I was re re-reading Revelation this morning when my eye hung on a repeating concept that I had not noticed before- (happens to me all the time)... Anyway can any of you 20-year men explain to me what the "seven spirits of God" are?

Re:1:4: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Re:3:1: And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

Re:4:5: And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

Re:5:6: And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Maybe the 7 angels that pour their bowls upon the earth. The ones that turn the sea to blood and all that.

if you have the time I think you can listen to the audio

[url]www.hopefortoday.org[/url]

Here ya go, Grock:
[url]http://newjerusalemnetwork.net/7spirits.html[/url]

The 8th Spirit is GOOGLE...[;D]

I don't know about the reference you are talking about ,but the number seven is mystical if not reverent in the Bible.    Hence the reference to the seventh son, seven veils,sailed the seven seas,seven days in a week,seven deadly sins,and so on and so forth.

  Bob  [8D]

Wish I could just explain it to you but I have not studied Revelations since private school. Although I read books by Dave Hunt and Chuck Missler concerning the end times. Let me get some more links for ya. I just recently started to study God's word as an adult, currently at Church we are studying Isaiah.  

BusMaster007, Interesting link- but I don't see and biblical support for the opinions expressed... anyone have scriptural reference?

oh yeah!

    [url]http://www.calvarylaguna.com/article_lastdays_intro.html[/url]


[img]http://www.calvarylaguna.com/images/GraphicHomeMessage.jpg[/img]

Just wait for ETH!

Just dropping in to make my traditional Religion Topic drop in......

But to hazard a guess.....

This is where the lucky 7 concept came from???

God used Isaiah to define the seven attributes of the spirit of God.  These are the
Spirit of Wisdom
Spirit of Understanding
Spirit of Counsel
Spirit of Might
Spirit of Knowledge
Spirit of fear
Then the all-encompassing title the Spirit of the Lord

Seven the number is considered the number for fullness or completeness.

For my 500th post..I'll go biblical.

The Greek translated word for "spirit" in Rev. 4:5 and 5:6 is (Pneuma) which means "breathe of God" or "spirit of God". In the some of the earlier gospels it meant the "inward man" in the Greek translations. Luke 4:18, Romans 7:6 concur with this translation...but in Hebrews 1:14 it refers to the word "spirit" as "divine angels".

So, the 2 translations converge with 2 theological differences. Angels or the 7 fold ministries of the Holy Spirit.

Many times, depending on the theological base, some theologians will have differences in what they determine as "spirits" and "angels"...God's created beings, from Cherubs to humans there's always a debate to where the lines of their existence should be drawn.

So,personally I would think the passage was talking about the 7-fold aspects of the Holy Spirit..simply because he is a part of the trinity and should hold a great amount of God's "dunamis" or power..just my opinion. But, if you're talking about "God's spirits", it would seem logical.

Now about the 7 horned beasts...oh, my. I guess we shall see, huh?

[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

Revelation makes my head hurt.

Here's what I know about the End Times.... "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus."

Sorry, I'm no use at all here.

And frankly, I find far too much speculation going on about Revelation, which is open to wide interpretation, and far too much ignoring of the unmistakebly clear passages of Scripture.

I figger that once I've got all the clear and unmistakeable passages mastered, THEN and ONLY then will I take on Revelation.

That's my deal, anyway.  YMMV.

No flames, but hey...  Your loss.

Reading the Bible cover to cover is poor sport.  Concentrating on different sections and aspects is the key to enjoying Bible reading.

Personnally I enjoyed the History most of all.  I also enjoyed Revelation.  I don't understand it, but I think it is fun trying to picture all the events that John was writing about.  Personnally I don't think anyone will fully understand Revelation until it has already happened.  Then we will all smack our foreheads and say, "Oh Yeah!".

Post from cookie -

Why?

What did you read during that year that you had not already heard, time and time again, as you were raised in your Southern Baptist home?

If you were 'groomed' to be a minister, you should have had a pretty good idea of what the Bible said [u]before[/u] you started your year-long read.

Precisely what offended you in the 'synoptic' Gospels?

Or was it not offense that you took, but you just no longer believed in what you were reading?

We are here to help, so please give us some direction.

Eric The(Serious)Hun[>]:)]

I remember studying that when I was younger.  As I understand it, old time Judiaism (i don't know if this is true anymore. You might want to ask ETH) placed special significance on numerology.  Seven had special representation as being a "perfect" number.  So if something had seven horns for example that would signify perfect strength (all powerful), seven eyes (all seeing / wise) etc.

Numbers were also additive.  As 7 was "perfect," 77 would be "more perfect" and 777 would be "absolute perfect."  Conversely 6 was considered "imperfect" (because it fell short of 7) it's additive would follow the same path. 666 would be considered the "absolute imperfect" - and as we all know is the sign of the anti-christ.

I also seem to remember that 666 was the numerical representation of Caesar Nero in Hebrew.  He was also represented in the wounded head of the multi-headed beast because, as we know Nero committed suicide.  The story that the beast head was wounded then self healed was a representation of the fear of early Christians that Nero faked his own death and would return to continue his persecutions.

I actually find Relevations an interesting read.

Post from MIerinMD -

There are branches of Judaism that still make a lot out of numbers.

Remember, that by using numbers, the old scribes were able to copy long, long passages from one manuscript to another without error.

They simply assigned a number to each letter, added up all the letters in the original document and compared it to the number of the letters in the copy of that manuscript.

It explains how, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, that two recovered sets of the complete Book of Isaiah (dating from approx. 150 BC - 50 AD), when compared with the oldest Hebrew Bible (c. 1300), were the very same, jot for jot and tittle for tittle!

The number '7' is of significance in Judaism due to the days for the creation of the earth. In Christianity it became significant for the number of the Trinity (3), together with the number of the earth (4).

But let's not get carried away here.....

Eric The(Numberless)Hun[>]:)]

Tonys68l36, that is a good Start- I know keys to Revelation are in Daniel, and Isaiah, and Ezekiel, as well as psalms. That is similar to the link Busmaster007 posted, but not the same. Thanks all for the clues.

Though I have been reading the Word for 17 years I still feel like an infant.

I've always liked A. E. 'Honest to God' Robinson's interpretation of Revelation, except for [u]one[/u] small thing!

He thinks it was solely concerning Nero and the Emperors that came shortly thereafter!

Strange, isn't it, that St. John toys with the number of the name of the Anti-Christ, when we know from Roman History (Suetonius) that there was a child's rhyme that was making the rounds in Rome about how Nero's full name and 'murders his mother' had the same numbers of letters in it!

Unlike Robinson, I believe that some Biblical prophecies may actually be 'double prophecies', meaning that they are valid for two distinct, but similar future events!

So Jesus's 'Olivet Discourse' was a warning to His disciples of the Jewish Revolt of 66-70 AD, as well as a warning of an even [u]more[/u] distant Armageddon at the end of the age.

What's just as interesting as [b]Revelation[/b], in my humble opinion, are the numerous prophecies that predict the final days of human history that are found in the Old Testament.

I am particularly thinking of the 'Seventy Weeks' Prophecy found in Daniel, Chapter 9.

Are y'all familiar with that one? [:D]

Eric The(PreachingToTheFrontRow)Hun[>]:)]

I believe it means angels. The seven angels that opened the sealed scrolls. They were standing in front of God waiting for their marching orders.