God blesses my life through daily participation in music and math. More and more people are becoming acquainted with how well music and math are connected both from a practical standpoint as well as an intellectual one. So let me share a few perceptions I have gained over the past two decades. Since I started my new business named Music & Math Masters Studio in September 2013, the predominant question seems to surround the origin of its name. My responses generally included an explanation of my background as a band director and math educator (I currently work at Aquilla ISD) without going into too much detail. Until now.
Consider for a moment that God desires to reveal the Truth about Himself through the agency of notes and numbers. Both notes and numbers are wonderful gifts which we ought to be thrilled to have but many have not invested sufficient time to fully understand them. I was clueless that God had a plan for my future that dealt specifically with notes and numbers. On 1 April 1979, I was ordained a deacon in a Baptist Church in Virginia. Immediately, I began teaching teen and adult Bible classes as a part of the Baptist Training Union, Vacation Bible School, or Sunday School. That same year, I founded a gospel band, and financed its members instruments, music, and training. Several months later, I commenced basic tutoring in math that year as well. Gradually, from 1979 to 2004, the connections between music and math began to come into focus. During this period, my small church increased in membership, growing from a size of 250 to more than 4,000 members. Membership within the band also grew along with increased opportunities to tutor math to my band members.
After retirement from the federal government in 2004, I was immediately hired as band director and math teacher at a parochial high school in Dumfries, Virginia. I credited the two years teaching there as setting the tone for starting a commercial enterprise affiliating music and math. Apart from the physical aspects of playing notes and teaching numbers, the Bible also became a focal point that clearly delineated to me how music and math are integral components of God''s spiritual design.
Music for instance, is my alternate description for the Book of Lamentations. In my view, the key verse of Lamentations is "I am their music" (Lam 3:63b). I consider this verse as the main theme of the Book of Lamentations since it reveals five melancholy poems of mourning dirges (or songs) over the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians, circa 585 BC. Ernest Bible students have heard about the seven "I am" declarations of Scripture. These symbolize the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are all derived from the New Testament. The eighth declaration is seldom heard perhaps because of its association with God in the Old Testament. God declared, "I am their music." This is His summary expression of how in tune and sympathetic He was with the Jewish captives'' troubles and circumstances. Psalms 137 provides similar insight into the attitude of the Jews themselves while living in captivity. By the rivers of Babylon, they sat psychologically depressed. Since they didn''t feel like singing, they hung their harps upon the willows. They felt dejected and deprived of the joy of music and song. How important is music in your life? Does it reveal a climate of hope, expectation, and joy? In mine, I find it hard to envision life without the purposeful inclusion of music. God declared, "I am their music."
Mathematics is the more intriguing agent of the two. I associate mathematics with the Book of Numbers. In the Greek Septuagint, Numbers is called Arithmoi (meaning "Arithmetic"), which was derived from the census taken in chapters 1 and 26 of Numbers. Several authors long before I was born had already made a strong case for recognizing God as the Greatest Mathematician (such as Mario Livio''s book entitled "Is God a Mathematician?" and N. W. Hutchings'' book, titled "God-The Master Mathematician"). As the British physicist James Jeans, who died the year I was born, once put it: "The universe appears to have been designed by a pure mathematician." Perhaps it pleased God to bestow math on mankind for the purpose of reckoning, reasoning, and revelation. The apparent omnipresence and omnipotent powers of numbers are obvious clues that God uses His guiding hand to demonstrate that He is the Author, Source, and Creator.
Did you know that one out of every five Scripture verses in the Bible contains a number? Only a Supernatural Designer could have concealed a symbolic connotation and spiritual significance behind every number in the Bible and then have them repeatedly appear in the same or similar contexts over and over again. Such is the case for virtually every number appearing in the Word of God. According to Dr. N. W. Hutchings, "the mathematical structure of our Bible proves beyond doubt that it was written by a Master Mathematician; it could not possibly have been written by mere human beings alone."
I can attest to seeing this divinely interwoven pattern within the Word of God. Let me give just one illustration. John, the Revelator, in Rev 13:18 said, "Let him that has understanding, COUNT THE NUMBER of the Beast:" That phrase "count the number" is indicative of the modern rendering, "calculate (using mathematics) the identity of the Beast (AntiChrist)." Only the population that will go through the Great Tribulation Period will need wrestle with the numerical value that will identity the AntiChrist. This passage only serves to motivates me to want to know Jesus Christ more so that I can help as many people as possible believe in the True Source of Notes and Numbers.
Based on experimental knowledge, there are more than 6,500 languages in the world while there is only one mathematics. For all I know, music is likewise acknowledged as the world''s sole universal language. When anyone quantitatively compares the strength of the relationship between these two variables, it again, seems quite obvious. Even though their actual mathematical correlation coefficient is uncertain, I believe music and math consistently measure in the upper 90 percentile. Just think how high the correlation is between smoking and lung cancer or between over exposure to the Sun and skin cancer. Well, there exists a similar, much closer correlation between music and math.
On 7 September 2013, Music & Math Masters Studio opened its doors in Woodway. The upshot of my business is very simple: music and math reigns over many facets of modern day living and ought to be fully developed. My business motto is to motivate and train people of all ages to master the music or math gene a client possesses. My wife, Rosemary, and I employ an expert staff of 10 music, voice, and math coaches who have a passion for ensuring our clients learn how to read and play band and orchestra instruments, sing in a choir or perform professionally on stage, and even to master a host of difficult math problems, to include preparing them to successfully pass standardized math tests. Our goal is to help develop God''s gifts when given the opportunity.
For additional information concerning God''s numerical code in the Bible, check out the following references. Evangelist Ed. F. Vallowe wrote a splendid book entitled "Biblical Mathematics" in 1992, which I still believe standouts as one of the best books written on the subject. Another gem, of equal renown, is "Numbers in Scripture" by E. W. Bullinger. The Southwest Radio Church published in 1985 the book, "God - The Master Mathematician," by N. W. Hutdchings. Each book illustrates the amazing spiritual significance of numbers in Scripture and most importantly shows how math is used to validate the inspiration of Scripture. Allow God''s Word to inspire you by simply studying it.
Article submitted by: Charles L. Perkins, Sr. Owner-Director-Coach (254) 235-6662 Office (254) 829-2397 Home (571) 991-6916 Cell Email: info@music-mathmasters.com