Application of the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Days of Revelation 17: 10-11

[tulsa 2011]

Application of the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Days of Revelation 17: 10-11

“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” Revelation 17: 10-11.

This seems to be talking about beasts, but it is also about spiritual states.

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 2: 2-3

"And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD.........26. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none..........29. See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30. So the people rested on the seventh day." Exodus 16: 23-30

"For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.......There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4: 4, 9

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4: 11-12

The rest of God is a spiritual state, into which we can enter through Christ in us. It is a higher spiritual state, above man in the sixth day, that condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2; 14, in which we cannot discern the things of the Spirit of God.

Rest in Hebrews 4 is from Strong's Exhaustivce Concordance number 2663, katapausis, from 2664, katapauo, "to settle down, to colonize, or figuratively to cause to desist, cease, give rest, rain."

The seventh day of the week was designated as a day of rest, representing the spiritual rest for God's people, when they cease from their earthly physical struggles, failures, anxieties, incompetence and futility.

The Saturday Sabbath then represents the day of rest for God's people.

The seventh day represents being in Christ. Man is represented by being in the sixth day. Man cannot climb up into the seventh day alone, by his own efforts. God must reach down and bring man up to the seventh day.

So, in Revelation 13: 18 - "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" - man is seen as being stuck in the sixth day, trying to get up to number seven by his own means. The false prophets, represented in Revelation 13 by the second beast (Revelation 13: 11-18), are fixated in the sixth day, man's day.

And just as Talmudic Judaism was a substitute for the authentic doctrines of the Old Covenant, there are now substitute doctrines for the authentic doctrines of the New Covenant. The eighth day would be moving out of the seventh day and beyond to new beginnings. But - when people move out of the seventh day into the eighth day they move out of the rest of God, out of that spiritual place in God.. They move away from being seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 6) and away from the "riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1: 27).

Often it is the deception of the false prophets which leads people out of their seventh day rest in Christ into the eighth day which is back to the spiritual condition of the man of the flesh, the sixth day man.

Applying the sixth, seventh and eighth day model to the history of the Old Covenant, when the Maccabees released the people of the Old Covenant (in about 167 B.C.) from the tyranny of the Syrians (the sixth), under Antiochus, the seventh day was attained. Before the Maccabees restored the Old Covenant doctrines and practices many of the Jews under the rule of the Greeks abandoned some of the practices of the Old Covenant, especially circumcision which the Greeks opposed. See the commentary of John Gill on I Corinthians 7: 18. "let him not become uncircumcised; or "draw on" the foreskin; as some did in the times of Antiochus, for fear of him, and to curry favour with him, who, it is said, 1Maccab. 1:15, "made themselves uncircumcised", and forsook the holy covenant;"

The eighth day or phase was the end of Old Covenant Judiasm when the Herodians were in power at the time of Christ until the Roman siege of Jerusalem began in 66 A.D., and Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D.

During the Christian era under the New Covenant, the period of the early church fathers could be seen as the seventh day, while the lead up to and the reign of the Roman Catholic Church can be looked at as being the eighth day.

The falling away predicted in II Thessalonians 2: 3 and supported by several other texts like Luke 13: 20-21, on the leavening of the kingdom of God, Matthew 24: 5 and Matthew 24: 11 on the deception of the false prophets, and including II Peter 2: 1-3, I Timothy 4: 1-2, II Timothy 3: 13 and II Timothy 4: 3 would also be going away from the seventh phase or day into the eighth day of apostasy.

 

[pajaro]

Application of the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Days of Revelation 17: 10-11

“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” Revelation 17: 10-11.

This seems to be talking about beasts, but it is also about spiritual states.

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 2: 2-3

"And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD.........26. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none..........29. See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. 30. So the people rested on the seventh day." Exodus 16: 23-30

"For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.......There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4: 4, 9

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4: 11-12

The rest of God is a spiritual state, into which we can enter through Christ in us. It is a higher spiritual state, above man in the sixth day, that condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2; 14, in which we cannot discern the things of the Spirit of God.

