The following Unsealed post is dedicated to brother Dan Matson, who used his math and numerical prowess for the glory of God. We will see you in the air very soon!
Veterans of the faith often hear and speak of the Church as the Bride, Body, or Temple, which are all legitimate, biblical descriptors of born-again believers in this present age. However, when was the last time you heard the Church referred to as "the Fullness?"
This lesser-known reference to the Church as "the Fullness" (of Christ or God) is coined by the apostle Paul:
And He [the Father] put all things under His feet and gave Him [Jesus] to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of the One filling all in all (Ephesians 1:22–23, BLB, brackets mine).
In the Greek text, the terms are listed one right after the other: The Church. His Body. The Fullness. Paul writes with a flourishing, poetic style in the original language of Scripture:
Eph. 1:22–23 (Greek): te ekklesia hetis estin to soma autou to pleroma tou ta panta en pasin pleroumenou
Aside from the skillful alliteration of all the "p" sounds (pleroma, panta, pasin, pleroumenou), the apostle rhymes to soma (the Body) with to pleroma (the Fullness). Soma and Pleroma. The Body and the Fullness.
At the time of this writing, God is still in the process of "filling" the Body. However, the full Number of believers is about to reach capacity. Paul affirms this truth later on in Ephesians, again pairing the terms "the Body" and "the Fullness":
And He gave some indeed to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, toward the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all may attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (4:11–13, BLB).
In his other letters, Paul solidifies the tight-knit connection between the terms "Christ" and "Body":
For even as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12, LSV).
The Body is part and parcel of the complete man, "the Fullness" of Christ. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate!
Where there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free; but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11, BLB).
Where Christ is, there the Body is. And when Christ departs to heaven at the time of the Pre-Tribulation Resurrection and Rapture, the Body goes with Him:
And she brought forth a male son, who is about to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was snatched up to God and to His throne (Revelation 12:5, LSV).
"The Fullness" by the Numbers
An instructive passage from the apostle Paul speaks of the delineation and timing of the end of the Church Age and start of Israel's Tribulation period (which will ultimately result in the complete salvation of a chosen remnant from the 12 tribes of Jacob):
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25, ESV).
Note the time marker "until," which indicates there is coming a time when God will decisively shift his attention from the Church back to Israel. In other words, from this text we can infer that the end of the Church Age is signified by "the fullness" of Gentile [believers] being brought into God's house (specifically, they are incorporated into the Body of Christ; Romans 12:5).
Paul isn't the only one to point out "the fullness" of Gentile believers during the Church Age. The apostle John, in his own way, confirms the same thing at the end of his Gospel:
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn (John 21:11, ESV).
This momentous event at the conclusion of John's Gospel symbolizes, prefigures, and represents exactly what Paul explains in Romans 11:25; namely, Jesus' chosen apostles will be sent out as "fishers of men" to bring in a large number of Gentiles during this present age. And note: even though there are so many in the net, not one fish is lost, because "the net was not torn." This point echoes Jesus' words in John 6:39, "This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day" and John 10:28, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."
In short, Paul's "fullness of the Gentiles" (i.e., the complete number of Gentiles in the Body of Christ) is represented in John as a peculiar number: 153.
To the average reader, this number is a little strange but ultimately means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure that some commentaries will merely state that this was the specific number of fish in the net, and that fishermen count their fish, nothing more, nothing less. Yada, yada. YEAH RIGHT!
Of course it means something! This is deep!
John's original audience, mainly Gentiles, were familiar with the mathematics of Greek legends such as Archimedes, Euclid, and Pythagoras. Curiously enough, just try doing an online search of "Archimedes Measurement of a Circle" and you will soon discover a familiar architectural design found in many ancient churches: the vesica piscis (literally, "the bladder of a fish"). It is pictorially represented like this:
Archimedes (circa 3rd-century B.C.) came up with this equation for the measurement of a circle, which later became associated with fish (go figure!). Here's the Wiki entry for "153 (number)":
The number 153 is associated with the geometric shape known as the Vesica Piscis or Mandorla. Archimedes, in his Measurement of a Circle, referred to this ratio (153/265), as constituting the 'measure of the fish'...
If you read on further in the Wiki article, you'll notice that 153 is also referred to by mathematicians as a "triangular number." In other words, it is a number that is produced when the first 17 integers are added up: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 = 153.
In other words, "the fullness" of Gentiles signified by the catch of "153 fish" can be pictorially represented as an equilateral triangle like this:
The visual representations of the vesica piscis and equilateral triangle are both highly suggestive of the work of our TRIUNE God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit: THREE in One)—a.k.a. the Trinity. His fingerprints are ALL OVER the natural creation with its myriad geometrical designs AND the text of Scripture (such as John 21:11).
And if the 153 triangle number isn't enough, there is another triangle number at the end of the book of Acts that also represents the complete or full number of Gentiles being saved at the end of the Church Age. Luke records in Acts 27:37:
In all there were 276 of us on the ship.
Not one of whom was lost according to Acts 27:24, 34, and 44!
We have already gone into detail how this passage prefigures the end of the Church Age (see "Inauguration Inflection Point"); however, for our purposes here, just note that this specific number given in Acts is also TRIANGULAR. Whereas 153 is the 17th triangular number (signifying complete victory or fullness), 276 is the 23rd triangular number.*
*Honorable mention: The 15th triangular number and sum of the first eight triangular numbers, 120, signifies the full number of the Church at its inception and solidifies the Body of Christ as Paul's "Restrainer" in 1 Thess. 2:7. For an in-depth analysis, please see the Unsealed article: "The Number 120 and a Biblical Theology of the Restrainer."
And that's not all folks! There is yet another triangular number in the Bible representing the fullness of something...albeit, something more sinister...
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666 (Revelation 13:18, ESV).
Yes, and there it is. The 36th triangular number is also the number of the antichrist and the number of a man (falling short of perfection: 777). Pictorially, 666 can be represented as another equilateral triangle:
"The Fullness" and the End-Times
If you didn't get enough math in your daily Bible regimen, here's another deep dive for you that confirms the significance of our Church-related triangle numbers of 153 and 276. **Keep in mind that the Greek word for disciple is mathetes (ahhhhh, Math!)**
This next geometrical mind-explosion relates to Methusaleh (whose name means, "his death shall bring [the flood]"). Thus, Methusaleh lived and died as an "end-times" sign:
Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died (Genesis 5:27, ESV).
Recall that 153 is the 17th triangular number. Well, 969 is the 17th tetrahedral number—it is the sum of the first 17 triangular numbers!
Source: Find The Factors
Amazing!
So, the number representing the fullness of Gentiles in the Church Age (153) also connects to the Methusaleh number of 969. Both of these numbers in their respective biblical contexts deal with the end or conclusion of an era:
153 = End of the Church Age
969 = End of the Pre-Flood Age
Thus, we have further confirmation that the Church will be like Methusaleh and Enoch (Genesis 5:24, 27), one who is suddenly cut off from the land of the living, and yet one who is also a living Body taken away and snatched up to heaven before the "flood" of judgment begins. Think: both the dead and the living in Christ taken away before the Tribulation, as confirmed by the apostle Paul in 1 Thess. 4:16–17!
Hallelujah! The sovereignty of God at work in all things is praiseworthy!
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen (Romans 11:36, BSB).
This post first appeared on UNSEALED - World News | Christian News | Prophecy, please read the originial post: here
