It should come as no surprise that the original language text of the Bible contains marvelous interwoven features that are so intricate and extensive that one is drawn to conclude that they were put there by design. These features serve to prove that God inspired the writing of the Bible.

These intricate features have to do with the numerical values of the letters and words of the original text. The features also have to do with the number of word and letter occurrences in various passages of scripture. These number patterns are called Bible numerics and are different from the Bible codes that got a great deal of publicity a few years back. Bible numerics has nothing to do with occultic numerology.

For the sake of brevity I will limit my explanation to an overview of the number patterns of the New Testament and not touch on the features that occur in the Old Testament. The inspired writers of the New Testament wrote in the Greek language. Among the ancient Greeks, the letters of their alphabet also served as their numbers. For instance the first letter of the Greek alphabet, alpha, was also their number 1. Beta was 2 and so on.

The 24 letters of the Greek alphabet stood for the following numbers:1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,100,200,300,400,500,600, 700,800. Notice that the number 6 is missing. Six was represented by a different symbol, a nonletter called "stigma."

The number seven is the number which appears so often in scripture that it is noticeable by virtually all readers. According to prominent Bible scholar E. W. Bullinger the number seven is symbolic of spiritual perfection. There were seven miracles of Christ recorded in the Gospel of John, seven appearances of angels during the life of Jesus on earth, seven seals and seven trumpets in the book of Revelation, etc., etc.

Aside from these and many other surface appearances of the number seven in the Bible many scholars have noticed, studied and catalogued the sevens that occur as factors in the sums of the letters of words, phrases and passages in the Bible. Each Greek word in the New Testament has a numerical value. You simply add the numbers that correspond to the letters and arrive at the sum.

One scholar who dedicated years of study to Bible number patterns was the late Ivan Panin. In his pamphlet titled The Inspiration of the Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated he discusses the numeric features contained in several Bible passages. What follows is a quote listing a few of the features of Matthew 1:18-25. "It consists of 161 words, or 23 sevens; occurring in 105 forms, or 15 sevens, with a vocabulary of 77 words or 11 sevens. Joseph is spoken to here by the angel. Accordingly of the 77 words [in the vocabulary of the whole passage] the angel uses 28, or 4 sevens; of the 105 forms [in the whole passage] he uses 35, or 5 sevens; the numeric value of the vocabulary is 52,605, or 7,515 sevens; of the forms, 65,429, or 9,347 sevens. This enumeration only begins as it were barely to scratch the surface of the numerics of this passage."

Panin goes on to show the many features of other passages of scripture. I have a copy of a New Testament edited by Ivan Panin titled The New Testament From the Greek Text As Established By Bible Numerics. It contains no variant readings.

E. W. Bullinger has written a book called Number In Scripture which shows number patterns not only of seven but also of other numbers of symbolic importance in the Bible. It is impossible for me to convey the magnitude of these number patterns in such a short article.

Number patterns such as those discovered in the Bible have not been found in any other book. It would be impossible for an ordinary (or even scholarly) writer to deliberately write a coherent passage of significant length that incorporates number patterns that approach the complexity of those found in the Bible.

The number patterns of the Bible are just another way that God has put His signature on His holy book. The Bible is God's Love letter to humanity and it explains to us the way of salvation.

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2010 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given

DEFENDING THE FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world. The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel. All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given. To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button. *Security: Write the characters in the image above (Case sensitive)