Rest in Hebrews 4 is from Strong's Exhaustivce Concordance number 2663, katapausis, from 2664, katapauo, "to settle down, to colonize, or figuratively to cause to desist, cease, give rest, rain."

The seventh day of the week was designated as a day of rest, representing the spiritual rest for God's people, when they cease from their earthly physical struggles, failures, anxieties, incompetence and futility.

The Saturday Sabbath then represents the day of rest for God's people.

The seventh day represents being in Christ. Man is represented by being in the sixth day. Man cannot climb up into the seventh day alone, by his own efforts. God must reach down and bring man up to the seventh day.

So, in Revelation 13: 18 - "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" - man is seen as being stuck in the sixth day, trying to get up to number seven by his own means. The false prophets, represented in Revelation 13 by the second beast (Revelation 13: 11-18), are fixated in the sixth day, man's day.

And just as Talmudic Judaism was a substitute for the authentic doctrines of the Old Covenant, there are now substitute doctrines for the authentic doctrines of the New Covenant. The eighth day would be moving out of the seventh day and beyond to new beginnings. But - when people move out of the seventh day into the eighth day they move out of the rest of God, out of that spiritual place in God.. They move away from being seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 6) and away from the "riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1: 27).

Often it is the deception of the false prophets which leads people out of their seventh day rest in Christ into the eighth day which is back to the spiritual condition of the man of the flesh, the sixth day man.

Applying the sixth, seventh and eighth day model to the history of the Old Covenant, when the Maccabees released the people of the Old Covenant (in about 167 B.C.) from the tyranny of the Syrians (the sixth), under Antiochus, the seventh day was attained. Before the Maccabees restored the Old Covenant doctrines and practices many of the Jews under the rule of the Greeks abandoned some of the practices of the Old Covenant, especially circumcision which the Greeks opposed. See the commentary of John Gill on I Corinthians 7: 18. "let him not become uncircumcised; or "draw on" the foreskin; as some did in the times of Antiochus, for fear of him, and to curry favour with him, who, it is said, 1Maccab. 1:15, "made themselves uncircumcised", and forsook the holy covenant;"

The eighth day or phase was the end of Old Covenant Judiasm when the Herodians were in power at the time of Christ until the Roman siege of Jerusalem began in 66 A.D., and Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D.

During the Christian era under the New Covenant, the period of the early church fathers could be seen as the seventh day, while the lead up to and the reign of the Roman Catholic Church can be looked at as being the eighth day.

The falling away predicted in II Thessalonians 2: 3 and supported by several other texts like Luke 13: 20-21, on the leavening of the kingdom of God, Matthew 24: 5 and Matthew 24: 11 on the deception of the false prophets, and including II Peter 2: 1-3, I Timothy 4: 1-2, II Timothy 3: 13 and II Timothy 4: 3 would also be going away from the seventh phase or day into the eighth day of apostasy.

Matthew 24:20-21 says, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."

According to this part of Matthew 24, the sabbath is the same time as the great tribulation. When do you consider the great tribulation to be?

I liked your point about the number of the beast emphasizing the number six for man's work without Christ's help.

 

[tulsa 2011]

The Textus Receptus for Matthew 24: 20 does not say "on the sabbath day." There is no day in the Greek. It says "en sabbato," just on sabbath. It could mean the weekly sabbath or the sabbatical year, that is, the seventh year when the land was not planted but was allowed to rest. There would be no food in the fields during a sabbath year. If it is talking about the weekly sabbath, there was an Old Covenant rule that the people were not to travel beyond a certain distance on the sabbath day.

Matthew 24: 1-2 is a clue about the subject or subjects of Matthew 24. His disciples are said to come to him to show him the buildings of the temple. Christ said to them, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." This refers to the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman army and their destruction of the temple. Yet we know from several verses of Matthew 24 that Christ is also talking about an end time period of great tribulation.

