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The most breathtaking book in the
world is the infallible Word of God. Not one nuance was missed
as God revealed His revelation to His prophets. Our Heavenly
Father was so satisfied with His revelation and its perfection
that He promised to preserve it for every generation. Not only
did He promise to preserve it, but He warned men not to corrupt
it and leveled a serious judgment upon any man that tampers with
His truth. In God’s design, He apparently first settled His Word
in Heaven and then progressively poured it into holy vessels to
be written down for His church. “Forever, O Lord, thy Word is
settled in Heaven.” (Psalm 119:89)
Truth Begins and Ends with Jesus
Christ
He is the eternal Word (logos). “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and
the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in
darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:1-5)
The truth as written in Heaven and
revealed by His prophets in the Bible is centered in and totally
identical to Jesus Christ as revealed in His flesh. In fact,
Apostle John said, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:4) Imagine a
Bible (the Word of God) that is not only a book, but is also a
person, the Son of God. The Bible and Jesus Christ are identical
in essence. Both the “Word” written and the “Living Word” are
God’s perfect revelation.
Pilate, in speaking with Jesus,
asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) He asked this question of
Jesus because the Son of man had said, “And for this cause came
I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”
(John 18:37) Jesus had said earlier to His disciples, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but
by me.” (John 14:6) Jesus Christ is the truth in exactly the
same fashion that the Bible is truth. They are inseparable. One
is the Person and the other is the perfect revelation of that
Person.
The First Testament and Jesus
Christ
The Book of Genesis is filled with the person of Jesus Christ.
In the very first chapter of Genesis, Jesus Christ is revealed
at least seven times. John the Revelator clearly established
that Jesus is the first and the last. John stated, as Jesus had
revealed to him, “Saying I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the
last.” (Revelation 1:11) The words, alpha and omega, are Greek
words or letter meanings, and their Hebrew counterparts are
aleph and tau. Seven times in Genesis, chapter one, as the
Scripture deals with creation the aleph and tau are found in the
Hebrew text without being translated.
Here is a literal rendering of one
verse showing where the aleph and tau appear. Remember alpha and
omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet,
while the aleph and tau are the first and last letters of the
Hebrew alphabet. Notice this verse, “In the beginning created
God (at) the Heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, The
Interlinear Bible) John clearly stated that the Word created all
things and that same Word became flesh in Jesus Christ. Here, we
see that “Word” as the Creator in the perfect picture of the
creation story itself. This kind of Biblical perfection is found
throughout Genesis and the whole Bible.
The Gospel in Genesis
In Genesis chapter five we have the Gospel message clearly
presented. When the average person reads this chapter they are
bored because it appears to be no more than the genealogies of
the first ten generations of families. Let’s take a closer look
by defining the name of each generation leader and then uniting
those names in the text.
Adam means man, the first man, and
Seth, his son, means appointed. Seth’s son, Enos, means mortal;
while his son, Cainan, means sorrow; and his son, Mahalaleel
means the blessed of God. Jared was the son of Mahalaleel, which
means shall come down; and Jared’s son, Enoch, means teaching.
Enoch named his son Methusaleh because God had apparently warned
that at his death the great flood would come. Methusaleh means
his death shall bring. Lamech was the name of his son, whose
name means despairing, clearly describing the condition of the
world at that time. Lamech’s son, Noah, was named comfort and
rest, because God was going to reveal Himself and comfort
mankind.
When you see God’s revelation in
this genealogy, the message is overwhelming. “Man, appointed to
mortal sorrow, the great God shall come down, teaching, His
death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.” The divine
revelations of the “Word” were never wasted. Each word and every
verse was placed in Scripture to reveal a perfect manifestation
of truth. No wonder Jesus quoted Moses by saying, “Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by ‘every’ word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3) The Bible is a
perfect whole.
The Torah or Pentateuch
The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah. It’s
amazing to look at this significant word. To the Jews the Torah
are the most sacred books of the Bible. Remember, Torah in
English is spelled with five letters, but in the Hebrew language
it consists of only four Hebrew characters. The four Hebrew
letters spelling Torah were Resh (Reysh), Vau, Tau, and Hey.
When they were written, each letter had an original meaning. The
four letters mean the following: Resh – Head, Vaul – Nail, Tau –
Cross, and He – Reveals. Every time a Jewish person names or
writes the name of his sacred text, he is declaring that the
Head of that text was nailed to a cross and revealed the mercy
and truth of that sacred revelation.
The Torah Contains Incredible
Mysteries
A recent article appeared in the Bible Review publication
entitled, “Divine Authorship?” This article was a review of the
work of Jewish scholars, Doran Witztum, Eliyahu Rips and Yoav
Rosenberg, of the Jerusalem College of Technology and the Hebrew
University. The title of their work, which was printed in the
eminent Journal Of The Royal Statistical Society, was
“Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis.”
