Even the Numbers Bear Witness. . - Jack Kinsella -www.omegaletter.com
We observed in a recent Omega Letter that the Bible speaks to us in the two languages of sentience. The first is the most commonly understood language of the spoken word.
The spoken word is broken down into regional languages; only a trained linguist could find similarities between English and, say Arabic.
The second is the universal language of mathematics. It is the universal language since it is the language in which all laws of the physical universe were written. Assuming, for a second, that there could be another inhabited planet out there somewhere, in some other galaxy, the same laws of mathematics would apply there as they do here.
The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second no matter where in the universe you live or how you measure distance. Mathematics is a pure language in that it is a language in which it is impossible to tell a lie.
It is possible to use a lot of numbers to confuse the conversation - Bernie Madoff made a career out of it, but in the end, the numbers told the truth. Madoff was convicted by the numbers. Numbers cannot lie.
For that reason, much of the Bible is written out in numbers. The number one signifies primacy and independent existence. In most languages, it is signified by a single stroke. The number one stands alone.
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deuteronomy 6:4)
The number one represents God's eternal nature.
The number two represents an addition, or an increase.
"Two are better than one, because they have good reward for the labor." (Ecclesiates 4:9)
Three is the simplest compound unity. It is the first compound unit of mathematical science. The number three is the number of the Trinity - three is the number of the Godhead, and as such, three is the number of God.
Four is the number of this world. There are four seasons, four compass points, north, south, east, west; four great elements, earth, air, fire and water; four divisions of the day, morning, noon, evening, night; and four phases of the moon.
The river of Paradise is divided into four headwaters in Genesis 2:10-11. The earth is overseen by four cherubim having four faces, four wings, four sides and moving on four wheels. In prophecy, the world is divided into four spheres of global power in the last days.
The number four represents this world within God's creation.
Four is the first number that can be divided. The number four (the world) multiplied by the number three (the Trinity) equals twelve.
The numbers five and ten signify completeness. There are five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot. The number ten is the first type of a whole - it is the root of the decimal system of mathematics. Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. There are Ten Commandments. The Lord's Prayer as ten clauses.
Six is the number of man. John uses Bible numerology in Revelation 13:18 to tell us that, while there is an antichrist system and an antichrist religion, there is also a personal, individual human antichrist.
"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Seven is always used in Scripture as the number of perfection. The seventh day is the Sabbath. The seventh year is a sabbatical year. After 49 years (7x7) the next is a Jubilee Year. There are seven golden candlesticks, seven stars, and seven churches and seven Dispensations.
The number seven represents fullness, or completion of God's creation.
The number eight in Hebrew is Sh'moneh meaning, "to make fat" or to "super-abound" so the number eight is the number of superabundance. As the number 7 means completion and rest, the number 8 represents the beginning of a new cycle.
At the conclusion of the seventh Dispensation, the Millennial Kingdom, Peter speaks of the destruction of this present order and the introduction of "a new heaven and a new earth." Eight is 7 plus 1, significant of both resurrection and regeneration. Eight signifies the Redeemed of the Church Age.
"And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2nd Peter 2:5)
New-born males were to be circumcised on the eighth day.
The number nine is the last of the digits, signifying the conclusion of a matter. It is the multiple of the number of the Trinity (3x3) and the sum of the number of the Trinity plus the number of man (6+3=9).
The number 999 in Hebrew is tee orgee mou the equivalent to 'my wrath". The number 99 in Hebrew is ameen (amen). The sum of the Hebrew alphabet is 4995 (5x999). The sum of the Greek is 3999 -- the number of the Trinity plus the number of final judgment.
The number ten signifies the perfection of the Divine order of creation. The number eleven is an addition, signifying the subversion of that order.
Finally, we come to the number twelve. Twelve is a perfect number, signifying perfection of government, or of perfect completion.
That there are twelve Elders from the Church Age signifies that the Church Age, and its influence in government, is now perfectly complete.
Twelve is found as a multiple in all that has to do with rule. The sun which "rules" the day, and the moon and stars which "govern" the night, do so by their passage through the twelve signs of the Zodiac which completes the great circle of the heavens of 360 (12 x 30) degrees or divisions, and thus govern the year.
The elements of the numbers seven and twelve are the same. In one, the elements are added, four plus three equals seven. In the other, they are multiplied; four times three equals twelve.
In context, the number twelve refers to the Chosen of God as well as to the perfection of government.
There were twelve patriarchs from Seth to Noah, twelve from Shem to Jacob. There were twelve tribes of Israel. There were twelve Judges over Israel. There were twelve Apostles. There are twelve foundations in heaven's Jerusalem. There are twelve gates. There are twelve pearls. There are twelve angels.
The 144,000 of Revelation chapter 7 are twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Assessment:
It is with the 144,000 of Revelation 7 that I'd like to switch from Bible numerology to Bible prophecy. But I wanted you to see that God uses mathematics as well as words to communicate His truths before digging into the topic at hand.
Who are the 144,000? The Jehovah's Witnesses think they are the "Great Overcomers" who will be saved at the end of the world. Each of them strives to achieve that status (which is why they keep showing up at your door).
