Hello! I am Jon Paulien and I’m glad you came to this page to check out my work. I am a New Testament scholar and Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University. On this website you will find a collection of my articles, commentary on Revelation, and links to my blog, videos, and other resources. Make sure you check the articles link above regularly to see the latest postings. In my hand above is an exact replica of p52, the earliest extant New Testament manuscript fragment, containing portions of John, chapter 18. Centered above my head is a replica of ancient Greek pottery. At either end above are two sets of books from, and about, my favorite spiritual author, Ellen G. White. I hope you enjoy the site.

Daily Devotional For July 10, 2026

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“. . . And they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will give to my two witnesses even that they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, dressed in sackcloth.” Rev 11:2-3.

           This morning I went back to school. High school! Yes, I suppose I’m a little old for that (I graduated in 1967). But there was a higher cause. It’s called parenting. One of my children was struggling with high school algebra, and when I looked at the textbook I could see why. The only problem was, my young person already knows more algebra than I do. So how do you help a kid who’s struggling with a subject, when you know less than he or she does about that subject? You go back to school!
           It was so interesting. Adding and multiplying powers. Negative and zero powers. There is something incredibly elegant about the subject, even though it can be hard to learn, at least for some people. But what is mathematics? Is it simply a constructive form of intellectual play? Or is it a window into some deeper reality of the universe that was there before we discovered it?
           John Polkinghorne argues that mathematicians are discoverers, not inventors.¹ Through mathematics they are exploring a reality that already exists. The prime numbers (numbers that can only be divided by themselves and by one like 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on), for example, have always been “there,” even before we had noticed their existence. But where have they been? Polkinghorne argues that they are part of the fundamental structure of the universe, at a deeper level beyond its physical reality. In other words, there is more to the universe than objects that can be handled and observed. There are hints that fundamental principles, like mathematics, truth, and beauty have a reality beyond what human beings can observe and label. If the mathematicians are right, why can’t there also be a God who transcends everything that science can observe and experiment with?
           Polkinghorne’s insight is fascinating when you realize that God’s self-revelation in the Apocalypse is full of numbers, two of which are visible in the above text. 42 months, 1260 days, 5 months, ten days, and a time, times and a half a time include some strange and unusual ways of describing the passage of time. There are crowds ranging in size from 144,000 to 200,000,000 (imagine what it would take to estimate the size of such a crowd!). In addition to these numbers there is repeated use of basic numbers such as three, four, six, seven, ten, twelve and 24. Rightly understood, the books of revelation and of nature are both witnesses to the same God, a God of order in the midst of chaos, a God of mercy and justice, a God of both love and wrath.

           Lord, this math stuff is way over my head. So are many of the numbers in the Book of Revelation. Help me find Your order in the midst of my own personal chaos today.

¹ John Polkinghorne, The God of Hope and the End of the World (New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2002), 20.