These authors, who are mathematical
statisticians, have discovered words encoded in the Hebrew text
that cannot be accidental. Their work was from the Textus
Receptus or Masoretic text. The author of this review, Jeffrey
B. Satinover, explained the results as following:
“This in effect is what the
researchers have found embedded in the Hebrew text of the Torah
– a whole series of meaningful word-pairs in close proximity,
something that they demonstrate cannot have happened by chance.
These words they found in close proximity are not simply the
words of the text (as would be the case in the analogy above of
an unknown potential language). They were rather words composed
of letters selected at various equal skip distances, for
example, every second or third or fourth letter. It was as
though “behind” the surface meaning of the Hebrew there was a
second, hidden level of embedded meaning.” (“Divine
Authorship?”, Bible Review, October 1995, p. 29)
Mr. Satinover then explained how
they used a combination of words related in life or history to
show that the Biblical text revealed a prior consciousness of
every human event. I will let him describe it.
“…the researchers…found the pair
Zedekiah (a sixth century B.C.E. king of Judah), and Matanya,
Zedekiah’s original name (see 2 Kings 24:17); and the pair
Hanukkah (the Jewish festival that commemorates the
re-dedication of the Temple after it was recaptured from the
Assyrians in the second century B.C.E.) and Hasmoneans (the
family name of the leaders of the Jewish forces that managed to
wrest the Temple from the Assyrian monarch Antiochus IV
Epiphanes). Note that these names and events found encoded in
the text of the Torah involved people who lived, and events that
occurred, long after the Torah was composed, whether by a divine
or human hand.
“In their 1988 paper, the
researchers selected, at random, 300 such Hebrew word-pairs with
obviously related meanings, and looked for the words embedded in
the text by treating the entire book of Genesis as a long
cryptographic string. They would start at the beginning until
they came to the first letter, then look to see if a second
letter could be found two letters away. If so, they then looked
for the third letter two letters away; if not, they stopped and
searched for the next appearance of the first letter and
repeated the process. They continued until they found an
occurrence of the entire word spelled out at every second
letter. If not, they performed the same procedure looking at
every third letter instead.
“In this fashion they searched first
every other letter, then every third, and so on (including
reverse order). When they found the first instance (that is, at
the minimum skip distance, and measured its proximity within the
text-string to the first. They did this for all 300 word-pairs.”
(Ibid, pp.30-31)
According to information in this
review, the possibility of this happening by chance was less
than 1 in 50 quadrillion. In fact, a public statement was
offered by eminent scholars here in America as reported,
“Following publication of this
paper, a public statement was issued, signed by five
mathematical scholars – two from Harvard, two from Hebrew
University and one from Yale. ‘The present work,’ they said,
‘represents serious research carried out by serious
investigators.’” (Ibid, p.31)
Great Jewish scholars have contended
that the Torah contains all knowledge. One such gentleman, Rabbi
Gaon of the 18th century, stated,
“All that was, is, and will be unto
the end of time is included in the Torah…and not merely in a
general sense, but including the details of every species and of
each person individually, and the most minute details of
everything that happened to him from the day of his birth until
his death.” (Ibid.)
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said
it even plainer, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For
verily I say unto you, Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or
one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the
least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”
(Matthew 5:17-19)
Revival is Absolutely Dependent
on a Revival of the Scripture
The Holy Bible is the most incredible book in the world. It is
literally a God-breathed book and is so powerful that it must be
destroyed or diminished before the devil can accomplish one dark
deed in his activities. The opposite is true if we want a
revival in the church. There can be no victory or revival until
the Word of God is returned to its rightful glory.
All of our attention in this article
so far has been in the First Testament. The Second or New
Testament would be impossible without the first. When you grasp
the absolute perfection of the thirty-seven books in this first
portion of God’s Holy Word, then the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
the New Testament message has even greater authority and meaning
to you.
The Perfect Harmony of the Two
Testaments
God chose Hebrew as the language of the First Testament and
Greek as the language of the Second Testament. These two
languages have tremendous similarities. There are identical
numbers of characters (counting the one added to perfect each
alphabet) in each language, and the two languages carry the
exact same numerical values for the characters or letters. The
only two languages that have this perfect identity and the exact
numerical pattern are Hebrew and Greek. Remember, God
distributed the languages Himself and carefully prepared these
two vehicles for conveying His revelations.
First, let’s show the perfect
harmony in these two books by looking at God’s fingerprints from
Genesis to Revelation. The number thirty-seven has been called
the fingerprint of God. Throughout the entire Bible this number
and the multiple representatives identify the many expressions
of the person of God. The number for “Jesus” in Greek is 888 or
37 x 24. While thirty-seven signifies the Word of God or His
fingerprint, twenty-four is the number of priesthood. Jesus is
the unity of both God and the priesthood, and the numerical
value perfectly supports the same and unites the First and
Second Testaments into one Holy Bible.