The Seventh Day Adventists believe they are those of their number who are found keeping the Saturday Sabbath when the Lord comes again and will be Raptured.
The Vatican and mainstream Protestantism teach that they represent the One True Church. The phrase "children of Israel" means the redeemed by grace throughout the Church Age.
In their view, the Church has replaced Israel in the eyes of God and all references to Israel in the last days means the Church. So the 144,000 are, in this view, really 144,000 Christians being sealed by God.
But since Christians are already sealed by God at the point of salvation - "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2nd Corinthians 1:22) - sealing themagain during the Tribulation seems pointless.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (4:30)
When is the "day of redemption?" The day we are given our resurrection bodies is the only day that fits the context of the verse. Paul is writing to those who are saved, but not yet redeemed,since they were in Ephesus, Turkey, and not already in heaven.
Notice that the 144,000 are 12,000 of each of the 12 tribes of Israel. They cannot be the Church - the Church is not divided into tribes. There is no tribe of James, or Andrew Tribe, or Bartholomew Tribe of Christianity.
One might argue that the Vatican is the theological tribe of Peter, or that non-denominational Christianity is the theological tribe of Paul, but that still leaves you ten tribes short. There are no lost tribes of Christianity.
But what of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel? The Kingdom of Israel consisting of Ten of the Twelve Tribes split from the Kingdom of Judah. They were overrun, relocated and assimilated into the Assyrian Empire and were lost to history.
But they are NOT lost to God. In Psalm 135, they are called God's "peculiar treasure." The Ten Tribes are buried and hid in the world in the 'graves' of the nations - until their time.
The 144,000 appear twice - once in the seventh and again in the fourteenth chapters of Revelation. Revelation 14:4 describes them as the 'firstfruits' of God and to the Lamb.
These cannot be the Church. The firstfruits of the Church were the Twelve Apostles, but the text is speaking of 144,000 Jewish male virgins who will live during the final seven years of human government.
They are the first fruits of a new spiritual order on the earth. The first-fruits of the Church Age have been raptured. The Church was sealed unto the day of Redemption - the 144,000 are sealed after that Day has come and gone.
The Bible says that apart from the Holy Spirit, nobody can be saved.
"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." (1st Corinthians 1:18)
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1st Corinthians 2:14)
But the 144,000 are saved, empowered to preach and are the source of the Tribulation Saints of Revelation 13. In Revelation 14, we are told that the 144,000 have a unique 'song' which they sing before the Throne.
They cannot be of the Church Age, because only these 144,000 Jewish male virgins can sing the song.
"And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth." (Revelation 14:3)
They have already been sealed by this time, have fulfilled their mission and are now martyrs before the Throne. In Revelation 14:6, we see the next shift come on duty.
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelation 14:6)
The Book of Revelation opens with an expository on the Seven Churches and how each did, in the Lord's eyes, with the assignments before them. The sixth Church, Philadelphia, was the evangelical missionary church of whom the Lord uniquely had NO words of condemnation.
The seventh and final, the Church of Laodicea, was the lukewarm Church for which the Lord had NO words of commendation. In Revelation 4:1, John is whisked from among the churches of the earth and finds himself witnessing the remainder of the vision from the perspective of heaven.
There is no mention of the Gospel again until the 144,000 are sealed with the Holy Spirit. This is a unique event; nobody else on earth is sealed with the Holy Spirit at this time.
Thus empowered, they preach until Chapter 14 -- when they are all in heaven. Now the Great Commission has been passed from the 144,000 Spirit-sealed evangelists to the angel ofRevelation 14:6, who carries it from that point forward.
No matter how I try, I can't find anything resembling the indwelt Church beyond Revelation 3:22. The indwelt Church is gone, its replacement is 12 x 12 x 1000 Jews, and they are all gone by Chapter 14 and replaced by an angel.
That is the simple narrative. First, the Church Age. Then the Rapture. Then the revealing of the antichrist. Then the Ride of the Four Horsemen. Then the sealing of the 144,000. Then the Mark of the Beast and the persecution and martyrdom of the Tribulation Saints.
After that, the Great Tribulation that culminates with the Second Coming of Christ.
Why do I continue to harp on the pre-Trib Rapture of the Church? Because it is the Blessed Hope. Because it is the fulfillment of the Promise that I will never be spiritually abandoned, but will remain indwelt by the Holy Spirit until Jesus returns for me.
Because the events coming upon this world are designed to scare the world, not to scare us. The Bible calls it a Blessed Hope, not a Holy Terror. We are to be looking for the coming of Christ.
The purpose of the signs of the end are not to prepare us for God's wrath, but to spur us on to give the warning of what is to come before it is too late to choose.
Because the day is fast approaching when "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,"("Come up hither!" - Revelation 4:1)
"with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)
Our job is to stand and give the warning, not flee to the hills to hide ourselves from the Lord. WE have nothing to fear from the coming signs of Tribulation -- it signals the Blessed Hope of the Promise.
"Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." (1st Thessalonians 4:18)
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