Seven in the Church

The Church is full of sevens, but that doesn't mean Christians value the number seven. What Christians value is the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for mankind.

For the 'Deadly Sins', 'Heavenly Virtues', 'Contrary Virtues', 'Corporal Works of Mercy', 'Sacraments', 'Signs' and other Christian attributes mentioned below, the number of each is not important. What is important are the attributes themselves.

Other 'lucky' pages: Isn't religion simply glorified superstition?

The earliest recorded ordination in the Church of Antioch was of seven deacons, each of whom had seven subdeacons. (Acts 6:1–7).

The Christian Church adopted the Jewish practice of reciting prayers at set times of the day, called zmanim. (See Psalm 119:164). These are known as the Seven Cononical Hours:

• matins / lauds
• prime
• tierce
• sext
• nones
• vespers
• compline

Seven has been a significant part of the Church since its inception, and continues today, especially in Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Churches.

Seven Deadly Sins
(also known as the Seven Cardinal Sins)

In the 6^th century Pope Gregory the Great defined a set of seven negative attributes that must be avoided:

• Pride- leading to a conceited opinion of oneself
  (related Proverbs)
• Envy- a desire for the status, abilities or possessions of others, leading to resentment of others
  (related Proverbs)
• Gluttony- a desire to eat or consume more than is needed, thereby wasting food or drink, ergo denying sustenance to others
  (related Proverbs)
• Lust- a craving for sex, power or riches
  (related Proverbs)
• Anger- a loss of rational self-control, leading to hatred and a desire to harm others
  (related Proverbs)
• Greed- a desire for material wealth or gain
  (related Proverbs)
• Sloth- a laziness and the avoidance of work
  (related Proverbs)

Seven Heavenly Virtues

The pope instructed the best way to avoid those sins was to adopt seven positive attributes to counter the seven negative attributes. The three Theological Virtues defined by St. Paul (faith, hope and love) added to the four Cardinal Virtues (prudence, temperance, courage and justice) give us the Seven Heavenly Virtues:

• Faith- a belief in the right things
  (related Proverbs)
• Hope- taking a positive view that good will prevail
  (related Proverbs)
• Charity- love and concern for others and actively helping others
  (related Proverbs)
• Fortitude- never giving up
  (related Proverbs)
• Justice- being fair and equitable with others
  (related Proverbs)
• Prudence- care of and moderation with money
  (related Proverbs)
• Temperance- moderation of things needed and abstinence from things not needed (smoking, for example)
  (related Proverbs)

Seven Contrary Virtues

For the Seven Deadly Sins (see list above), there are Seven Contrary Virtues:

• Pride ⇒ Humility
  (related Proverbs)
• Envy ⇒ Kindness
  (related Proverbs)
• Gluttony ⇒ Abstinence
  (related Proverbs)
• Lust ⇒ Chastity
  (related Proverbs)
• Anger ⇒ Patience
  (related Proverbs)
• Greed ⇒ Liberality
  (related Proverbs)
• Sloth ⇒ Diligence
  (related Proverbs)

Seven Corporal Works of Mercy

The medieval instructions for helping others, give us the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy:

• Feed the hungry
  (related Proverbs)
• Give drink to the thirsty
  (related Proverbs)
• Give shelter to strangers
  (related Proverbs)
• Clothe the naked
  (related Proverbs)
• Visit the sick
  (related Proverbs)
• Minister to prisoners
  (related Proverbs)
• Bury the dead
  (related Proverbs)

Seven Sacraments

Originally there were seven Stations of the Cross and there are now Seven Sacraments:

• Baptism
  (related Proverbs)
• Confirmation
  (related Proverbs)
• Eucharist
  (related Proverbs)
• Penance
  (related Proverbs)
• Anointing the Sick
  (related Proverbs)
• Holy Orders
  (related Proverbs)
• Matrimony
  (related Proverbs)

Seven signs attesting the Divinity of Jesus

• Changing water into wine
  (John 2:1-11)
• Healing the official's son in Capernaum
  (John 4:46-54)
• Healing the paralytic at Bethesda
  (John 5:1-18)
• Feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes
  (John 6:5-14)
• Walking on water
  (John 6:16-24)
• Healing the man born blind
  (John 9:1-7)
• Raising of Lazarus
  (John 11:1-45)

Seven I Am's

Many times people asked Jesus who He was, and in reply, Jesus compared Himself to different things to help us understand. The Gospel of John records seven of these:

• I am the bread of life.
  He who comes to me will never be hungry (John 6:35)
• I am the light of the world.
  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness (John 8:12)
• I am the gate;
  whoever enters through me will be saved (John 10:9)
• I am the good shepherd.
  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:10)
• I am the resurrection and the life.
  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies (John 11:25)
• I am the way, the truth and the life.
  No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)
• I am the true vine
  and my Father is the gardener (John 15:1)

Other Sevens in the Bible

Seven appears in the Bible significantly more frequently than adjacent numbers.

	instances
6, 60, 6th -	199
7, 70, 7th -	320
8, 80, 8th -	117

Let's look at a few examples:

Prov. 6:17-19 lists seven things that are an abomination to God, the first being 'Pride'. Pride might be acceptable in today's society and even encouraged, but God never changes; He still hates it. Pride was, as Isa. 14:12-15 tells us, the reason Lucifer fell from grace.

God hates not only these seven sins; God hates all sin.

The Menorah was used with the tabernacle and its seven-branch design was dictated by God to Moses (Exod. 25:31-40). There are lots of sevens in the story of the Fall of Jericho (Josh. 6) and seven is particularly popular in these chapters of the final book of the Bible.

In Revelation we read of seven:

	Chapter(s)		Chapter(s)
angels	8 10 11 15 16 17 21	mountains	17
beasts	17	plagues	15 21
candlesticks	1 2	sardius	21
churches	1	seals	5 8
crowns	12	spirits	1 3 4 5
eyes	5	stars	1 2 3
horns	5	thousands	11
heads	12 13 17	thunders	10
kings	17	trumpets	8
lamps	4	vials	15 15 21

In Lev. 25:3-4 we read that fields should lie fallow on the seventh year. And of course, the seventh day is an important day in the Bible. Exod. 20:8-11 says:

Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

The seventh day is the Sabbath and the premise is given in Gen. 2:1-3. In total the seventh day is mentioned 50 times, including: Exod. 16, 31, 35, Isa. 58, Mark 2, Luke 4, Acts 13, 17, 18, & Num. 15.

As with all the points mentioned above, there's nothing magical about seven in the Bible – it's common sense to speak in familiar terms to the reader. In particular, the human attachment to number seven (seven days in the week, seven colours in he rainbow, etc) as explained here.

If there were eight days in the week, then the eighth would be the day of rest. The important point is not seven, or eight, or any other number – the point is that we should observe some time for God. We should keep a regular time in our lives to reflect, worship, or whatever our religion requires to prevent us from becoming self-centred.