BIBLE NUMERICS

The Number TEN

We come now to the number Ten. Now Ten, of the numbers in the Bible that are

given, is by far the easiest number to locate outside of Five and Seven.

Only Five and Seven are easier to locate than the number Ten. The number Ten

is called a round number or number of completeness by Bible writers who are

lazy and irreverent, and who do not believe the Authorized Version is

reliable; but for those of us who believe it to be the word of God preserved

in the form in which He intends for us to have it, the word "Ten" is of easy

location. It can be located immediately, dogmatically, without fear of

contradiction, and it will stand. The Bible is right, and whoever disagrees

with it is off base. The number Ten can be located.

The tenth man from Adam is Noah, who is the father of the Gentiles. Isn't it

a strange coincidence that Gentiles could by ten's? If that weren't enough,

in Genesis 10 you have the first Gentile kingdom ever started, and the last

Gentile kingdom has ten nations in it, Daniel 2. If that weren't conclusive

enough, you ought to read the entire tenth chapter of Genesis and find this

is the list of the genealogies of the Gentiles. If that weren't enough, in

Acts 10 you have the opening of the door to the Gentiles in the New

Testament. In John 10 is the sheep of the "other fold," and the missionary

call and message to the Gentiles is found in Romans 10. And it is in

Revelation 10 the Lord puts His foot on the earth and takes possession of

the Gentile kingdoms. There is no doubt about ten; it has to do with the

Gentiles. It is a Gentile number.

Twelve is plainly a Jewish number, as we are going to see when we get to it.

In contradiction with Twelve is Ten, which of course is Gentile.

This might give the argument of Garner Ted Armstrong some precedence,

although he's not aware of the truth involved (otherwise, I'm sure he would

have used it long before now). As you remember, his argument was that the

ten northern Tribes of Israel scattered out through Europe and became

England and the United States. This "British Israelism" put out by Armstrong

is about a hundred years out of date; and it is amazing that you'd find

anybody who would subscribe to such a harebrained theory any more, but

scores of people do. This will leave the two southern Tribes--Judah and

Benjamin--as Judah with the tribe of Levi. That's the position of Garner Ted

Armstrong.

The first time the word "ten" occurs in the Bible, it occurs in Genesis

5:14. (Five plus one plus four equals ten.) The days were 910 years in a

man's life, the word ten occurring here for the first time, which is a

reference to the life of somebody before the law. They are all Gentiles

before the law. Of course I know that they're divided off into Gentiles

coming from Japheth, and then the Shemites and Ham under another one, but

the division in the New Testament is Gentile, Jew, and church; and before

the law, Abraham is an uncircumcised Gentile.

The next time the word ten occurs in the Bible is Genesis 16:3. (One plus

six plus three equals ten.) Notice also in Genesis 18:32 the ten is found in

Sodom and Gomorrah, not inhabited by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and

Jacob, but by the Canaanites. And the next time the word ten occurs, it

occurs three times in a row. As a matter of fact it occurs three times in

Genesis 24:10; 24:22; and 24:55 where ten camels go out, and the damsel is

said to abide ten days, and the damsel is from the still uncircumcised

progenitors of Abraham, where back there Laban and the rest of them stayed

in the other country before God circumcised Abraham and made him a peculiar

people and race. The term "ten," then, is plainly Gentile.

The last world power on this earth under the United Nations will be a ten

kingdom federated kingdom of Gentiles represented by the toes on Daniel's

image, and represented by the ten kings of Revelation 17. This is the

Gentile world dominion when Christ Jesus returns to set up an Everlasting

Kingdom. This first Gentile kingdom was set up in Genesis 10 by Nimrod, the

thirteenth from Adam.

That is, we're dealing here with something that is as scientific as anything

the world has set up. We're not dealing here with a thing that occasionally

works. We're dealing with a thing that is an underlying law with deep

significance as it affects all numbers. We may not be able to state a

theorem that will meet all the demands of each number. We may not be able

to, in the Bible itself, trace down every case and prove every case as it

comes up and connect it with what we're talking about; but we're dealing

here with a general law that is as generally true as the law of gravity. You

say, "The law of gravity is always true." It most certainly is not! The law

of gravity is no more scientific than the law of numbers. It will be

discovered some day that the law of gravity is based on the law of numbers.

Numbers, as used in the Bible, gives the reader the clue or key to the basic

meaning of each number. Ten is the Gentile number.


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