Verses 15 to 21 are about a possible flight by Christians out of besieged Jerusalem, yet from I Corinthians 10: 11 - "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" - in some sense the flight from Jerusalem might be metaphoric for some kind of flight during the end time tribulation. Every detail of the 70 A.D. situation in Jerusalem involving a possible seventh year sabbath or the weekly sabbath prohibition on taking long trips on that day would probably not apply in such a metaphor.

Matthew 24: 20 does not refer to the end time tribulation period as a sabbath or seventh year phase or day.

Yet verse 21 saying "then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world..." can apply to the end time period which is seen also in Isaiah 26: 20, there called the indignation, and in Joel 3: 14-15, about the multitudes in the valley of decision. And Isaiah 28: 15 says of those who have made a covenant with death, and are in agreement with hell, that when the overflowing scourge passes through they think it will not come over them - for they have made lies their refuge and have hidden themselves in falsehood. The overflowing scourge sounds also like the great tribulation. And the threshing floor of Jeremiah 51: 33 where Babylon, metaphoric for the falling away from sound doctrine, is threshed, to separate the wheat from the tares, sounds like Joel 3: 14-15, where there is a falling away from sound doctrine by a multitude of those claiming be be of God, and a conflict between the multitude in false doctrines and the remnant who have the testimony of Christ (Revelation 12: 17.

 

[TaylorDonBarret]

can you show me where Revelation talks about a 6th, 7th, and 8th day? it seems to me like you are adding quite a bit of information to the text that is not actually there. correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[pajaro]

The Textus Receptus for Matthew 24: 20 does not say "on the sabbath day." There is no day in the Greek. It says "en sabbato," just on sabbath. It could mean the weekly sabbath or the sabbatical year, that is, the seventh year when the land was not planted but was allowed to rest. There would be no food in the fields during a sabbath year. If it is talking about the weekly sabbath, there was an Old Covenant rule that the people were not to travel beyond a certain distance on the sabbath day..

I see the sabbath as being the time of great tribulation. When Noah entered into the ark and the world flooded, this was a picture of the great tribulation. Noah's very name means 'rest'. It is God's sabbath. Remember the Bible speaks of Noah's situation as being a picture of future events: "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man." I think, like you it seems, that the sabbath is more generally a picture of how Christ does all the work of saving his own, while the elect just rest in that sense. They could not do anything in their own strength to save themselves, but Christ does the work on the cross.



When Jesus says that all the stones will be thrown down, he means people will be thrown down spiritually. People are stones in the Bible, as the Bible is written in parable form (Psalm 78:1-2). He is talking about the falling away from the gospel that occurs in the congregations of the church age, so I agree with your last statement here that this refers to an end time period of great tribulation but not so much your statement about the Roman army.



I prefer to use the word parable instead of metaphor but that is still the same idea as you are saying. However, the flight that you mention means to flee out of the congregations' teaching to Christ alone in your heart. Luke 21 describes this as spiritual armies surrounding Jerusalem (unbelief and wickedness encompassing the congregations of the church age) and tells the true believers to flee to the Lord (the mountains in parable language). "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." (Psalm 125:2) This is parable language about fleeing to the true gospel away from deceit in the congregations. [/B]


You state that Matthew 24:20 does not refer to an end time sabbath period.
Why not? It says directly in the next verse that then (the sabbath just referred to) is the time of great tribulation.



You do seem to be onto the end time application mostly, which is correct in my opinion.

 

[tulsa 2011]

The key to the sixth, seventh and eighth phases of spiritual life - or days - is in Revelation 17: 11, "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." The beast that Revelation 17: 11 is talking about is the "her" of Revelation 17: 6, the woman of Revelation 17: 1-5, or religion without truth and Christ. In verse 8 is says those whose names are not written in the book of life shall wonder when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. This sounds like the head of the first beast of Revelation 13: 3, the head who had received a deadly wound but the deadly wound was healed.

The beast of Revelation 17: 11 is religion without Christ - religion with the spirit of anti-Christ. This religious beast is represented here as having once been in the seventh day or phase of spiritual life, that is, in God's rest, but it went into the eighth phase or day, out of God's rest and into perdition or destruction. You could say that the religious beast was in the seventh phase when it was obedient to God under the Old Covenant. And, in addition, you could say that a remnant of the Old Covenant people of God were obedient to him - and in the seventh day which is God's rest - while the multitude were off in false doctrines and practices and in the eighth day.

