raindream

Ok, we can debate numerical consistancies and inconsistancies for days. The bible does state that God created man on the 6th day. So if we were to conclude from supporting text like 666 being the number of a man etc. then tell me please how is that there are 66 books in the bible? I suppose one could call on coincidence, but jeeze i just gotta keep looking cos i'm thinkin like a mathmatician and I'm seein a pattern.

Oh yeah Israel, now there is a nation you will want to study thoughrouly spelled wrong I know. but if you think about it what if there was a God and also a Devil or Satan. Now if you read the bible all Gods promises for Israel are yet to come. According to Isaiah and Zechariah God is going to richly bless Israel in the millenium kingdom. Now Satan knows that if he can destroy Israel then God cannot fulfill his promises and he will continue to endure in some form or fashion. I know this has been blogged before, but if you watch the first matrix movie with spiritial eyes you will recognize a strong theme there from the names of the characters to the destruction of Zion. That my dear friends is satans greatest hope to destroy Zion. Won't happen, study the 6 day war. darn why couldn't it be the 5 day war. Study Study God only reveals himself to those who are diligent and pursue truth.

Thanks for Indulging me and hope to hear back!!

Anat

Number of books in the Bible is a human decision, and different religions and denominations have different numbers. Jews count 24 books, for example.

ApostateAbe

raindream, I see you must be the one whom I nicknamed "The Zionest" in my latest atheventure. That's great! Later on when I get my own computer back online, I will private message to you what I wrote to my brother years ago about the seventy sevens of Daniel.

This board has a policy that there can be only one topic per thread. This is useful for keeping things orderly, and it also helps to dissuade people from changing the subject as a debate tactic or whatever. So you are welcome to start a different thread about Israel and prophecy, but this thread will be about numbers in the Bible.

So 666 and 66 books. They don't have much in common with each other except that they share the same digit in a base-ten system.

ApostateAbe

Let's suppose that God willed the Bible to have 66 books because of its similarity to 666 in the decimal system. Would it not be strange that God associated the modern-day Biblical canon with the number of the beast?

Some other potential quantities of Bible book that may strike you as intelligently designed are 7, 77 or 70 (7 is the number of days of creation), 40 (the number of days of rain in the flood or the number of years Moses spent in the wilderness), 12 (the number of tribes of Israel and the number of Jesus' disciples), 84 (12 * 7), 19 (12 + 7), 10 (the number of plagues), etc.

What makes numerology powerful is the many ways that numbers can be rearranged. Like I said before, it seems convincing if you count the hits and ignore the misses. I see numerology in all sorts of extraordinary belief systems, like conspiracy theories. See this page and this page on Snopes.com.

Julian

If you are referring to Revelation then P115 says that the number is 616.
Well, you are making some erroneous assumptions about your numbers. There are 66 books in the current protestant bible. The catholics have 73. Greek Orthodox have 77. The slavonic has one more than that and others add even one more. The Ethiopic church has 81 books. And those are only the modern versions. We see a different number of books in the bible throughout history so when you say that there are 66 books, you are just referring to the particular bible that you happen to use, it is not some universal number that applies christianity as a whole and it certainly doesn't belong to tradition.

Besides, a pattern appearing in a set of works written by humans who traditionally have an affinity for certain numbers and sequences is hardly surprising.

Julian

Stacey Melissa

1 and 2 Kings used to be one book. So add that fact to the pile that discredits the 6/66 "pattern."

This topic has me intrigued, though, and I wanted to see if other large works would exhibit striking numerical consistencies. In order to find out, I went to the first big set of books that came to mind - Britannica. As it turns out, this wonderous encyclopedia appears to be divinely inspired, and it only took me a few minutes to find some amazing numerical consistencies to support this. For example, just take a look at the 6th edition, which had 20 volumes, plus 6 supplements, and was first published in 1820! You may call it a "coincidence," but I gotta keep looking, 'cause I see a pattern, and I'm thinking like a mathematician.

raindream

just interesting thanks for responding I didn't know that

Stacey Melissa

Raindream - What is "numerical consistency" and what is your methodology for determining whether something has it?

raindream

You hit hard. I'm not a mathmatician, but I just look at things with perspective. Now if there is a God then everything he says in the bible must be true if it's not then what have we to look forward to when this brief physical life is past. We are just two people who are betting on different horses here that's all, were both at the same race. I know you wouldn't want to lose the race and I respect that. All I'm saying is that there are striking numerical consistancies with respect to the writings of the bible and there is even more things that I've discovered. With respect to Abe, I don't want to be accused of trying to skirt the issue, there have been some legitimate debate issues raised concerning my stand. Oh and Abe we haven't met, I started to come and speak with you, but saw you engaged already and didn't want to interrupt or appear as one who was trying to "save" you. I can tell that you have a great deal of biblical knowledge and I'm amazed that you can take the stand you do in light of that, but let me ask you one question, please indulge me. When was the only time in the bible "new testament" that Jesus allowed himself to be proclaimed King? And when you answer that tell me if you will why he wept and proclaimed "jerusalem jerusalem if only thou had known the time of your visitation. See If you do the math in Daniel You can find the exact date Artexerses Longimanous Issued the decree to Nemiah to rebuild the walls of the City. Exactly 173880 days later Jesus on the appointed day was declared king and it is the only place and time he allowed it to happen. See the Jews could have done the math and known without a doubt, but they didn't and thus God's will for his son to die for us was destiny. Sorry Abe, didn't mean to ramble. Ok, I'm gone, but know this. I been around the world once and i've seen everything twice and one thing i'm not about is believin in fairy tales or needin a crutch or any other weak reason for my belief, It is basic and it is that God rewards those who diligently seek him, see on the surface there is too much room for debate, we can argue various things for days, but when you and only you seek the truth it will arrive and then it becomes a matter of am I going to embrace that because this is going to be life changing or should i just scoff at it and continue on, even though perilous times await. I mean think about it weeping and gnashing of teeth, ouch that is some serious misery, I mean that's bein alive and in so much misery and distress that you are weeping and gnashing your teeth. Sorry, just something i read

Hey I love you guys and gals, be gentle though, I'm just a regular guy and I judge no one, I'll be lucky not to be gnashing my gums because I'm a horrible christian, heck I can't do anything right and I am always blowin it multiple times and I know better so be careful. Accountability is everything, sometimes I wish I didn't know the things I've been given as knowledge.

Stacey Melissa

I was just warming up. Your claims are very easy to parody, so I wrote a parody. The only difference between your claim and my parody is the books used. That's how I demonstrated the invalidity of your "numerical consistencies" in determining divine inspiration of a written work.

Your perspective seems to be that of someone looking for something to support your preconceived conclusions. You really oughta learn about confirmation bias, because it gushes from your writing. We don't work that way around here, though. Around here, we start with the facts, and work toward a conclusion based on those facts.

If you want to discuss purpose/meaning, there are other forums here to do that. I can say, though, life as an atheist is just as meaningful as life as a Christian.

I'm not betting on anything, and neither is Abel. We follow the evidence wherever it leads, whether we like the destination or not.

Like me, Abel is an apostate. I dunno if he left Christianity for the same reason I did, but I left largely as a result of studying the Bible.

That "prophecy" was refuted by FamilyMan a few days ago.

Seeking God led me to atheism.

Pascal's Wager is extremely easy to refute.

Have fun. :wave: