The Redemptive 6, 7 and 8 Spiritual Cycle and Acts 8: 32-33
"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
In Acts 8: 32-38 Philip was called by God to go help a a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians in a chariot who was trying to understand Isaiah 53: 7-8.
"And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31. And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 36. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him."
When the man of Ethiopia was reading Isaiah 53: 7-8 he did not understand it because he was then in the spiritual state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14, who cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. He was in a spiritual state in which that which is spiritual cannot be understood. In the metaphor of Revelation 17: 10-11 the man of Ethiopia was in the sixth spiritual condition.
But when Philip, who had the Holy Spirit, opened Isaiah 53: 7-8 to him, he was transformed spiritually and moved into the seventh spiritual state, the Rest of God (Hebrews 4: 9), or the saved state, and in this state he was able to understand Isaiah 53:7-8, that Christ was stricken for the transgressions of his people, which was to include anyone who believed.
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken."
“Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” (Acts 8:5).
But if the man of Ethiopia had met a Pharisee from the the Sanhedrin, which arranged the death of Jesus who told the Ethiopian man that Isaiah 53: 7-8 refers to the Jewish people in a collective sense, and their various historical sufferings the Ethiopian man would never have been transformed from the sixth spiritual state to the seventh state of salvation. The Pharisee did not have the Holy Spirit and was also in the spiritual condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14.
Simon the Sorcerer might have climbed up in the chariot with the Ethiopian man to explain Isaiah 53: 7-8 to him. The sorcerer, who tried to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter and John, might have even mentioned Jesus, but his version of Jesus would not have been presented with the same authoritative certainty as Philip and likely the sorcerer would have added some false doctrines to his explanation of Isaiah 53.
Any false doctrine substituted for the Truth of the Gospel of Christ operates as an αντιθεσεις, anti-thesis, to the truth of God. An anti-thesis is an opposition to the thesis, the Truth from God. See the Greek in I Timothy 6: 20, εκτρεπομενος τας βεβηλους κενοφωνιας και αντιθεσεις της ψευδωνυμου γνωσεως,. "avoiding the profane and empty babblings and ant-thesis of falsely called knowledge."
When the absolute Truth of God is in part replaced by false doctrines, then man's own addition or "improvement" on his being in God's seventh spiritual state of rest will be corrupted and in his "eighth" spiritual state man goes into destruction.
In John Chapter 8 the Pharisees were making a dialectical type of argument against the absolute Truth of Christ who was there with them. The Pharisees were in the Sixth Spiritual state of fallen man and arguing with Christ from that state.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 34. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37. I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father..........."
"Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God."
"Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8: 43-44
Christ told the Pharisees that they could not hear his words because they were of Satan their Father. They were not in a spiritual condition to understand him..
The Pharisees could not hear Christ who was implying that they, the leaders of Talmudic Judaism and of the Old Covenant at that time, were no longer the chosen people.
The Pharisees in John 8 kept asserting to Christ himself that they were still the seed of Abraham, meaning the physical bloodline of the chosen people must still be in full effect. As the Truth of Christ's redemption of Israel and of opening up a pathway through himself to salvation emerged, the path of salvation moved through Christ himself only as the Saviour of Israel and as Savior of all people born again ion him.