The sixth phase or day of man's spirituality - man of the flesh, the natural man who does not discern the things of the Spirit (I Corinthians 2: 14) is found in Genesis 1: 26 , "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Verses 26 to 29 are about man and his relation to nature and then in verse 31, "And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." Then in Genesis 2: 2, it talks about the seventh day.

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Genesis 2: 2-3

The use of "day" to describe the spiritual state of man is found in Hebrews 44, 9. "For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.......There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Hebrews 4: 4, 9

Here is a scripture on the way we should interpret scripture: "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:" Isaiah 28: 10

Scriptures that are relevant to one another can be combined, and in some cases must be combined to provide an understanding of the meanings. Scriptures kept in isolation one from another and compartmentalized can be misinterpreted because they are kept in isolation from other relevant texts..

Man was created on the sixth day, and the sixth day represents man of the flesh, who cannot rise up to the seventh day rest in Christ unless Christ pulls him up. So, combining Genesis 1: 26 with Revelation 13: 11 we get the sixth, seventh and eighth phases or days of spiritual life.

The religious beast of Revelation 17: 1-11 is said in verse 11 to have been of the seven or seventh, but is now of the eighth, having moved out of the seventh. This is very difficult language, and the mention of the beast that carried the woman, as religion without Christ, and is the spirit of anti-Christ, adds to the difficulty. But the beast in Revelation 17: 11 is not the political-military or government beast that carried the woman, but is the woman herself.

 

[tulsa 2011]

The mention in Revelation 17: 7 of the beast that carried the woman - the government beast - is likely one reason many believe the woman only represents Roman Catholicism. And Revelation 17: 11 could be applied to the Roman Catholic Church. If you extend the history back to the time of the church fathers, they were in the seventh day, but the Roman Church moved out of the seventh day into the eighth day.

 

[tulsa 2011]

"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." Revelation 17: 11

"...he is the eighth, and is of the seven," means that the beast, which is religion without Christ and Truth but pretending to have God and the Truth, was once in the seventh day rest of God (either under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant), but moved out of that rest into the eighth day. Then Revelation 17: 11 says the beast goes into perdition in the eighth day. Why does the beast in the eighth day go into perdition or into destruction?

Perdition is from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance number 684, apoleia, "ruin, or loss (physical, spiritual or eternal), destruction, die, perdition, perish, pernicious ways, waste."

The beast goes out of the rest of God into a state which is spiritual death, whereas in the seventh day rest in God, it formerly had spiritual life in God.

Yet the religious beast - its leaders - is unlikely to have decided suddenly "Now I want to die spiritually, so I will go into the eighth day which is spiritual death." No, the religious beast is not likely to have done that. It is more likely to have thought that in going into the eighth day, out of the seventh, that it would gain something for itself.

Here is a chicken or egg question, which came first, the egg or the chicken? Did the religious beast first go back to being in the spiritual state of the natural man and for this reason went into the eighth day to satisfy its desires of the flesh. We don't know the answer. We can know that in going out of the seventh day rest of God, the religious beast showed that it was in the spiritual condition of the natural man - dominated by the flesh - and that the religious beast in this spiritual state was spiritually dead, having gone into perdition.

The religious beast in entering the eighth day state of spiritual death - going into perdition - was in the condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14, which does not discern the things of the Spirit. There is a very strong implication that what the religious beast did was mix that which is of God, the seventh day of God, with that which is of man. That which is of man in scripture in of the sixth day (Genesis 1: 26-31). In other words, the religious beast failed to obey Proverbs 3: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

The religious beast created traditions of men, mixing that which is of God with that which is of man.

"Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" Matthew 15: 3

"Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." Matthew 15: 6

"Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
2. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass." Ezra 1: 1-3

The multitude of the Old Covenant at times mingled that which is of God with that which is of men.

