Bible FUN!

Have you ever noticed the sevens in the bible? The number seven is used in over 600 passages in the Bible. Some of them are very obvious, some of them are structural in nature, and some are hidden. What is known as the "heptadic" or seven-fold structure appears to act as a signature of sorts that the Author of the Bible [God] has deliberately fingerprinted the text with so it is virtually impossible to compromise.

For example, this is an exercise that was part of a recent bible study I attended - try it!

Take a moment to make up and write out a "sample" geneology - the rules are:

• The number of words you use must be exactly divisible by seven.
• The number of letters must also be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of vowels is to be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of words that begin with a vowel must be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of words that occur more than once must be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of words that occur in more than one form must be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of nouns must be divisible by exactly seven.
• The number of names shall be divisible by seven and only seven other kinds of nouns will be permitted.
• The number of male names shall be divisible by seven.
• The number of generations shall be divisible by seven.

Easy? Certainly not for a math flunkie like me!

FACT: This is the EXACT geneology of Jesus Christ in the opening eleven verses in the Gospel of Matthew (in the original Greek text). Phenominal?! Seriously, I believe God hid all these little "codes" in the Bible for people like me who had questioned this stuff unceasingly ~ until I was born again and started actually studying the Bible.

Another fun fact:

The Gospel of Matthew uses 42 words that are not used anywhere else in the New Testament (NT). Those 42 words (7 times 6) have 126 letters (another exact multiple of 7). IF Matthew had set out to do this deliberately, how would he go about it? The only characteristic that these words share is that nobody else used them. How would he have determined that no one else would use them? Remember the Bible, a collection of 66 books, was written over a period of 2,000 years by over 40 people. Oddly the same heptadic structure is used in the other three gospels as well! But wait - you will find the same structure, each in its writer's own unique vocabulary, in exact multiples of seven in the books of James, Peter, Jude, and Paul!

Along with the significance of sevens and other subtle findings of letters, numbers, etc... there are major "codes" in the Bible that give us hints or anticipations of what is coming. For instance, Abraham offered his son Isaac for sacrifice on the exact same spot where another Father (God) would offer His Son (Jesus) for sacrifice [side note, that particular location is atop a mountain at an altitude of exactly 777 feet...hmm].

There are numerous examples of this type of authentication that are found throughout the Bible. Every number, every place name, every detail is there by deliberate design. Of course this is not the only way to know that the Bible is true.

Jesus gave us all a challenge in John 7:17

"If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own."

Take the Bible challenge! Take Him at His word and see what happens!