“In the beginning God,” the first
four words of the Bible, is Brayshith Elohim in Hebrew with a
multiple numerical value of 999 or 37 x 27. Bethlehem, the place
of birth for the Son of God is mentioned thirty-seven times in
the First Testament, but only eight times in the New Testament.
Of course, God’s purpose for eight times in the Second Testament
is because eight is the number of New Beginning, New Birth or
the New Creation.
Let me list a few expressions of the
Lord Jesus and show the numerical values in multiples of
thirty-seven.
-
2 Cor. 4:4 – Christ, who is the
image of God = 37 x 105
-
2 Cor. 4:4 – Image of God = 37 x 37
-
2 Cor. 4:4 – God = 37 x 15
-
2 Thess. 2:1 – Lord = 37 x 37
-
Mark 12:29 – The Lord God is one
Lord = 37 x 72
-
Col. 3:24 – The Lord Jesus Christ =
37 x 120
-
Rev. 22:20 – Lord Jesus = 37 x 33
-
Phil. 2:9 – And gave Him a name
which is above every name = 37 x 108
-
2 Pet. 1:17 – This is My beloved Son
= 37 x 111
-
Luke 20:13 – My beloved Son = 37 x
42
-
1 John 4:9 – God sent His only
begotten Son into the world = 37 x 120
-
1 John 4:9 – His only begotten Son =
37 x 54
-
Gal. 2:20 – The Son of God = 37 x 66
-
John 10: 36 – I am the Son of God =
37 x 54
(A Scientific Approach to Biblical Mysteries, Dr. Robert W.
Faid, pp. 28-29)
Dr. Robert Faid, a nuclear scientist
and a consultant to nuclear power industries said,
“As you can see, this theomatic number 37 seems to appear
whenever God wants to point out something very special, and this
happens throughout the Bible, both in the Hebrew of the Old
Testament and the Greek of the New Testament. Could this be a
mere coincidence? I’ll let you decide. I computed the
probability of only the eighteen features of 37 we have
examined. The probability of just these eighteen multiples of
the number 37 appearing by chance is: 1 in
30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.” (Ibid. p. 29)
He further stated:
“Even with our most powerful
computers of today it would be utterly impossible to formulate
one language whose alphabet could be used to write a single
typewritten page containing the type of mathematical design we
find in two languages and alphabets running through our entire
Bible. The significance of this is awesome!” (Ibid. p.32)
The New Beginning in Jesus
In the section above I noted that thirty-seven is the
fingerprint of God in the entire Bible. Bethlehem, the
birthplace of Jesus Christ the Son of man, was named
thirty-seven times in the First Testament, but eight times in
the Second Testament. Eight is the Biblical numeric of new
beginning, a new era and a regeneration of all things. It was
Noah, the eighth person, (2 Peter 2:5), who led eight
individuals from the ark to begin the repopulation of the earth.
Circumcision was the foreshadow of the new regeneration in Jesus
Christ and was performed on the eighth day after birth.
The name Jesus divisible by
thirty-seven (37 x 24 = 888), represents God’s fingerprint on
the entire Bible, but is also divisible by eight (8 x 111 = 888)
representing the new beginning of His sacrifice at Calvary. His
resurrection was on the eighth day and now His bride, the
church, worships Him on the eighth day. The eighth day is a
confirmation of His covenant with the New Testament church and
our covenant to glory in Jesus Christ and His cross alone.
Greek numbers are shown to
absolutely harmonize with Hebrew numbers to prove the Bible is
the infallible Word of God. Jesus is spelled IHEOYE in Greek.
The following chart is represented from Messiah, a book by Grant
R. Jeffreys, (page 79):
Numeric Value of Names of Jesus
JESUS = IHEOYE = 888
I = 10
H = 8
E = 200
O = 70
Y = 400
E = 200
Jesus = 888
Other Names of Jesus
Christ = 1480 (8 x 185)
Emmanuel = 25600 (8 x 3200)
Lord = 800 (8 x 100)
Messiah = 656 (8 x 85)
Saviour = 1408 (8 x 176)
The Lord Jesus and His
Resurrection
The Lord Jesus Christ was God’s Passover Lamb in perfect
fulfillment of the Passover Feast held in Egypt on Nisan 14th.
