the number 7 in christianity?

Question

i'm completely ignorant to the details of any religion, so don't be hard on me.

in thin lizzy's song "dear lord", phil lynott says:

if you give your soul to heaven
and your soul begins to bleed
remember all the sevens
don't turn up when you need

is he talking about the seven deadly sins? i don't understand this

and prince has a song called "7" he says:

and we will see a plague and a river of blood
and every evil soul will surely die in spite of
their 7 tears, but do not fear
4 in the distance, 12 souls from now
you and me will still be here - we will still be here

and throughout the song he says "one day all 7 will die" in the chrous.

are both of these songs talking about the same thing? what do they mean? any help'd be cool, thank you.

Answer 1

Seven is the Biblical number of perfection or completeness. It sounds like the reference in the song you cite is referring to number seven in its relevance to dice - an automatic win.

Answer 2

The number 7 has always been considered sacred by ancient peoples because there are seven heavenly bodies visible to the naked eye that traverse through the sky. The Gods were associated each with a different body.

The days of the week are named after them (with some in the English language's Germanic roots and the Germanic Versions of the Roman Gods):

Sunday - the sun
Monday - the moon
Tuesday - Mars (Tyr's day)
Wednesday - Mercury (Wod'n's day)
Thursday - Jupiter (Thor's day)
Friday - Venus (Frige's day)
Saturday - Saturn

Christians just picked up the Pagan idea and incorporated it into their cosmogony.

Answer 3

Neither of them are talking about Biblical issues or concepts, it's something out of their imaginations.

The number "7" does come from parts of the Bible, such as God creating the universe in 6 days and testing on the 7th day, there being seven spirits of God, Jesus in Revelation holding 7 stars in His hand representing 7 churches in Asia, etc.

Does this help?

Answer 4

The first song is referring to gambling and dice.

Who knows what Prince is talking about...