The Seven Spirits are The Holy Spirit

Christ White has gone and argued against the Seven Spirits of Revelation 1:4 and other verses being The Holy Spirit.  Arguing they are the Seven Angels who sound The Trumpets.

First he suggests it's confusing that in Revelation 8 these Seven Angels show up apparently with no prior introduction if you don't identify them with the Seven Spirits.  I never felt that way at all, new things are showing up constantly in Revelation.  The Angels I have always pictured standing on or by the Altar of Incense, which was not in the scope of chapters 4 and 5.  They are clearly not between the 24 Elders and the Four Beasts as the seven Lamps are.

Also Angels are NOT Spirits, not the good ones anyway, they all have physical tangible forms, we can entertain them unawares.  Demonic Spirits are distinctly different kinds of beings.

He attacks the connection of this verse to Isaiah 11:2, repeating a common mistake an English first glance reading will give you, that only Six Spirits are described there.

And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD

The Six are additional Spirits that come from but are sort of distinct from the First Spirit mentioned.

The intimate relationship between The Lamb and the Seven Spirits in Chapter 5 makes clear they are The Lamb's Spirit just as he described The Holy Spirit as His Spirit.  The means by which He communicates with and guides believers still on Earth.

The problem I have with this bad interpretation is that when you read Revelation 1 without being distorted by the man made verse divisions, verses 4 and 5 have a clear expression of The Trinity.

from him which is, and which was, and which is to come

 from the seven Spirits which are before his throne

 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

It's absurd to think beings that aren't God would be sandwiched in between titles which clearly apply only to God.

Update April 2016: Maybe you could make an argument the Spirits are the same because the Angels mentioned are the Holy Spirit, because again Angel must means messenger and we need to quite thinking of it as a technical term.

The Angels of the Seven Churches are I believer Believers in those congregations with the Gift of Prophecy, White is right that the Early Churches weren't monarchical, but that doesn't rule out that Angel can mean a human messenger, as it was used of John The Baptist.

I have a new theory about the Seven Trumpets, Shofars, explained in my The Ram study.

There is still no doubt in my mind the Seven Spirits are The Holy Spirit.

Not all of The Saved are part of The Church

I've already talked a good deal on aspects of this directly relevant to Eschatology in the Post-Trib label.  For the sake of reference I realize I should talk a little bit about the foundation of this Doctrine.

John The Baptist

John 3:25-29

Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.  And they came unto John, and said unto him, "Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him."

John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.  Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, "I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him."  He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled."

John defines himself as not part of The Bride.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:11

" Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

John is not part of The Kingdom, which is The Church we know from the Kingdom parables.

I know people have other interpretations of these verses, but none of them hold up to me.  For the latter they say John isn't part of the Kingdom yet because he isn't Resurrected yet.  But we of The Church are citizens of The Kingdom already even while we're still mortal.  We're simply citizens who are currently residents of Satan's Kingdom.  That is one of the themes of Philippians.

The Church has a promise that the Holy Spirit shall never leave us.

John 14:16-18 " And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Romans 8:9 tells us, “…if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” This verse very clearly states that if someone does not have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, then that person is not saved. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit were to leave a believer, that person would have lost the saving relationship with Christ. Yet this is contrary to what the Bible teaches about Eternal Security.  Salvation cannot be lost.

But Old Testament believers lacked this promise.  The Spirit departed from Saul (1 Samuel 16:14), and David feared it might depart from him as we see in Psalm 51:11.  It didn't depart from David however, in this one way David was a prelude of this special promise of The Church.  

The Holy Spirit played a role in Pre-Christian times, but the type of relationship he has with believers now began at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Some might insist this isn't a matter of The Church being unique but simply that things changed at The Cross, and by no means proves there will come a time when things like this will return to how they were before Pentecost.

1 Corinthians 13:8-12 does say the Gifts of the Spirit shall cease "when that which is perfect is come".  However the secessionist argument that that moment is the completion of the Canon has no Biblical support.  Joel 2:28-32 which describes the Church Age condition of The Holy Spirit is also linked to the Sixth Seal.  I personally believe "when that which is perfect is come" refers to The Rapture/Resurrection of The Church, when we are perfected. 1 Corinthians 15:52 "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."  And Paul goes on to elaborate on that.

Sealed in The Holy Spirit

2 Corinthians 1:22 says we are Sealed with The Spirit in our Hearts.  Like how the Law of the New Covenant is now written on our Hearts rather then in Stone.

Ephesians 1:13 "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise".
Ephesians 4:30 " And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

Pre-Tribbers understand the Uniqueness of The Church, but insist we're not in The 70th Week at all.  I laugh when I see Pre-Tribbers and Pre-Wrathers talking about the Trumpet Judgments saying "there are no references to The Church, the only believers are those Sealed (the 144,000) being protected".  But being Sealed is a unique to The Church characteristic.

Paul also said this Sealing lasts until the Day of Redemption.  Revelation 14:3-4 says of the 144,000.  "which were redeemed from the earth.  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb."  Which to me supports the Mid-Trib Rapture.  The Day of Redemption is the Resurrection and Rapture of The Church.

There is a constant debate about if the 144,000 are a literal number or symbolic and simply represents The Church.  It can however be both, a specific group representing the whole.  The whole of the Church still living on Earth during the first half of the 70th Week.

When the Bowls of Wrath are poured out, there are no references to those faithful to God being Sealed.  It's the followers of Satan and the Beast who are Marked.  Every Futurist view but Mid-Trib desires to view the Sealed 144,000 and the Marked as existing at the same time, but no passage in Revelation discuses them at the same time.  Only 14 (which I view as part of the transition from the first half of the 70th Week to the second) mentions them in the same chapter.  But still distinctly different parts.

I proved in the second post I made on this Blog that those beheaded for not taking The Mark aren't part of The Church.