Episode Transcript
Welcome to Faith and Science. I'm Dr. John Ashton.
Just the other day I had a phone call catch up with a fellow, you, university professor that I met up with. We're both working on the same research or project with a big cooperative research centre grant and he had contributed to my book the God Factor about 20 years ago. And it was really great to catch up.
And as we chatted, we talked about the number of other scientists working in science faculties within universities that are christians and believe in the Bible. And of course there's a very strong atheist present in universities these days, unfortunately. But his comment was that at least through the Bible, as christians we have hope.
We see all a lot of bad things happening in the work world. I mean, the population growth is continuing to increase very rapidly as a result of this. There's massive amount of clearing of vegetation to make way for new housing and building.
This clearing of vegetation is quite worrying really, as well as the increased pollution then that is resulting from the clearing of land and the consequent changes that take place with the clearing of land and also the management of our food supply in order to produce enough food for everyone and yet be environmentally sustainable is becoming more of a challenge. So there are many areas the source of fresh water, fresh water, even for food processing, is looking at becoming more critical. Of course, there's a lot of fresh water stored at the poles as ice.
And we have this controversy over global warming. Well, certainly the earth goes through a number of, has been shown over history to go through temperature cycles and is increasing. It seems we're going through a warming period.
At the moment, people are concerned about increased levels of carbon dioxide. But of course, as I've pointed out earlier, carbon dioxide provides our food and if the levels drop too low, then plants would stop photosynthesizing. Now, we're fortunately well above that level now, but plants grow much better in higher levels of carbon dioxide.
So there's a lot of confusion out there. But for christians, of course, we have the hope in the Bible. And the thing is that the Bible is substantiated from so many different aspects.
It's substantiated from fulfilled prophecy that were written thousands of years ago, that were fulfilled in detail way ahead of time, impossible for them to be contrived, I mean, going back a couple of centuries, 150 years or more. The higher criticism of the Bible had begun in the 18 hundreds and people were attempting, it would seem to sort of analyse it as if it was just some made up sort of book. But as we've done more research into this area, we've found that, hang on, history all the time is confirming as we make new historical discoveries, we're finding that secular history has to be corrected in line with biblical history.
Notice the name of Belshazzar in the king. That was when Babylon fell to the Persians. Hadn't been mentioned in any of the secular history until just over 100 years ago when it was references, historical sources to him were discovered.
And yet he was talked about in the Bible. So there are many examples like that. And of course, there's the personal experience of answers to prayer.
There's the experiences of changed lives. There's the massive historical evidence that Jesus was a real person, was really resurrected from the dead. I mean, that's why it changed the world.
Those people that saw that the witnesses went out to tell what had happened, that God had really visited his people, the creator had really visited his people and shown us how to live. And that testimony is recorded. We have the testimony, for example, of know a person who was strongly persecuting christians and then had a personal experience in meeting the resurrected Jesus.
On his way to get more authority to persecute more christians. God stepped in personally and stopped him. And Paul then became one of the greatest advocates for Jesus and Christianity, even taking his witness to the centre of the roman empire at the time one of the largest world empires.
And the influence that that has had. And so the reality of these things and the historical evidence is there. People have looked at the documents that Paul wrote and from the places, the times, the people, the description, they're also historically accurate.
And so we have this amazing testimony. But there's also testimony in the Bible itself. And a book that I have been had for some time, actually is called number in scripture.
Its supernatural design and spiritual significance. Now, this book was actually originally written in. Published in 1894 by Ethelbert W.
Bollinger, Doctor of Divinity. And it's a very, very interesting study because I've been interested in mathematics. And we see there's so much evidence of mathematics and the logic of mathematics in nature.
I've talked previously about Fibonacci numbers and so forth. And I've talked previously too, about the angle of the rainbow, Brewster's angle and so forth. And the significance there with the promise that God made to Noah, that God would put his bow in the sky as a covenant between. And a promise and a covenant between God and man who would never again destroy the earth with a flood. And the angle is 42 degrees, which is the product of six and seven.
And so I'll talk about these numbers, because these numbers have quite significance in the Bible. And what fascinates me is that the Bible was written over a span of 1500 years, one and a half thousand years or more, and by about 40 different authors. And yet it's coherent, it fits together well.
And these different books and writings of the different people who were inspired by God, they'd had an experience with God, they knew God, and that's what they wrote about. They wrote about their experience with God, or also ascribes, and they recorded the miracles, they recorded the history of Israel, they recorded what had happened. And it's also not glossed over.
