Reddit mentions of Number in Scripture: Its Supernatural Design and Spiritual Significance

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, but institutions have utterly failed this particular discipline. It's terrible. I've known numerous people who turned to the academic press or, even worse, the Internet and heard reams of data with nothing helpful or even really true.


The thing(s) I've found most rewarding are, in order:


Actually (if prayerfully) believing Christ and doing what he says. I've had the most astonishing miracles happen in and around me following a foolish risk that I took because of believing what God said. The scroll of Jeremiah says that God promises to be found by people who earnestly seek him, and literally anyone can step on the gas anytime they want just by trying. (I don't mean this offensively or anything.)


Meaningful studies in substantial topics. Literally nothing approaches the value of knowing firsthand the supernatural authorship of the Bible. Saints learn this by walking with God; skeptics beat it out of others by arranging the "rules" to make its textual bases appear untrustworthy. God neither fears truth nor eschews knowledge.


Similarly, centuries of brilliant saints have made it their life's work (grammar) to condense the treasure of God's person and revelation into formats like daily devotions (Spurgeon), systematic theologies (Calvin), defining the impacts of the Gospel (Wesley?) or the figure of Christ in the Pentateuch (Henry Law.) Hymns frequently combine the best of the above; reading them (when the reality of them is present in your life) is like spending a day in the Louvre. A random page from any of them has more of Heaven's dew than a year of carnal erudition at the world's most prestigious colleges.


At the risk of sounding cliche, protestant theology is an awesome resource -- and shockingly scarce in the United States. The Canons of Dort is a short document that covers the entire subject without encumbrance.


People were designed to complement each other and find satisfaction in each other's community (not unlike the Trinity.) A decent body of genuine Christians (or even a handful) will tap the best of everyone's resources who all have different gifts and experiences. Think of what you're best at.... now imagine you had a team of experts who were that good in a dozen other areas where you could stand to benefit from that access.


I'm fairly decent with languages, so it really isn't much of a stretch to learn Hebrew and Greek for reading. There's only a few thousand different words between the two of them, and anyone can simply learn the alphabet (ideally from the title page in the dictionary in back of a concordance) and start from there. Not ideal, but cost-effective.


That said, your experience will obviously have shown you that a non-trivial difference among established English versions is quite rare. I'm a big fan of HCSB, and also NASB and NLT. The Living Bible is pretty great for those with the background to appreciate it, and others have their strengths. As you see, I like a sanguine read.



Denominations are a bit like martial arts: a good representative of a mediocre one is better than a poor one belonging to an outstanding tradition.


Google has blackballed a number of spiritual resources and topics. Go to a university library and browse the relevant resources, and you'd swear they came from a different universe.



I realize the above sound kind of... fringe. Well the first to state his case seems right, until another comes and questions him. There's no harm in being informed.