Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: alharv@garnet.berkeley.edu Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: important biblical numbers Message-ID: Date: 26 Jul 90 05:46:14 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I am somewhat disturbed by the amount of numerology I have seen in this group in the last few days. I hate to be a flamer, but this is one of those things that to me falls in the category of "With so much *important* stuff to do in terms of being better disciples of Christ, why do Christians waste so much time on peripheral nonsense like X." (The X's that normally get me ticked off are Creationism and the Shroud of Turin. But I digress.) Anyway, I believe God's word to be for the most part straightforward. Playing wierd games with numbers is at best a waste of time and at worst diverts attention from the task of following Christ. Not to mention the Biblical injunctions about things like sorcery - to me an obsession with secret meanings in numbers smacks too much of the occult to be pleasing to God. One can of course point to extremes to show how such things can be harmful (The 2 examples that come to my mind are the preachers who claim to have the exact date of the rapture "figured out" and Gene Scott's obsession with the numbers corresponding to the physical dimensions of the Temple (or was it the Great Pyramid?)) But even without going to those extremes, I think "Biblical numerology" gets far more attention than it deserves. As I descend from my soapbox and read what I have written, I realize I may have come down a little too hard (at least by implication) on previous posters. So I should say that I do understand how such things can be interesting. When I was in high school I developed quite an interest in the very same things. But as I have matured as a Christian (a process which has a very long way to go), I think God has taught me that such diversion and speculation can lead one into spiritual left field, and that I need to be concerned with following the clear instruction of His Word rather than looking for hidden meanings that probably are not even there. In Christ, Allan H. Harvey BITNET: HARVAL@NISTCS2 Internet: harval@gnos.nist.gov