Math gives evidence to God’s order, that God’s good creation is structured so perfectly by design that the principles and consistent order of mathematics points to the complexity of the designer.
Of all the subjects taught in Christian schools, mathematics is perhaps the most difficult to intuitively root in Scripture. I can easily teach that the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New Testament equals 66 books total. From there, my ability to do, understand, or integrate math in the classroom is severely limited. So how can a Christian math teacher ensure their instruction is rooted in Scripture?
I decided to ask math teachers.
One teacher concisely noted that “math seems to be a language of God.” What she meant, perhaps on a more conceptual level, was that math gives evidence to God’s order, that God’s good creation is structured so perfectly by design that the principles and consistent order of mathematics points to the complexity of the designer. Thus, in this post, I want to give two examples of how I, a Bible teacher, have noticed this relationship.
A Deck of Cards and Prophetic Probability
This first one was overwhelmingly fun to see in real time. I had a class of bright high school sophomores in a Christian apologetics course, and we were diving into some apologetic issues regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. Before discussing Jesus’ unique and unmistakable fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, I played for my students a video I had remembered watching years ago, a video about math from popular YouTube scientist Matthew Stevens and the Vsauce channel.
The video, linked here, is titled Math Magic and it has over 12 million views just on YouTube. The video discusses and illustrates card-based mathematic probabilities, includes a Bible shoutout, and culminates in a visual representation of 52! (52 factorial). The best part was that the video is, honestly, fun. We watched a visual and mathematical representation of just how unlikely it is that any event with one-in-ten-to-the-18th-power odds happens. Then, as if perfectly planned in eternity past, we looked together at how the mathematical probability Jesus would fulfill just eight of the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies comes to one-in-ten-to-the-17th-power.[1]
But Jesus did not fulfill just eight. Jesus fulfilled 332.[2]
This example is not a lesson plan, nor is it prescriptive for biblical integration in the math classroom. It is, however, an example of how mathematics can play a role in how we understand, know, and experience God.
Multiplied Holiness
This next example is more theological by necessity but is still related to mathematics as a divine language of order in this world. We read in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” In Revelation 4:8 we read of the four creatures at God’s eternal throne who never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” This repeated phrase echoed in Scripture, “Holy, holy, holy,” is not a stutter nor only an emphatic repetition, but a theological equation.
It must be noted of this lemma parallelism that this phrase means that God is holy times holy times holy, that God is holy to the third power. The four living creatures “proclaim that the God sitting on the throne is the thrice-holy one, communicates God’s terrifying and beautiful holiness, and that he is utterly exalted above his creatures and is distinct from human beings. No one enters his presence lightly or casually, for he is Almighty God and he is the one who always reigned, the one who is reigning, and the one who will come and institute his kingdom forever.”[3]
This repeated phrase echoed in Scripture, “Holy, holy, holy,” is not a stutter nor only an emphatic repetition, but a theological equation.
The significance of this multiplied holiness is not veiled to those who have no grasp of complex mathematics. It is not even veiled to those who can’t yet make sense of a multiplication table. The significance, however, requires we conceptualize how much holier God is than the most holy we could (or will) become. It is multiplied to the third power, not simply greater than. It is mathematical, however absurd the link may be.
Mathematics will not, on its own, prove the existence or majesty of God for many students in our schools. The discipline does, however, point to His design, power, significance, and order in a way unique to the numbers we face in the classroom. Peeling back the layers of principle and equation aid in our pursuit of reflecting the order and love and truth of God in this life. Let us do everything through Christ and for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17).
[1] James George, “Advent: Statistical Probability of Jesus Fulfilling Messianic Prophecies,” LinkedIn Publications, December 8, 2021, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advent-statistical-probability-jesus-fulfilling-messianic-george/.
[2] Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2017), 229.
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, “Revelation,” in Hebrews–Revelation, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. XII, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 602. Logos Bible Software.