I can point to just a few things that have allowed me to remain steadfast in faith over these last 33 years.  One is that since I began obeying God those many years ago I have believed that He wrote the Bible.  Yes, I knew that men penned the words, but I knew that God spoke through them. And, I knew this through a direct revelation that God gave me one night while I was searching for truth by actually reading a copy of the Bible.  I have spoken about that in other places.

So, when I later read in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” and in 2 Peter 9:20-21 that “No prophecy of the scriptures is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” I understood what they meant and I believed their words.  More than that, I said to myself, “If God said it, then I had better do it.”

Since those days over three decades ago I have learned a bit about just how inerrant the holy Scriptures are.  God wrote the entire Bible numerically and with multiple layers of numeric patterns.  Some people call this “Theomatics.”  Most call it Biblical “gematria.”  The basic idea of this concept is that each letter of the languages used to write the books of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek, equates to a numeric value.  The first letters of both the Hebrew and Greek alphabets both equal one, and so on.

God gifted a man named Ivan Panin to discover manifold intricacies of the Bible based upon these numeric patterns.  You can read his Numeric New Testament online here.  Be sure to read the introduction in order to get some idea of just how profound his work was.  Following is also a very excellent article detailing some marvelous aspects of this important work:
God is a Mathematician.

I believe that 2010 will prove to be an exciting year for understanding more of God’s Word and for seeing many prophecies therein come to fulfillment.  But, I want to caution you.  Do not try to use gematria and numeric patterns to try to predict the future.  I have seen countless attempts at this over the past fourteen years and each and every prediction has been wrong.  Unfortunately this has not stopped many foolish people from continuing their futile attempts.  I have even discontinued fellowship with certain Christians and websites because of their continual barrage of useless numeric mumbo-jumbo.

God indeed wrote the Scripture numerically.  But, he did not write it this way so that men could program a computer, reduce the Bible to bits and bytes, and then foretell the future.  Neither was or is foretelling the future the primary work of his prophets.  He gives all men his Word so that we may learn his ways and walk in them.

Peace and God’s blessings to you and yours this new year as you endeavor to do so!

I have not yet begun reading The Numeric Bible.  I am still reading the preface to it, but I am greatly anticipating reading the New Testament again with a new eye.  Just consider this little bit from the preface:

In Matthew’s Gospel, 1:6, Solomon is begotten ”of her of Uriah.” The Authorized and Revised versions render it ‘of her that had been the wife of Uriah’, justly italicizing what is not in the original. Alford and the Baptist version (which the writer regrets to say is not as ‘improved’ as it deems itself to be) retain the phrase without italicizing. The Douai version italicizes only ‘the wife’. Now it is true that when Bathsheba was married to David, Uriah was already dead, and she thus only had been Uriah’s wife. But the Greek tells nothing of this her history. All it tells is that she was Uriah’s dame; but whether wife, daughter, or sister, is here at least left indefinite. Now it is a sound canon of translation, specially of God’s Book, not to mix interpretation with translation. One translator boldly describes the unnamed mother of Solomon as Uriah’s—widow, thus adding to SCRIPTURE, and also wholly missing the eloquence of a most effective bit of Scripture silence. For a reason for keeping Bathsheba in the background, whether as wife, or mother, is to emphasize all the more the terrible sin against URIAH. The offspring of Thamar, the Spirit is almost heard to say here, is bad enough; but her sin was at least not voluntary. Rahab’s is worse, she being harlot by profession. But David’s—the blackness of his sin can be made dark enough only by shutting off all from it, and concentrating the whole luridness on the one name URIAH. And it is into such scenes of sin that the Holy One descended from His glory for the sake of sinful man. . . . But if in is thrust the officious widow, or even wife, corresponding distraction is made from the here all-important Uriah, and forthwith havoc is made of one of the finest Scripture parables thus acted out by its very silence.

For the same reason the pετοικεσία Βαβυλώνος of Matthew 1:11, 12, 17, rendered by the Revisers Removal to Babylon, is a permissible interpretation, but not the right translation. As it stands, the phrase ‘the Babylon Removal’, apart from signifying the removal of Babylon itself (which, however, it cannot mean here) may also mean only the removal caused by Babylon. That this city, or even province, was the sole place of deportation may be, but is not necessarily the meaning here. The rendering ‘the Babylon Removal’ leaves the English exactly where the Greek leaves it.

So dangerous a thing it is to meddle ever so slightly with the words of—GOD. Uzzah at the Ark is still a warning.

These are the kinds of insights we can expect to glean when we approach God’s Word as he wrote it!  May we be blessed as we read his Word again with new eyes!

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cap-padocia, Asia, and Bithynia … 1 Peter 1:1 (ESV) 

Most people think that Peter wrote his first letter to the refugees of Northern Israel’s dispersion which occurred almost 800 years prior to this time.  No, he wrote to the exiles of this world who have lived anytime during these last days, the times since the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Like most of the Bible, Peter wrote his book to believers, not unbelievers.  And, again like most of the Bible, he wrote to the remnant, to the overcomers, to the Bride.  These exiles Peter writes to are those “in the world, but not of the world.”  They never fit in with the crowd; they never get the perks of this life; they are black-listed, black-balled, and ridiculed.  Yet, they are God’s elect, God’s chosen.

Let’s examine some clues which show who they really are.

First, verse two tells us that these exiles were foreordained for obedience to Jesus Christ.  Who obeys Jesus?  Only a believer.  Who really obeys Jesus?  Only a faithful believer, an overcomer.  Second, these exiles have been and are “grieved by various trials.”(vs. 6)  Overcomers must be tested so that their faith is proved genuine.  They, and only they, rule in the next age, the Kingdom Age, when their faith will “be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (vs. 7)  Note that this shows us that the revelation of Jesus Christ has not yet occurred.  We are learning about it now as we learn to practice righteousness.

Third, verse nine teaches that the outcome of the faith of the overcomer is “the salvation of your souls.”  Almost all Christendom misinterprets this verse.  They teach that this is the common salvation that comes to man by initial faith in Jesus.  Most mistakenly equate the soul with the spirit.  But, my soul is not my spirit.  Jesus effected the salvation (propitiation, atonement, reconciliation) of my spirit to our Father by his perfect blood sacrifice.   My soul, on the other hand, consists of my mind, will, and emotions.  It is what I call “me.”  My me is not perfect yet; is yours?  But, I take the commands of Christ and his apostles seriously which say, “Be perfect, even as my Father in heaven is perfect.”  Therefore I seek to know his commands and obey them.  When I fail, I repent, and he then counts me as perfect, holy, and righteous before him.  This is how I “work out my salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is how I, by grace through faith, effect the salvation of my soul.

I do not save my soul by reciting some mantra or saying the sinner’s prayer.  When I understood the sinner’s prayer, then I understood that Jesus had unlocked the prison bars of death, and I walked out.  The door was already open; I just didn’t know it until I believed that Jesus was who he said he was and that he did what he said he did.

Fourth, knowing these things, Peter then begins to explain to us how we save our souls.  He says, ”Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  [14] As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  [15] but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  [16] since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  [17] And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,  [18] knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”   1 Peter 1:13-19 (ESV) 

Finally, in verse 22 he makes it clear that we purify our souls (save our souls) by obeying the truth.  And, what is the truth?  “The Word of the Lord,” of course.  Verse 25.  Remember Psalm 119:160 which says, 

    The sum of your word is truth,
        and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

So, Peter begins his letter to the elect exiles (overcomers) by teaching them to work toward the salvation of their souls (not their spirits!) by obeying the truth of God’s Word, i.e., by practicing righteousness.