Dear Gramps,
I am kind of confused of this matter. I said to some of my friends that 777 (or maybe just 7) is God’s number. Is that correct?
Gregory, from Ponta Grossa, Brazil

Dear Gregory,
All that we know about God is revealed in the holy scriptures or in the words of His prophets. Nowhere in my experience have I come across any writings that indicate that God has a favorite number, nor do I believe that there is any special significance or secret power associated with any particular number.
I think that God’s works are much too complex to be defined by a particular number. There are however, significant numbers or numerical arrangements associated with God’s writings and with His creations. Among them are the chiastic arrangements of many of the scriptures, A chiasm is a literary form of inverted parallelisms, such as the topics A, B, C and D, followed by their repetition in the following order–D, C, B and A. This is a common and rather prominent form in the Bible. For instance, the Book of Ruth is arranged chiastically by chapter–each chapter written in chiastic form, with the exception of chapter 2, that contains a 12-element chiasmus– elements 12 and 11 at the beginning, occurring at the end of chapter one, and matching the corresponding elements at the end of chapter two, as follow—
Ruth 1:22

12] So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab:

11] and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 2:23

11] So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest;

12] and dwelt with her mother in law.

That the chiasmus is not just a Hebrew literary form is demonstrated by the fact that the Doctrine and Covenants is over 30% chiastic, and the chiastic forms in the Doctrine and Covenants are much more complicated and elegant than those in the Bible. The Book of Mormon has an amazing chiastic content. We have counted in the Book of Mormon a total of 961 chiasma, giving it an overall chiastic density of 53%. The breakdown of chiasma by authorship in the Book of Mormon is most interesting, and is a significant evidence of the divine authorship of the book. For instance, the Small Plates of Nephi are 72% chiastic, whereas the abridgement of the Large Plates of Nephi are only 46% chiastic. Within both the Small Plates and the Large Plates there are wide variations of chiastic density among the various authors.
I’m sure that we could not begin to find out or understand the possibly limitless numerical orders and combinations that are associated with the works of God and with His creations.
Gramps