SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS OF ‘MAN’S’ HISTORY
"With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 2Peter 3:8.
As we look forward, ‘trying to understand the end of this age and the ages to come,’ this Chapter will consider an overview of God’s purpose for Mankind as regards approximate time-scales, purposely ignoring detail. This will enable the reader to have a summary of what previous Chapters have stated, and to more easily understand what the following Chapters are going to consider. The following Chapters will hopefully provide understandings which will be useful, and may prove crucial, as we each find ourselves involved in the very working out of these future plans and purposes of our heavenly Father.
Just as there were seven days in which God created heaven and earth, we can see another ‘seven days’ during which the purpose of God for Mankind will unfold.
The Bible provides the genealogical information to show that from Adam to Christ there was about 4000 years, or four days of one thousand years each, corresponding to the first four days of Creation, of which we read in the book of Genesis.
From the time of Jesus walk upon the earth to the present is another two thousand years, or two more days of one thousand years. It would seem that Jesus’ ‘soon return’ is shortly to usher in His Millennial reign on earth, which will be the seventh day of one thousand years.
Accuracy regarding exact dates is not possible for many reasons. For example, calendar changes have occurred and the present use of the Gregorian Calendar, or Astronomical year of 365¼ days, replacing the Julian Calendar, was adopted only relatively recently, in 1582, when 11 days were lost from the year.
We can see a confirmation of this suggested time-scale in the prophecy regarding Israel, spoken by Hosea. As Israel’s time of having been ‘cut off’ from the olive tree is nearing completion, we read how Hosea declared to Israel, "Come let us return to the Lord for He has torn us, but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we might live before Him." (Hos.6:1&2). We can see a fulfilment of this prophecy in the death and resurrection of the Lord, but in the context of this Scripture we see that it refers to Israel herself. The house of Israel (Note 10 : The nation of Israel split into a northern and southern kingdom. The northern kingdom, itself called Israel, comprising of ten tribes, were all deported in 721BC when Assyria captured Samaria, their capital city. Largely they have not been heard of again. Many wonder where these ten lost tribes of Israel are at this present time. In 597BC Jehoiachin, king of the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the southern kingdom called Judah, surrendered Jerusalem to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and they were taken into exile to Babylon. This initial exile of Judah only lasted 70 years, however. The ‘Jews’ returned to rebuild the Temple but they were exiled once more, in AD70, when Titus and the Roman armies again besieged Jerusalem, taking them captive into the nations where they have been scattered for nearly two thousand years. They have begun to return once more, however, but this is still only in part.), having been cut off from the olive tree for the past two thousand years, will shortly be grafted back in again after the Lord returns to reign as King of Israel and all the earth, from Jerusalem.
As the sixth ‘day’ of one thousand years is drawing to an end, and the ‘seventh’ is shortly to begin, there is great confusion as regards the make up of the last seven years of this present age. Indeed, most of the controversy regarding what lies ahead is in regard to the last seven years of this age.
This book upholds the view that this last seven years is concurrent with the ‘seventieth week’ which concludes the seventy weeks which the angel Gabriel spoke of to Daniel, which have "been decreed for your people [Israel]..." (Dan.9:24). This ‘seventieth week’ is not, as most assume, the same as the ‘week’ of a "firm covenant" which will be made "with many for one week," of which Gabriel also spoke, (Dan.9:27). This important ‘understanding’ will be dealt with in detail in a further Chapter.
The Chapter that follows will discuss how the last week of this age is divided into two parts, both of equal length of 3½ years. The first half of this last week is described in Scripture as being the time of ‘great tribulation’, whilst the second half describes the time when the ‘wrath of God and the Lamb’ are poured out on the earth. The tribulation of the first half of this last week is caused by Satan having ‘great wrath’, whilst the second half of the last week is when God’s wrath is to be poured out to prepare the earth for the millennial reign of Christ which is to follow.
The ‘day of the Lord’ is a day of a thousand years, but it will commence with the 3½ year period of God’s wrath being poured forth, which itself is sometimes referred to as the "day of the Lord." These two halves of the last week need to be rightly divided if we are to understand what lies ahead.
Diagram showing 7000 years of ‘Man
"With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2Pet.3:8). (Note 11: James Reid’s book, ‘God, the Atom, and the Universe’ explains that time slows as speed increases. If, travelling at the speed of light and beaming TV cameras on earth, 4 days would be squeezed into 1 second of the observer’s time. In one day of the observer’s time, a thousand years would go by on earth. God is Light!)
Diagram showing Last Week of this Age
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