4 (Four)
Symbolic treatment of this number in the corpus
Bullinger · Jones · Nee-Lee (KOL)
The number four serves in the corpus on two registers: cosmological and soteriological. Bullinger and Jones viewed it as the number of earthly power and partition, connected with the four creation days and the four cardinal directions. Nee-Lee, by contrast, interprets four as the number of principles — specifically, the four laws that operate within and without the redeemed person: God’s law, the law of the mind, the law of sin, and the law of life through the Spirit.
Biblical References
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Gen. 1:14-19 | Fourth creation day: sun, moon, and stars created |
| Ezek. 1:5 | Four living creatures in Ezekiel’s vision |
| Rev. 4:6 | Four living creatures around the throne of God |
| Rev. 7:1 | Four angels at the four corners of the earth |
| Ezek. 37:9 | The four winds in the vision of the dry bones |
| Matt. 1:1-17 | Four groupings of fourteen generations in the genealogy |
| Rom. 7:22-25 | Four laws in tension: law of God, law of the mind, law of sin, law of the Spirit |
| Rom. 8:2 | ”For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death” |
Symbolism in the Corpus
E.W. Bullinger
Bullinger describes four as “the number of the material creation and earthly power.” The four compass points, four seasons, and four elements (in ancient cosmology) confirm this pattern. He notes that four stands in direct contrast to the divine three: “the two most used numbers in the Bible are three and four — three for what is above, and four for what is below, what is earthly and material.” The fourth day of creation (Gen. 1:14-19) completed the visible world with sun, moon, and stars. In Ezekiel’s vision (1:5) and Revelation (4:6), four living creatures or four beings serve as cornerstones of God’s government over the earth. The number four is thus bound to the order and maintenance of creation. 1
Stephen E. Jones
Jones connects four through the Hebrew letter Daleth (door) to access, opening, and material grounding. The four winds (Ezek. 37:9) in the vision of the dry bones represent God’s reach over all visible, material domain. This carries forward Bullinger’s theme: four speaks to the grounding of God’s rulership in the visible, physical realm. Jones adds the gematria of the Hebrew word h’eretz (“the earth”): the numerical value equals four times seventy-four, confirming the fourfold pattern of earth in cosmic structure. 2
Watchman Nee & Witness Lee (SUHUR)
Nee and Lee introduce in The Knowledge of Life an entirely new dimension of four: the four laws (or principles) that operate in the redeemed person. They write:
Each of the three lives within us who are saved has a law. Therefore, there are not only three lives within us, but also three laws which belong to the three lives. Besides these, there is the law of God outside of us. Therefore, within and without us, there are all together four laws. (The Knowledge of Life, Chapter 9).
These four laws are:
-
God’s Law (outside us) — the revealed law of the Old Testament, God’s requirements for humanity. Rom. 7:22, 25: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man”; “with the mind, indeed, I serve the law of God.”
-
The Law of the Mind (within us) — natural, moral good in our soul. Rom. 7:23: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.” This law proceeds from our created, human life.
-
The Law of Sin in the Members (within us) — the corrupted principle dwelling in our bodily members. Rom. 7:23: “…and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.” This law proceeds from Satan’s life in us.
-
The Law of the Spirit of Life (within us) — the law of God’s own life, operative through the Spirit of Christ. Rom. 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.” This law governs and overcomes the other three.
Nee explicates that these four are not merely theoretical. They form the practical, daily reality of the redeemed soul. God’s law speaks of God’s normative will; the law of the mind urges us toward good; the law of sin pulls us downward; and the law of Life — the operation of Christ’s own life in us — breaks the power of sin. The number four is thus not a cosmological symbol but a soteriological diagram: it maps the four competing principles that wrestle within the soul of every believer.