To the Egyptians it was Nisan 13th because the heathen calendar
did not change until midnight, but the Jewish calendar changed
at sundown (typically 6:00 pm). (This is the origination of
Friday the 13th being an unholy day. To the Bible believer there
is no such thing as luck or being unlucky.) The heathen’s Friday
the 13th was the Jewish Friday the 14th. The next day began this
Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days. During these
seven days of the feast of Unleavened Bread, a regular seventh
day Sabbath occurred. On the day after the regular Jewish
Sabbath they were to offer a “he” lamb as a Feast of the
Firstfruits unto the Lord. Originally in Egypt, the dates were
Passover, Nisan 14th; the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread was Nisan 15th and the regular Sabbath or the Eighty day
was Nisan 17th. The Jewish multitudes, led by Moses, crossed the
Red Sea on dry ground on Nisan 17th. As God gave them a new
beginning, He also slew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea on
that same day of Nisan 17th.
As we move forward to Jerusalem and
the death of Jesus Christ, He was the perfect fulfillment to the
very day. He was crucified on Nisan 14th and resurrected on
Nisan 17th, the first day of the week or the eighth day by
Jewish reckoning. Every jot and tittle of the prophets was
fulfilled in His birth, life, death and resurrection. The two
testaments became one book by this finished act of redemption.
The Word of God is by this death signed in holy blood and
covenanted to those who by faith receive His promises. Only God
could have perfected the promised sacrifice of the kinsman
Redeemer in this absolute fulfillment to the day.
The Book of John confirms the
perfection of these dates of fulfillment. “Then Jesus six days
before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had
been dead, whom he raised from the dead.” “And it was the
preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour; and he
saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!” “ The Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not
remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day
was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be
broken, and that they might be taken away.” “There laid they
Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the
sepulcher was nigh at hand.” (John 12:1; 19:14, 31, 42)
Please remember, that this Sabbath
that they so quickly removed His body to observe was the special
Sabbath that began the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15th)
and not the regular Sabbath.
The Easter (Ishtar) Confusion
An incredible documentation of Holy Scripture is found in the
Book of Acts. Often critical reviews have used this Scripture to
question the infallibility of the Received Text. Rather than
create a question, it supports the precision of the Holy Spirit
of truth. The Scripture says, “And when he had apprehended him,
he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of
soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth
to the people.” (Acts 12:4)
Some people argue that this was an
error in translation. This word, Easter, they say, should have
been translated Passover. If you will notice verse three (3), it
says that Peter’s arrest was during the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. The Passover occurs the day before the Feast of
Unleavened Bread begins so that Peter’s arrest was after the
Passover. Herod is said to have intended to slay him after
Easter, which was a completely different celebration than
Passover. It was a heathen event that would have been important
to Herod and his court of Roman soldiers and leaders.
This pagan festival is appropriately
described by Dr. Samuel C. Gipp, Th.D. He stated,
“Easter, as we know it, comes from
the ancient pagan festival of Astarte. Also known as Ishtar
(pronounced ‘Easter’). This festival has always been held late
in the month of April. It was, in its original form, a
celebration of the earth ‘regenerating’ itself after the winter
season. The festival involved a celebration of reproduction. For
this reason the common symbols of Easter festivities were the
rabbit (the same symbol as ‘Playboy’ magazine), and egg. Both
are known for their reproductive abilities. At the center of
attention was Astarte, the female deity. She is known in the
Bible as the “queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25). She is
the mother of Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) who was also her husband!
These perverted rituals would take place at sunrise on Easter
morning. (Ezekiel 8:13-16) From the references in Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, we can see that the true Easter has never had any
association with Jesus Christ.” (The Answer Book, Dr.Samuel C.
Gipp, Th.D., pp.3-4)
The Word of God stands untouched and
undefiled after all the foray by her enemies.
Conclusion
Every individual that accepts the Holy Scripture as the
infallible Word of God and actually submits his total person to
its authority will be transformed by its powers. This Word is
God-speech. It is God-breathed and God-preserved. The power of
the Holy Spirit is shut up in its revelations and is unleashed
every time you allow it to become the absolute authority in your
life. When the God-called preacher man lives in this Book until
his sermons reflect the oracles of God instead of the opinions
of men, his preaching will be dynamic.
The laymen of our churches will be
transformed when our preachers get back to the Book. Laymen and
laywomen, don’t wait! If the preacher fails to act, you get into
this Book, accepting its absolute message and revelation. God is
no respecter of persons. Any man and/or woman that dares to
believe and act on this infallible revelation will be used of
God to bring revival. Your life and family will be brought back
to God and your community will see a display of truth. The only
hope of the church in its search for meaning is the God-given
revelation of Scripture. Jesus will not be revealed on church
walls in esoteric emotions and flamboyant displays. He certainly
does not manifest Himself in icons and idols. Isaiah said, “I am
the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to
another, neither my praise to graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8) He
is the Word and His Written Word is His language. If you refuse
His Words from the Holy Book, He has no other method of speech.
The Holy Spirit confirms His Word, but never replaces it. |