1776 A.D.: They called it the Spirit of 1776...the Spirit of Freedom. But Didn't Jesus Bring Freedom First?
*** Here's an interesting thought: There are sites that make the claim that 8 is a number that seems to relate to Jesus in many ways. They think it is Jesus' special number for those reasons. I've looked...they seem to be right about it associating with Him more than a person might anticipate.!!! You can easily search for those sites if you're curious. And Jesus IS the SON, and He RECEIVED the Holy Spirit when baptized by John the Baptist and stated that He was OF the Father and that if you had seen Him, you had seen the Father. So He held 3 forms of God within Himself in that respect, and so the number 888 might be significant (being three eights.) Well, Jesus brought freedom through unearned forgiveness for those that would accept the terms of His covenant and follow Him. And if you double the number 888 you get 1776. And the year 1776 A.D. is the year that the Jesus-Christ-based-and-founded nation (though we model it abysmally much of the time, which is not acceptable) the United States of America, declared its FREEDOM. Yes, 2 x 888 = 1776. It may mean something, or it may mean nothing. ***
One of the truly great things about being a Christian is that we have our roots in the Jewish faith and the Jews have theirs' in the Torah, the Five Books of Moses whose words were given to Moses personally by God. Those books contain one thread of the story of creation beginning way back, as far back as you can go, at the very beginning of all of time and creation. The Book of Genesis begins its narrative there, at the beginning of it all, with God (Yahweh) creating all things with and through His Son Jesus, though we are not told about Jesus' involvement there at that time in Genesis, but rather much later in the opening passages of another great book: the Gospel of John. Interlinking threads like that are everywhere throughout the Bible!
So, to be brief in this account, the Bible relates that mankind's history from Adam, the first man, to Jesus is about a 4,000 yearlong story of mankind enslaving our own selves to sinfulness and disobedience and rebellion towards our Holy Father again and again and again. Mankind's regrettable saga is one of self-imposed servitude to sin and repeated offence to our God and Maker. Much of it is described in the Torah, the rest is found in the Bible's other Old Testament books which we have through the Jews, though Jesus is not explicitly mentioned until later, in the New Testament books of the Bible, which books the Jews do not accept. The Bible is the story of humanity, a 4,000 year-long 'trail of tears' so to speak. It's the story of mankind giving its collective soul over to the enemies of God. It is sad.... truly tragic.
But at the end of all that time of failed trial a very great price was paid for our rescue. Jesus was sent to clothe himself in the flesh of a man, to be born a baby and grow up as a man child, and then later as a grown man He taught us the teachings now found in the New Covenant described in the Bible's New Testament. And then Jesus became an atoning sacrifice for our sins using His own fleshly being. And the Father in Heaven accepted this atonement. No higher price could have been paid for the atonement of sin. This was God's son, precious to Him. The other beings in Heaven - created beings - must have acknowledged its sufficiency as well.
Freedom had been purchased for the lost souls of such sinful men as were smart enough to grasp gratefully at this amazing and undeserved second chance. Accept the Christian covenant under the terms it offered, and your soul could avoid the flames and tortures of eternal damnation. You could be accepted into Heaven for eternal life. There was actual FREEDOM from sin through Jesus, though not license to commit sin!
So then, about 5800 years after Adam the Bible chronology suggests, a certain British colony, which was coming to be called America, rebelled against England. This new and unusual land wished to live in FREEDOM and wished to worship God and Jesus in FREEDOM! And so, for this dream they battled and fought, they suffered, many died, and many were maimed as is ever true in great and terrible wars, but eventually they were granted victory. The Spirit of '76 as they called it then (a spirit of being willing to risk everything to obtain true national freedom) was successful and an unusual land was birthed by Yahweh's allowance, and it seemed with His help as well.
But here's the interesting nugget: did you know that in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 3 a list of descendants from Adam to Jesus is given? Yes, it is true. Every generation, father to son to son, is listed, and at the one end of these numerous generations it names Jesus our Lord, saying that He was 'supposed' at that time by many to be the son of Joseph who was married to Mary.
According to this Luke chapter 3 genealogy if you named Adam as human number one, then Jesus was 'human' or 'Spirit' number 76. (It actually names Jesus first and works backward through time, beginning at Luke 3:23)
He was the 75th descendent of Adam, following one particular branch of humanity, with every intervening male descendant's name listed. Jesus, who was Spirit yet also flesh, Jesus who brought freedom from sin, was 'man' or 'Spirit' number 76. And Jesus brought FREEDOM! That number, '76, is associated with the Spirit of Freedom in the United States because we rebelled against what seemed like oppressing circumstances to our American ancestors and declared our freedom in the year of our Lord 1776. And we know that God guides all of human history, altering the hearts and intentions of rulers and kings as He sees fit to suit His purposes.
To possibly emphasize this point, the New Covenant of the Bible follows the Old Covenant of the Bible, and the New Covenant is all about Jesus. You can look up how many scriptural words are in the Old Testament of a Protestant Bible and divide that number by the total number of scriptural words in the whole Bible, and the Old Testament happens to represent 76% of the Bible, rounded to the nearest whole number. Then comes the New Testament, with the FREEDOM it offers through Jesus. Again, that "Spirit of '76 thing". 184,600 words in entire New Testament of King James / 783,137 words in entire 66 book Bible of the King James, according to one source, when searching 'How many words in the King James Bible', then 'How many words in the King James New Testament?', then dividing the 2nd by the first. That gives 23.57 percent or 24% rounded. So, the Old Testament rounded would be 76% of the Bible. I didn't personally count, I only searched it. And different translations, even of 66 book Bibles, have different word counts. But the first search I made turned up this surprising result! Do your own research on this, though!
The Spirit of Freedom! Jesus, the true and full Son of God, who came down to Earth and lived as a man, and taught and then died that some, repenting of their sins and choosing to be baptized and then following Jesus' teachings about how to act towards man and God, might live. So that those who choose to commit to Jesus might obtain.... FREEDOM!