From: richard@biblewheel.com
Date: Sat Jul 05 2003 - 22:30:32 EDT
Debbie,
Excellent questions. I number the answers for easy reference:
>POINT 1) My first response is why would God choose pentagonal numbers? =
Richard gave
the fact that the fifth day was the day of creation of life and the =
fifth
commandment was the first with promise. I'm not sure that I find these
reasons to of great significance.=20
As I mentioned in my private email to you, my first answer is "I don't =
really know." I cite the fact that the structural numbers 5, 12, & 22 =
are sequential terms in the pentagonal number sequence because it feels =
significant, even though I can't fully express the significance at this =
time. But the fact that Life is strongly associated with the Number 5 in =
the plain text of Scripture, the geometry of the Wheel, Rabbinic =
Tradition, and the geometry of life (as exemplified in the sea life =
created on the Fifth Day) prompted me to share this observation. Details =
can be found in this article:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/Spokes/Heh_Day.asp
Now It really is important to understand that everything on my site is =
not necessarily meant to be an apologetic for the Wheel. Many articles =
are simply observations, notes on things I've seen that seemed =
potentially significant. The primary significance of the Wheel in my =
estimation is a way to view the Unity of Scripture. It is a tremendous =
mnemonic device, and it thrills my soul to see many of the patterns that =
strike me as divinely designed. It certainly is not meant simply as some =
"proof of the Bible." Here's an analogy I composed in hope of =
communicating that there is much, much more to the Bible Wheel than mere =
"proof of the Bible":
An analogy may help make this clear. It is rather like meeting a man who =
denies that Chinese is a language, and refuses to learn anything about =
it until it has been mathematically proven that the marks in the Chinese =
book are interrelated in the same way as other languages, and that they =
certainly were not randomly scratched out. The joke is that even if the =
proof is understood and accepted (a very unlikely outcome, considering =
the effect willful ignorance), the unbeliever has not come one step =
closer to knowing - let alone receiving - the message contained in the =
book! If, on the other hand, the unbeliever were willing to learn to =
read Chinese, the proof that it is indeed a language would simply fall =
out as an inevitable side effect. This analogy corresponds exactly with =
the Wheel. Its primary purpose is not mere proof that the Bible is the =
Word of God - what good would that do? It would be just like abstractly =
proving that Chinese really is a language to someone who refuses to =
learn. The person who chooses to learn, on the other hand, will gain all =
the benefit of the knowledge in the book while simultaneously receiving =
- as an inevitable side effect - absolute, irrefutable proof of the =
intelligent, purposeful design of the book.
This is from my Probabilities article:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/probabilities.asp
>POINT 2) He sites repeated themes showing up in
correlated books. Psalms correlates to 1Peter, Isaiah to Romans. I =
looked
for phrases that did not fit the correlation:
I can save you a lot of effort by telling you that themes in the Bible =
are generally distributed throughout. But it is also true that many =
themes are specific to a particular Spoke or groups of Spokes. The most =
obvious and incontrovertible such grouping is seen in the correlation =
between the books on Cycles 1 & 2 of Spokes 15, 16, & 17. Here is what =
independent Bible scholars have to say about these books. H. R. Ironside =
(1909) wrote:
There are six books of the Old Testament that may be read together most =
profitably. I refer to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, of the historical =
part of the Bible, coupled with the prophetic messages of Haggai, =
Zechariah, and Malachi.
J. Sidlow Baxter (1964) wrote:
Moreover, as the last twelve of the seventeen historical books further =
sub-divide themselves into nine and three, the first nine being =
pre-exilic, and the remaining three (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) being =
post-exilic, so is it with these twelve 'minor' prophets, i.e. the first =
nine are all pre-exilic, while the remaining three (Haggai, Zechariah, =
Malachi) are post-exilic; and these two terminal trios, the last three =
historical books and the last three prophetical, have a reciprocal =
correspondence with each other.=20
Everything Baxter descibes here is GEOMETRICALLY CORRELATED on the =
Wheel. These correlations are discussed in my article "A Great Cloud of =
Witnesses"=20
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/CloudOfWitnesses.asp
And in the Symmetries of the Bible Wheel article:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/symmetries.asp=20
POINT 3) He sites repeated themes showing up in
correlated books. Psalms correlates to 1Peter, Isaiah to Romans. I =
looked
for phrases that did not fit the correlation:
I think you made a slight mistake here. It was the Ayin verse of the =
Alphabetic Psalm 34 that I linked to I Peter on Spoke 16 of the Wheel =
(corresponding to the letter Ayin). You can read about this in my =
article "The Eyes of God"
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/Spokes/ayin_EyesOfGod.asp
Concerning Isaiah and Romans - yes, they are both on Spoke 1. Psalms is =
on Spoke 19.
