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And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw
seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks
one like unto the Son of man,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his
countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet
as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the
last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever-more, Amen; and have
the keys of hell and of death.
Revelation 1:12ff
This brief
review of the meaning of the Number Seven now brings us to the Capstone Book of the Holy Bible,
sealed by God with the Seal of Seven. In perfect harmony with its plain and obvious symbolic meaning
taught throughout His Word, God completed the Bible with a climaxing flourish of sevens seen nowhere else
in all Scripture. Indeed, the Last Book is sometimes called the "Book of Sevens" because of its
unique emphasis upon that number. The table shows many of its surface level appearances, but
there also are subtle patterns of seven running throughout its text, such as the seven
blessings given to the saints and sevenfold praise of the Lamb that was slain:
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne
and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1) power, and 2) riches, and 3)
wisdom, and 4) strength, and 5) honour,
and 6) glory, and 7) blessing.
Revelation 5:11ff
The Book of Revelation seals the Bible on multiple levels; indeed, the word seal itself
appears more in Revelation than any other Book with whole chapters
devoted to the opening
of the book sealed with seven seals and the revelation of the "seal of the living God"
that sealed
144,000 of His servants. It is here in the Last Book that God simultaneously applied the
Number Seven as the seal of the whole Bible even as He explicitly united its symbolic meaning –
completion and perfection – with the idea of a seal in the image of His Word as a book sealed
with seven seals (Rev 5:1). These ideas are, of course, naturally coherent and once again we
witness Divine Wisdom in action; God compounding and compacting multiple symbols into a
single blazing Sign of the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word, all the while teaching everything
to us with simple examples any child could understand.
In precise analogy with the Cross,
the Number Seven is actually a double seal
upon the Bible. In the section called "Sealed with the Sign of the Cross" (Bible Wheel book, pg 37) it was
noted that the Cross seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once in the tri-radiant
cruciform symmetry of the whole and again on Spoke 22 corresponding to the Last Letter Tav (Cross).
Exactly the same duality appears in God’s application of the Number Seven. The tri-radiant cruciform
symmetry is formed by the seven canonical divisions, and the
Last Book on the Last Spoke
is itself sealed throughout with the Number Seven. This means that the Cross and the
Number Seven unite to form a double double sealing of the whole Bible! This is a hint
of what I mean when I say there is no end to the Glory of God’s Word. It is truly infinite!
If only I had ten thousand tongues to declare the true depth of wonder of His Holy Revelation! I
stand in awe with our Christian brother, the Apostle Paul:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Romans 11:33
Below are quotes from commentaries that discuss the meaning of the Number Seven and
specifically mention Revelation as the "Book of Sevens":
- John MacAuthur's Commentary on Revelation
What is seven? Well you can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and find out. I'll just read it to you.
Genesis 2:3, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God
had created and made." If seven means nothing else, seven means it's over. Seven is the number of completion.
Seven is the number of fullness. And all the sevens in this book tell me that this is the completion.
That's why in 22, chapter 22 look at verses 18 and 19, "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of
this book, if anyone adds to them God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book." Don't
add to it. This is the book of sevens, this is the book of fullness, this is
the end when God is finished.
- Prophetic History of Christendom, by R. K. Campbell
Surely there were more Assemblies in Asia than these seven that are before us in Revelation one through three.
Why then were just these seven picked out by the Lord and messages sent to them?
We shall see that Revelation is a book of sevens, the seven churches, the seven-sealed book, seven
trumpets and seven vials of wrath. Seven is a complete number, and the different conditions found
in these seven particular Assemblies in Asia present a complete prophetical view of seven distinct stages
of the professing Church from the time of the apostle John to its end.
- The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus by Joseph Augustus Seiss (from Google books)
And the Apocalypse, which is the book of the consummation of all God's dispensational dealings with mankind,
is, above all a book of sevens. It consists of seven visions with the sevenfold ascription of glory to
God and to the Lamb and discloses to us the seven Spirits of God, the seven candlesticks,
the seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven horns, and seven eyes of the Lamb, seven angels with seven trumpets,
seven thunders, seven heads of the beast, and seven crowns upon those heads, the seven plagues, seven vials,
seven mountains, and seven regencies. And it is this book of sevens because it is
the book of the fulness of everything of which it treats -
the Trinity's consummation of all divine dispensations. It is therefore the number of dispensational fulness.
And whatever bears this number in the divine reckoning is full, complete, with nothing left out, and nothing of its own kind to be added.
- Biblical Mathematics, by Evangelist, Ed F. Vallowe
SEVEN times the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is a Book of SEVENS.
We have SEVEN churches, SEVEN seals, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Personages, SEVEN vails (sic), SEVEN dooms,
SEVEN new things. SEVEN SEVENS make up this Book . It is the COMPLETENESS of all things.
Jesus said to "forgive SEVENTY times SEVEN" In other words, He is saying, "Keep on forgiving until you are complete."
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Bible Wheel Forum
The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals