March 14th, 2016 (3/14/16) Is Rounded Pi Day!
Pi is that strange foundational number that we use with circles, right? 3.1416 (and it goes on forever...it is unending...it continues eternally!) It is a basis for any and every circle. That number, multiplied by a circle's diameter, will equal the circles' circumference, or perimeter.
It is both an important number, and a mysterious number. And we Christians would probably say that the first to ever use it was Yahweh and His Son Jesus as they made the Creation...as they created such spheres and circles as the Earth, and the Moon, and the Sun and other planets. And the more distant solar bodies present as circles to our eye very often. But...yes, Pi should likely have been used for the making of the Earth.
The origin of the Pi symbol is Phoenician, some sources say, but it was as a Greek letter that it became the Pi we know. Wikipedia for instance can get you to that answer. In Greek, it was the 16th letter (2 x 8, and 8 is widely spoken of as being Jesus' special number that seems to relate very specially to Him. 8 saved on the Ark. The flesh of the son is cut off on the 8th day in the Jewish faith .... circumcision. And there are many other instances) God specifically spoke and had it be that way concerning circumcision. A boy is circumcised on the 8th day per Mosaic law.
The ancient languages often used letters of their alphabets as symbols for both letters and some certain letters also stood for the numerals they used. So, letters were also used as numbers. And as a numeral symbol, Pi stands for 80, which of course is twice 40, which is the classical Biblical time of trial. 40 days it rained in Noah's time. 40 years the Israelites wandered in Moses' time. For 40 days after His baptism Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. And there are more instances.
Jesus, who had two natures when He walked here on the Earth to teach us...he had the flesh of mankind and yet at the same time the being also of God his father. Had 2 times the normal time of trial in that respect. And just as Pi is the 16th letter, 2 times 8 is sixteen for whatever that may be worth. His number seems to have been 8 in some respects, and He came to teach having two natures...man and God.
But back to the Earth....the Earth is a circle which orbits the Sun, suspended in space, while the moon circles the Earth like a shepherd might tend their sheep.
Earth is quite beautiful for a planet (the planets we are familiar with) because it has white icecaps and white clouds, and a blue ocean and green forests and pleasing earth-tones in other places. It is garnished and adorned beyond all solar system bodies except for the Sun, which is too glorious to even look at. It is dressed up and adorned like a bride, which is interesting, because there, living upon the Earth, is mankind, including the Christian church, which is Jesus' bride...and He will come for her one day.
The bride is beautiful, but she has been wicked at times, and unfaithful at times, even to her intended...to Jesus. And He gave up so much to do for her that very painful thing which would obtain for her a possible pardon, give her a second chance...a chance to be saved. He was called a liar and a fraud, mocked, beaten then crucified. He was beaten until His face was marred horribly. Then he was treated with great disrespect and wrongfully crucified.
The Moon is thusly marred, as well, by craters. So the Moon circles like a shepherd, and Jesus is shepherd of our souls. And the Moon is marred, just as Jesus was marred in appearance by the beatings He took to save us.
Back to the Pi symbol: the original meaning of the symbol is believed to be 'gate' or 'mouth'.
Jesus described Himself as the 'narrow gate' through which only a few would be able to pass. But...it is the only acceptable gate to God the Father the scripture tells us.
Jesus is called 'the Word', because from His 'mouth' He spoke the words of life that His Father had given Him.
In a way, the foundation of Christianity could be described like this: Man, and then woman, were created to be loved children and servants to the Father and the Son. But they sinned and lost their inheritance. But they were so loved that the Father sent a most precious thing...His only begotten Son...to give mankind a way back. Those who will follow the Son have a hope. Those who will not do not, the scripture says.
So back to circles: every circle has Pi as its foundation, and the Earth, which in profile is a circle, has Christ for its foundation, and the people who live on Earth, whether they know and acknowledge it or not, have Christ for their foundation as well.
So, given all of this, what would you find if you went to the Bible and looked up Pi? What if you went to the 3rd chapter of Genesis and read verses 14 thru 16? A type of 3.1416, right? Pi. You would find that it is the very place where God first estranges and banishes mankind for their original sin...the very place where they receive, for the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, the 'fruits of their iniquity': their Curse from God. Read the following from Genesis chapter 3, including verse 14 and 16 ...the verses about the curses:
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.
End Quote. From Bible Gateway NIV
And what if you went to the Gospel of John...the Gospel which is different from the others in some important ways? What would you find there if you went to the 3rd chapter, and looked at verses 14 thru 16? It turns out that it is the very place where it is explained that God loved man so much that, despite his sin, He sent His Son Jesus! Our salvation. Read below, from the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, NIV, courtesy Bible Gateway:
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
End Quote.
Man, living on the circular Earth, had lost God and grieved. He'd even been cursed by His Maker to endure great difficulties. But God, who dwells everywhere, also came full circle on the issue of mankind's lost state and sent His Son to the circular Earth to speak the Holy Father's words with His mouth and retrieve those who would listen and repent. He will retrieve whoever among mankind will listen to the truth and believe, confess, be baptized, and then follow the Son.
And Pi, which is believed to most anciently be a symbol representing a GATEWAY and/or a MOUTH, leads to these important Bible verses which almost sum up the story of God and Jesus and man. We threw it all away, but God threw us a life ring....another important type of circle!