There are many texts in the Old Testament critical of the Israelites bringing in pagan worship into the Old Covenant system of doctrines and practices. For example, "And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him.
31. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
32. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
33. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." I Kings 16: 30-33

Christ said the Pharisees and scribes, who he was talking to in Matthew 15, made the commandment of God of no effect by their traditions of men. So, the Pharisess of Christ's time had gone from that which is of God, the seventh day rest (Hebrews 4: 4, 9), into the spiritual state of the eighth day, which mingles that which is of God with that which is of man in the sixth day, and in doing so make the commandments of God of no effect, in compromising them.

The religioin of the Pharisees was a mixture of that which was from God with that which was from men. Talmudic Judaism had begun in the Babylonian captivity, and this was the religion of the Pharisees in the eighth day.

There had been a restoration under Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Jeshua and others - the remnant - but by the time of Christ the multitude had gone into the eighth day of spiritual death under the Pharisees.

Likewise, in the New Covenant, though the Church Fathers had started out in that which is of God (the seventh day), men mixed that which is of man in pre-Christian Rome - and the Roman Government - with the kingdom of God, the seventh day. The result was the Roman Catholic Church as the eighth day manifestation. The Holy Roman Empire, like the Catholic Church, went into perdition.

Interestingly, in Daniel 2: 31-44, the fourth kingdom of man is Rome. But remember that there were two kingdoms of man before Babylon, which were Egypt and Assyria. Rome is the sixth kingdom of man before the Cross. There are four kingdoms after the Cross in Daniel 7, and again, there were two kingdoms after the Cross before the four in Daniel 7. These two Catholic kingdoms after the Cross were the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Empire, both of which were in the eighth day of perdition. God did not allow the Spanish Armada in 1588 to defeat the British. There were people of God in England then who were in the seventh day, and the Lord had other plans for the Lion kingdom to come not long after. So the Protestant Winds and Queen Elizabeth's Navy defeated the Spanish Armada and he Lion kingdom of Daniel 7: 4 came to power in the world.

“But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Matthew 5:37

There are several New Testament texts warning against mixing that which is of man, or of the world, with that which is of God.

For example, see I John 2: 15-16, James 4: 4 and II Corinthians 6: 17. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord...." II Corinthians 6: 17

The mega Church movement has mingled the things of God with the things of men in several ways, including the use of techniques from the world of commerce and the dialectic in small groups from Transformational Marxism, the group dynamics movement and the encounter group movement (and all that had been popularized in the corporate culture)..

However, some of the departures from sound doctrine that started in the 19th century mixed that which is of God from the New Covenant with that which claimed to be of God under the Old Covenant, in order to began the move out of the seventh day rest of God in the New Covenant. That which brought the obedient Israelites into the seventh day of God under the Old Covenant cannot do so now under the New Covenant, and this is a key to
understanding the problem of upholding the multitude of Old Covenant Israel. And remember that the multitude of Old Covenant Israel were in the eighth day of perdition under the Pharisees of Christ's time. Christ says in Matthew 23: 38, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

Daniel 9: 27 says "...and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." Desolation and that which is desolate sounds like spiritual death.

 

[tulsa 2011]

"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” Revelation 17: 11.

This is the religious beast described in Revelation 17: 1-10. The religious beast was once in the rest of God, the seventh day or spiritual phase, which is also a spiritual state of being in the truth and having been elected by God.

The seventh day, where day is from Hebrews 4: 4 - "And God did rest the seventh day from all his works," is the rest of God. Hebrews 4: 9, says: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." The people of God are the elect.

So, flesh and blood cannot be the criteria for being in the chosen of God under the New Covenant. I Corinthians 15: 50 states that "...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." Some might argue that when a person inherits the kingdom of God that he or she is no longer in the flesh.