>POINT 4) 'The earth is my footstool' is in Isaiah and Acts - it doesn't =
fit your
pattern. Whereas there are many things that do - I do not see how they =
are
uniquely to be differentiated from those things which do not. What is =
your
criteria for choosing phrases? Finding patterns can be cloud watching or =
a
Rorshach (sp) test. The patterns need to be consistently uniquely
determined. I do not see that this is so.
This is an extremely significant question. I do not have, and do not =
believe that there is, a criterion that could "uniquely differentiate" =
between significant and insignificant correlated phrases. I am the first =
to admit that the Wheel is both a Science and and Art. But the fact that =
there are highly significant correlated themes that also integrate with =
the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter as established in the =
alphabetic verses, names of the letters, Hebrew tradition, etc., can not =
be denied (IMHO). For example, it is a fact that Creation is mentioned =
on Spoke 1 nearly ten times above average, as discussed in this article:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/Spokes/aleph_creation.asp
Of course, this naturally coheres with what any intelligent person would =
expect on the First Spoke of the Wheel.
Likewise, specific themes relating to Election and the call of Abraham =
are found on Spoke 1 in the connections between Genesis and Romans:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/Spokes/Aleph_Abraham.asp
Also, it seems impossible to miss the significance of Spoke 1 being =
composed of these three great "first books"
Genesis - the first book of the Law
Isaiah - the first book of the Prophets
Romans - the first book of the NT Epistles
>POINT 5) 'The earth is my footstool' is in Isaiah and Acts - it doesn't =
fit your
pattern.=20
The Bible Wheel site is composed of Three Threads (cf Homepage). The =
second is called the Isaiah - BIble Correlation. It is here that the =
appearance of God's Throne is seen in its context of consummation on the =
last Spoke:
http://www.biblewheel.com/InnerWheels/Isaiah/Isaiah66.asp
>POINT 6) There were all sorts of patterns drawn between Lincoln and =
Kennedy. What do
you think of those? I do not remember them all - Kennedy's secretary was
named Lincoln, Lincoln's was named Kennedy. This kind of thing repeated =
in
their two lives a dozen or more times. What does it mean?
I've heard of them, but I don't have any opinion. Mere coincidence is =
not sufficient to establish meaning. But to find high level patterns =
like the Canon Wheel and those shown in the symmetries article seems to =
push this all well beyond "mere coincidence." Especially in light of the =
fact that we can calculate the objective probablity of the sevenfold =
symmetry as being one chance in 688,324.
=20
>POINT 7) It would be nice to have something that shows that the choice =
of books in
the Bible as chosen by men was actually divinely inspired. How do we =
know
that one or more other books weren't divinely inspired? The Catholic =
church
accepted many for a great period of time. What about the book of Thomas? =
If
your patterns were/are conclusive - then that would give some credence =
to
the fact that the 66 books and only the 66 books are the divine work of =
God.
But it can't be coincidental. One can't choose 150 phrases and reject =
1000
without giving a clear and unbiased reason for the choice. Do you have =
such
a reason?
I think I have the reason you ask about. The themes I report are the =
ones that seem to me to be significant. So how then do we know if I am =
just drawing pictures in the clouds? There are a number of ways:
1) Independent witnesses. For example, the entire book of exodus was =
outlined by J.Sidlow Baxter. I used his outline as an outline for the =
article linking Exodus to Spoke 2. I deliberately reduced my degrees of =
freedom so the reader could see that I am not simply cherry picking.
2) Word distributions. THEMES are expressed in WORDS. This means we can =
objectively measure the occurrence of a theme by measuring the =
distribution of associated words. I have discovered many such correlated =
word distributions. Some even span multiple spokes and give large =
correlation coefficients. Here is the artilce listing 36 such =
distributions and the articles discussing them:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Topics/WordDistributions.asp
3) The meaning of the associated Hebrew letter is often found to be =
profoundly integrated with the obvious themes on the Spoke. I discuss =
this in many articles, such as the Eyes of God mentioned above and this =
one from Spoke 3:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/Spokes/Gimel_Giver.asp
Well, thats a good start.
