55:6-11
• Romans 1:18-22
• Isaiah 40:12-14, 18, 21-22, 25-28
• Psalm 147:4-5
• Mark 13:30-31
• Matthew 5:17-18
• Genesis 1:14-18
• Genesis 2:1-3

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Genesis 6
• John 14:6
• Ephesians 5

Also referenced:
Books:

• Biblical Mathematics by Dr. Edward F. Vallowe

Material and Articles:

• God's Divine Design of the Holy Bible and Its Numeric Connection, (chpt. 2, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter)
• The Significance of Biblical Numbers (pg 10, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter)

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 10-21-11
Formatted: bo—10-24-11

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