If a tradition of men - that is, of man going out of the seventh day rest of God into a spiritual condition that mixes that which is of God with that which is from man - teaches that certain people are to be put into the elect group of God because of their physical DNA, while they are still in the flesh, this is a teaching of those of the religious beast of Revelation 17: 1-10 in the eighth day

"For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Issac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God." Romans 9: 6-8

In saying they, those of Israel, are not all the seed of Abraham, but they are the children of Isaac Paul means that Isaac is the son of the promise, a child of Abraham in a spiritual sense, while Ishmael was not. The promises came from Abraham through Isaac. But this does not mean that those of the bloodline were from Isaac rather than from Abraham, because Abraham is the father of Isaac. And under the New Covenant it does not mean that the promises to the seed of Abraham through Isaac inherit the spiritual kingdom of God, the seventh day rest by virtue of their physical DNA. Christ first preached the Gospel to the physical descendants of Abraham and Isaac, and a remnant accepted him (Romans 11: 1-5). Later in Acts 10 the Gentiles began being put into the elect by God, fulfilling Hosea 2: 23.

But as Hebrews 10:9 says "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." And Haggai 2: 9 says "The glory of this later house shall the greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts..."

 

[tulsa 2011]

"And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition” Revelation 17:11

Those who use a literal method of interpreting scripture tend to read Revelation 17: 11 as talking about some particular person, one man, called the beast, and that "he is of the eighth" means he is part of a group of eight beasts. Then, the object of the literalist is to "pin the tail on the donkey," that is, to give one's own opinion of who this one man beast might be.

But the entire text starting with Revelation 17: 1 and going on through Revelation 17: 10-18 is about religion, made up of that which men have added to that which is of God, and that which men have taken away from that of God, called a beast. The entire text is about the religious beast. Revelation 17: 10 begins to talk about kings, or nations, which interact with the religious beast. The topic is still the religious beast, and Revelation 17: 11 is about "the beast," which is the religious beast.

Scripture has to be interpreted by other relevant scripture, "precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little (Isaiah 28: 10). Hebrews 4: 4 associates the seventh day with the rest of God. Genesis 2: 2 said God rested on the seventh day of creation. Man was created on the sixth day (Genesis 1: 26-31).

"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." Hebrews 4: 1-3

And "For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Hebrews 4: 8-11

The religious beast that is said to have been of the seven, in God's rest, moves out and beyond that rest of God on the seventh day, into an eighth spiritual state, and in doing so goes into perdition. This is talking about the collective, the multitude of people who are part of the religious beast. And this religious beast is not limited to Babylonian mystery religion, which was not of God, and the religious beast is not limited to Old Covenant Israel, which was of God and went out of that state (God is said to have divorced Old Covenant Israel in Isaiah 50: 1 for transgressions and in Jeremiah 3: 8 for backsliding and playing the harlot). This religious beast is also not limited to the Roman Catholic Church, though Protestants had believed it did apply to that Church. It is also the New Covenant multitude after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-7, and other prophecy that support this text, such as Luke 13: 18-21, on the leavening of the kingdom of God, II Peter 2: 1 on false prophets bringing in damnable heresies and the prophecies of Paul in I Timothy 4: 1-2, II Timothy 3: 2, 5, 7-8 and II Timothy 3: 13.

The promise made to Israel that God would give Israel rest is fulfilled in Christ, though Israel is only implied in the discussion in Hebrews 4. In Hebrews 4: 7-8 the writer mentions Old Covenant Israel hardening their hearts, and that Jesus Christ spoke of giving them rest at another day. "Them" is Israel, Old Covenant Israel at the time of the provocation in the wilderness was not given rest because of unbelief, and New Covenant Israel is promised rest for belief. "Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation (or rebellion in the wilderness). The provocation in the wilderness is in Exodus 17, especially 17: 7.

Christians who have Christ and the Holy Spirit in them have that rest now, because Christ finished the work for salvation on the Cross. “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said” Hebrews 4:3. To say that Christ is going to save all Old Covenant Israel sometime in the future, maybe in the tribulation or millennium, is to diminish that finished work - because it says in effect that Christ was unable to save "all Israel," the first time. He saved the remnant of Old Covenant Israel he intended to save (Romans 11: 1-5).