Thanks for the great questions!
In service of the Lamb of God,
Richard
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Debbie Mann=20
To: Asa=20
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 6:17 PM
Subject: RE: Predeterminism and parallel universes
Richard at Bible Wheel has been asking for opinions of his work. I =
have
responded that my qualifications are weak at best, I have a masters in
applied math and have had extensive informal, general training in the =
Bible.
I am widely, but rather eclectically, well read.
My first response is why would God choose pentagonal numbers? Richard =
gave
the fact that the fifth day was the day of creation of life and the =
fifth
commandment was the first with promise. I'm not sure that I find these
reasons to of great significance. He sites repeated themes showing up =
in
correlated books. Psalms correlates to 1Peter, Isaiah to Romans. I =
looked
for phrases that did not fit the correlation:
To Richard:
'The earth is my footstool' is in Isaiah and Acts - it doesn't fit =
your
pattern. Whereas there are many things that do - I do not see how they =
are
uniquely to be differentiated from those things which do not. What is =
your
criteria for choosing phrases? Finding patterns can be cloud watching =
or a
Rorshach (sp) test. The patterns need to be consistently uniquely
determined. I do not see that this is so.
There were all sorts of patterns drawn between Lincoln and Kennedy. =
What do
you think of those? I do not remember them all - Kennedy's secretary =
was
named Lincoln, Lincoln's was named Kennedy. This kind of thing =
repeated in
their two lives a dozen or more times. What does it mean?
It would be nice to have something that shows that the choice of books =
in
the Bible as chosen by men was actually divinely inspired. How do we =
know
that one or more other books weren't divinely inspired? The Catholic =
church
accepted many for a great period of time. What about the book of =
Thomas? If
your patterns were/are conclusive - then that would give some credence =
to
the fact that the 66 books and only the 66 books are the divine work =
of God.
But it can't be coincidental. One can't choose 150 phrases and reject =
1000
without giving a clear and unbiased reason for the choice. Do you have =
such
a reason?
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of richard@biblewheel.com
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 12:50 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: Predeterminism and parallel universes
Debbie wrote:
>It's not like one could spend an hour and understand or review your =
web
site. You have twenty two sections covering the whole Bible. One =
would need
to at least analyze three or four to even have an opinion. This is not =
the
work of an afternoon.
You are absolutely correct. I'm certainly not asking for a complete =
analysis
of everything I wrote! :-)
There are dozens of places to start. The best seems to be the "high =
level"
super-obvious pattern seen in the sevenfold symmetry of the Canon =
Wheel.
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/CanonWheel_FullSize.asp
For those who need mathematical proof that this pattern is too rare to =
be
reasonably considered a random occurrence, we could discuss my =
calculation
of the probababilities, which result in one chance in 688,324.
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/probabilities.asp
This could be augmented with a more detailed view of symmetries that =
lie
below the level of the Canon Wheel (similar to the idea of broken =
symmetry
in physics, where some symmetry remains):
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/symmetries.asp
Also, those familar with the relation between symmetry principles and =
the
laws of physics might find the derivation of the Canon Wheel from =
first
principles of interest:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Topics/Derivation.asp
And this article reviewing A. Zee's book Fearful Symmetry:
http://www.biblewheel.com/RR/AZ_Fearful.asp
Alternately, for those more inclined towards beauty, art, and =
theology, we
could discuss how this pattern relates to ancient Christian icons of =
Christ,
as in these articles:
http://www.biblewheel.com/Topics/Art_Wheel.asp
http://www.biblewheel.com/Topics/BibleArt.asp
Or this one relating to Blake's Tyger Tyger:
http://www.biblewheel.com/RR/WB_Tyger.asp
Another really good starting place is my overview of the whole Wheel =
called
"A Great Cloud of Witnesses"
http://www.biblewheel.com/Wheel/CloudOfWitnesses.asp
Well, that should be enough to get the discussion going.
In service of the Lamb of God,
Richard Amiel McGough
Discover the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Holy Bible at
http://www.BibleWheel.com
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