The faults and failings of the kings of other people are there. It's like a factual diary account. It hasn't glossed over and just painted all the pretty positive sides of the lives of these people.
And I think this gives us so much hope and encouragement as well. But, yeah, this book by Bollinger, as I said, number in scripture, it's significant design, sorry, its supernatural design and spiritual significance is quite fascinating. So I'll just go through.
He talks about, for example, one, and he starts and goes through with the different numbers. And I'll just quote a little bit. There can be no doubt as to the significance of this primary number one.
In all languages, it is a symbol of unity and it denotes unity. And so this is a point that he points out, for example, when it is written, hero Israel, the Lord thy God, is one Lord, he says that it doesn't deny the doctrine of the Trinity, but it excludes absolutely another lord. It excludes, therefore, all idolatry.
And hence the first commandment. Commandment number one declares, thou shalt have no other gods. And so he goes on and raised a number of fascinating things about the number one.
And in the Bible he talks about how it marks the beginning and the importance that everything begins with God in the beginning. God, and nothing is right that does not begin with him. God first is the voice of scripture.
And he points out that one of the things that Jesus pointed out in Matthew, chapter six, verse 33, is, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. God first is the great proclamation. He points out, the angel sang, glory to God in the highest.
This was the beginning of their song. It's fascinating reading, actually. And he goes through and talks about the significance of the first words of Jesus and the first book and so forth.
It's some fascinating stuff there to look at the significance of one in the Bible and how that is used. If we look at number two, and this is a number, I wondered about what would be number two. And he points out that one excludes all difference and denotes which is sovereign.
But two affirms that there is a difference, there is another. And this difference may be for good or for evil. And so the number two, he points out, takes a twofold covering there.
And it's interesting that on the second day light was created, but it created division immediately. There was a difference in division when light was created, and it created light from darkness. And the second day had a division, there'd be firmament in the midst of the waters.
Let it divide the waters from the waters. Of course, light was created, sorry, on the first day. So it's interesting, looks at a number of the spiritual significances of number two, and in particularly the account of the fall and the entrance of the second being an enemy, that old serpent, the devil.
So he raised a number of interesting issues around the use of the number two, again, which is quite interesting, I think, just moving on, of course, because there's so much. I mean, just dealing with those first couple of numbers covers about 50 pages in the book. It's a lot there.
One of the areas I was quite interested in, of course, was his use or his association with the number three, what he found out with the number three. And it's interesting the way he thinks in terms of maths and geometry. He said number three.
In this number we have quite a new set of phenomena. We come to the first geometric figure. Two straight lines cannot possibly enclose any space or form a plane figure.
But three lines are necessary to form a plane figure. And there's three dimensions of length, breadth and height. They're all necessary to form a solid.
And it's interesting with regard to three, too. I remember if you want to have a stable set of legs supporting an object, you choose three, not four. And that's why you have tripods, the most stable, whereas if you have four legs, it's a bit harder to have the stability.
But anyway, God's attributes are three. He talks about God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, has omnipotence. He talks about there are three great divisions of time, past, present and future.
And of course, we know there are three people in the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it's quite fascinating when he goes to three and he says, when we turn to the scriptures, this completion of three becomes divine. So the number three marks divine.
Completeness or perfection. And he points out that three denotes divine perfection, whereas seven denotes spiritual perfection and ten denotes ordinal perfection and twelve denotes governmental perfection. Of course, when we think about there were the twelve tribes of Israel, and of course God's day is the 7th day of the week.
He goes through many aspects there. But it's interesting how he says that three denotes divine perfection as opposed to seven, denoting spiritual perfection. And it's quite interesting that he points out that three, this number associated with the Godhead, the three persons in one God, and three times the seraphim cry, holy, holy, holy one for each of the three persons in the Trinity.
That's in Isaiah, chapter six, verse three. And the living creatures. Also in revelation, chapter four, verse eight, three times the blessing is given in numbers, in numbers, chapter six, verses 23 and 24.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee the father. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious to you. The Son, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, the Holy Spirit.
So it's interesting that a number of points, so many points he draws out in many aspects with regard to the number three in so many places. And I think it's a fascinating exercise to just look at how the number three is used in scripture. It's interesting going on to number four, that four, he says, is made up of three plus one.
It's interesting how I guess he's contrived some of these things, but he associates four with creation. And creation is therefore the next thing or the fourth thing that follows on from God, from the Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. And so, of course, it's interesting that in the fourth commandment we are to remember creation.
