The Psalm 118:8 "centre" comes from someone incorrectly identifying 118 as the centre chapter and then asserting that verse 8 as the centre verse of the centre chapter. However, on the first point, it is easy to see that someone miscounted. 117 is actually the centre chapter in the Bible.

Secondly, 118 has 29 verses, making 8 the incorrect "centre of the cantre."

There are two reasons why these incorrect numbers are so widely reported. One is that an e-mail with this information became widely distributed a long time ago, in a way that is similar to how virus hoaxes are perpetuated (i.e., "pass this along to everyone you know"). It has been shown repeatedly that people will forward information without verifying its validity. The second reason is that other "statistics" were included in the e-mail, supposedly showing a general pattern of "1188" comes through counting chapters. The claim is that this pattern shows the "perfection" of the Bible. Unfortunately, all of this is based on faulty maths!

Ironically, Psalm 118:8 speaks to trusting God rather than man. We can only guess about the person who sent the original message. If someone attempted to "prove" the validity of Scripture through numerology, they only proved this verse by coming up with the wrong answer through human error.

Of course, the correct proof of Scripture is in the historical facts, the present changed lives, and the future fulfilment of the remainder of prophecy, not the supposed symmetry of Scripture.

Such faulty logic is further compounded by remembering that the original text did not have chapters or verses. On the other hand, if the person was malicious, they probably set out to "prove" that Christians are gullible. I doubt that Christians are any more gullible than anyone else, but perhaps it shows that we are not as careful with information about our most important book as we could be. It might also show that we focus too much on trivial information

If we wish to use chapters and verses to establish the centre point of the Bible it seems that Psalm 103:1 (the 15551st verse) "Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name." is the centre verse and Psalm 117 (the 595th chapter) is the centre verse of the Bible.

I don't think there is any purpose is arguing against this because it *may* be off by one chapter being the actual centre of the Bible. No one can refute how interesting this is anyway. It still is about Jesus, still is the Bible and there is no fruitfulness in making a big deal about which chapter is technically "centre". The CENTER of the Bible is Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27)

Thank you for this message it really was right on time. I mean the Lord put this on my spirit all this morning and I was meditating on it for about an hour before I got up and found this message. Praise GOD and GOD bless you.

nice!

After reading other responses to your post, I am of the opinion that the message in this is Prayer. The power of prayer. I am not interested in debating whether Christians are more or less 'gullable'. I am delighted with the fact it promotes Prayer. God Bless You Chad.

Great work. It is disappointing someone would want to debate this. We should all just live, love, and pray.

It works in open office as well, you can use it to watch the slideshow.

Thanks for this!

Hey Chad,i used Psalm 118:8 as part of my Sunday school lesson last week.Putting God in the center of your life was my lesson.Thanks for posting this bro.Good job,God Bless