Evidence of the Bible's Validity

[Rampant.A.I.]

Well, there seems to be quite a load of complete and total s**t to cut through in the above posts, but I'll try.

Correct, you unloaded a metric tonne of it.

"Numerology is any belief in the divine, mystical or other special relationship between a number and some coinciding events." - Wikipedia

Numerology refers to the importance and mystical meaning of numbers, whereas I am simply pointing out the numbers themselves. This is actually really easy to understand if you use common sense. It's very much like if I said that I would pay you a million dollars if you could find me a pink-colored rock. The pink-colored rock itself isn't worth a million dollars. Now if you find a pink rock, you are likely to be excited, when before you might not have even noticed it. Likewise, the significance if the number 666 is external rather than internal. This number doesn't bear some inherent significance on it's own, rather because that is the number that we are looking for. So that's the end of that. It is MOST DEFINITELY NOT NUMEROLOGY, plain and simple.

You should actually read the articles you quote from:

Alphabetic systems
There are many numerology systems which assign numerical value to the letters of an alphabet. Examples include the Abjad numerals in Arabic, the Hebrew numerals, Armenian numerals, and Greek numerals. The practice within Jewish tradition of assigning mystical meaning to words based on their numerical values, and on connections between words of equal value, is known as gematria.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology

Okay, so where are the sources that prove that Revelation actually says 616? I asked for those a while back but no one seems to be able to support that claim. Partly because it makes no sense. Why would the number be 616 instead of 666, when the verse explicitly states that it is the "number of a man" and, in hebrew thought, the number 6 means Man or Mankind?

Right here:

Around 2005, a fragment from Papyrus 115, taken from the Oxyrhynchus site, was discovered at the Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum. It gave the beast’s number as 616 χις. This fragment happens to be the oldest manuscript (about 1,700 years old) of Revelation 13 to date.[11][12]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_beast

[Jackalope]

Well, there seems to be quite a load of complete and total s**t to cut through in the above posts

Yes and we wish you'd stop.

[JesusHChrist]

From Max-greece's link:

The mark of the Beast symbolized an allegiance to Nero in the first century. "Neron Cesar" was spelled like this:

N = 50
R = 200
W = 6
N = 50
Q = 100
S = 60
R = 200

That equals 666. It makes sense too because their alphabet had numeric value. See link for more info.

Edit: I just read this about the 616 on the link I gave:

Of some related interest is the fact that if Nero’s name is written without the final "n" (i.e., the way it would occur to a Gentile to spell it in Hebrew), it yields the number 616 — which is exactly the variant reading in a few New Testament manuscripts. The most reasonable explanation for this variant is that it arose from the confusion over the final "n".

So, clearly *this* numerology proves Nero was the "Beast". Either 666 or 616 fit the bill! But Nero died! Awwwww, no Anti-Christ naughtiness. (I'll bet he did have a thing for the ladies though...me too, but I digress)

See how this works?

And when Princely Charles of Whales dies at some point in the future, without ever doing any anti-Christ naughtiness, will you admit you were wrong, wrong, and wrong? Or, like so many before you, will you "find" the error, correct it and now the anti-Christ turns out to be Justin Bieber, Lord of Crappy Haircuts and Devil Music Divine?

[Rampant.A.I.]

I'm kind of surprised this wasn't used to name Obama.

[Cato]

There also seem to be people who think that because Prince Charles doesn't look threatening or scary he can't be the antichrist. Let's see here, in Revelation does it not say "All the world marveled and followed the beast?" If I was going to try to rule the world I wouldn't do it by looking scary. I would do it by getting on the good side of the various peoples at the heart of world politics, something Prince Charles seems to be good at doing.Right, I'm sure if we scare the heck out of everyone, they will want to worship and make us the ruler of them all. Makes a lot of sense.

Charles can't convince his own mother to abdicate in order to become head of state; yet you think it's plausible that this man will convince the world to follow him. Fucking ridiculous.

[Lemonvariable72]

There also seem to be people who think that because Prince Charles doesn't look threatening or scary he can't be the antichrist. Let's see here, in Revelation does it not say "All the world marveled and followed the beast?" If I was going to try to rule the world I wouldn't do it by looking scary. I would do it by getting on the good side of the various peoples at the heart of world politics, something Prince Charles seems to be good at doing.Right, I'm sure if we scare the heck out of everyone, they will want to worship and make us the ruler of them all. Makes a lot of sense.

Charles can't convince his own mother to abdicate in order to become head of state; yet you think it's plausible that this man will convince the world to follow him. Fucking ridiculous.

You guys are aware that in practice the monarch holds no power at all right? I'd also like to point out that charles is actually ineligible for the throne.

[Esquilax]

Is anybody else sensing a severe case of overreach with this guy's argument, here? I mean, how esoteric and niche does he want to make this stuff? He's pointing at a prophecy where the only means of divining its true meaning is to cook up a bizarre and random numerical code based on a language that the original writers didn't have any knowledge of, pointing to a number of the beast that might not even have been the original one, and which can only be interpreted as literally the softest possible direction to the identity of the antichrist.

What is the point of concocting a prophecy if you're then going to turn around and be that oblique and vague in the execution of it? Who are you helping with that? How are you demonstrating god's divine anything by producing literally the least efficient prophecies you can, barring maybe "there's a guy, and he'll do a thing, and that thing will mean he's the other dude."

If this is an actual prophecy, if this turns out to be true, what it tells us more than anything is that the biblical authors were idiots, and the god that entrusted them with this task was an idiot, and that neither group should be trusted to tell us this stuff.

[Cato]

You guys are aware that in practice the monarch holds no power at all right? I'd also like to point out that charles is actually ineligible for the throne.

That's why I said 'head of state', which the queen is under the the standard parliamentary system. And yes I understand that she has very limited powers and for all intents and purposes is a figurehead.

Why is Charles not in line for the throne?

[Tonus]

You guys are aware that in practice the monarch holds no power at all right? I'd also like to point out that charles is actually ineligible for the throne.

He's just waiting to spring his trap, like any self-respecting anti-christ would.

[JimmyNeutron]

Alphabetic systems
There are many numerology systems which assign numerical value to the letters of an alphabet. Examples include the Abjad numerals in Arabic, the Hebrew numerals, Armenian numerals, and Greek numerals. The practice within Jewish tradition of assigning mystical meaning to words based on their numerical values, and on connections between words of equal value, is known as gematria.

Let's give you the benefit of the doubt and say that what I am doing IS numerology. In that case, you all incorrect for saying that numerology is BS, or that it is illogical or something like that. This is not looking for mystical meaning in the numbers, just looking for THE NUMBERS THEMSELVES.

Debunk this, if you're so clever:
There are thousands of envelopes in a room. They all contain a magic spell written on a piece of paper. Inside one of them are the magic words "Klatu Barada Nikto" and a check for $1,000,000.00. Now, that envelope is significant not because of the magic spell. Regardless of whether or not you believe in magic, the fact is that if you find the one with those specific words you will find the one with the check.

Sam thing applies here. Some people think that the numbers mean something special. Regardless of whether or not they do, they are still the numbers for which we are looking. It has nothing to do with their mystical meaning or anything like that.

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Why is Charles not in line for the throne?

I'd like to know the answer to this one as well.