The Sabbath day is a day that we are to stop working and spend that time just, well, not working, but use that time to remember that we are created. We were made by God. This whole world, this whole universe, everything was created by God.
God is the Lord. And he goes on that in scripture, four relates to things that were created. And he believes emphatically it's the number of creation.
The fourth day saw the material creation finished, and the sun, moon and stars and the work were all that were created then to give light on earth and rule over day and night. He points out that four is the number of the great elements, earth, air, fire and water. There's four points, the compass, north, south, east and west.
He says there are four seasons to the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter. It's interesting the different aspects that he draws from four also. It's interesting as there are four heads of animals, of course, in revelation.
There the lion, the ox, the eagle and the man's head, a number of interesting things. And again, he looks through quite a number of things in the Bible associated with the number four. According to Bollinger, five is the number for grace.
So he lists that we have the father son, the spirit, creation and then redemption. And he said, these are the five great mysteries and five therefore is the number for grace. And he goes through a number of arguments there for five being the symbol for grace in the Bible.
And he goes through the significance of five in a number of different ways that he believes reflects the number five being associated with grace. There were five smooth stones, one of the promise in Leviticus, five of you shall chase, a 1100 of you shall put 10,000 to flight, et cetera. These sort of things he draws to support his case for five being a symbol of grace throughout the Bible.
Yes, there's a lot of things that, and we don't have a lot of time to go through. I'd like to just finish off with some of these others numbers. He sees.
Six is the number for man and it's the number for man as destitute of God or without God or without Christ. So it's the number for, as I said, that denotes man, fallen man. And as he points out, for example, the 6th commandment relates to the worst sin, murder.
And the 6th clause of the Lord's prayer treats of sin. And six is the number stamped on for human labour. So if we work for six days, for example, talks about how Cain's descendants are only given as far as the 6th generation.
So that's another fascinating. And he raised many points that there are sixfold opposition to the works of God recorded. It's one fascinating one is that six times Jesus was charged with having a devil.
And for those that interested in Matthew chapter three, verse 22, John chapter seven, verse 20. John chapter eight, verse 48. John chapter eight, verse 52. John chapter ten, verse 20. Luke chapter eleven, verse 15 and Matthew chapter twelve, verse 24. So this is interesting when you think about these things and the use of numbers in scripture.
And as he says that there's so much evidence that the numerology is supernatural in the way it is constructed because these are all different authors and yet the consistency that runs through, written at different times. Course, seven, he points out, is the number of spiritual perfection. And he talks about the number of times that seven occurs and this sort of thing in the Bible.
But I think the whole week of creation was seven days and so forth. And one of the things that I find is, like, for example, even with the rainbow in the sky, it's fascinating that brewster's angle is 42 degrees. It's a covenant that God made with sinful man.
Seven for God and six for sinful man. So again, he talks about many aspects of how seven relates to spiritual perfection. One of the really fascinating numbers in scripture is eight.
And while Bollinger talks a lot about number seven, he denotes a very large section of his book. To number seven, he writes that in Hebrew, the number eight from a particular root to make fat or cover with fat or to supra abound. And as a participle, it means one who abounds in strength.
And so it's associated with superabundance and so forth. And often it's associated with Jesus. And one of the things that I found with the rainbow is that there's a second bow that's eight degrees higher at 50 degrees.
And of course, it's interesting that 50 is the number for the jubilee, for release, for freedom. And so, as I see, with the rainbow is the sign of God's covenant at 42 degrees, and then the secondary bow at 50 degrees. And it's through Jesus that we obtain freedom, freedom from sin, to enjoy that, it's through God's grace, through freedom of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us.
He talks about how, for example, Jehovah's covenants with Abraham were eight in number. There's so much more that I could talk about, but I see I'm running out of time with ten related to, for example, law with the ten Commandments, and of course, twelve with government with the twelve tribes of Israel. It certainly is a fascinating book.
As I said, it's called Number in Scripture by E. W. Bollinger.
And in my mind, it certainly provides very powerful evidence all through scripture that scripture is inspired. The people that wrote the Bible were inspired. The Bible is a supernatural book we can believe.
I encourage you to read it. You've been listening to Faith and Science. And if you wish to re listen to this programme, remember you can Google 3abn australia.org.au and click on the go to the listen button.
I'm Dr. John Ashton.
Have a great day. You've been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia radio.
