Is there a 7000 year plan to prophecy? Home

    Quite a number of prophecy teachers say that world history must fit into a seven millennium time frame. The 7th millennium therefore would fall from year 6001 of creation to year 7000 of creation. At lest one millennium of world history is reserved for the reign of Messiah. At the beginning of these thousand years Messiah will return to reign over the earth. Since Messiah has not yet returned there is at least one millennium of time left according to a Scriptural chronology. Therefore, the world cannot be older than 6000 years according to these teachers.
    Two questions face us in testing this teaching. First is the world still less than 6000 years old? Second, is the 7000 year interpretation certain doctrine and fact, or is it just a speculative interpretation based on someone's unproved assumptions? I would like to address the issue of the age of the world according to Scripture without making it too complicated here. Then I will talk about the nature of the 7000 year interpretation. On the question of the Scriptural age of the world, we need not be concerned with a year here or a year there if the result is either under 6000 years or over it by a significant margin. I will not need to explain all of biblical chronology to do this. Only a few points of controversy need to be investigated. Historical points are not controverted because there is no solution or answer to those questions. They are controverted because disputers are either ignorant of the facts bearing on those points, or they believe a religious tradition about the point that they cannot give up.
    Since only a few points of history are controverted by those holding that Scripture is true and literally means what it says, we may overlook those vast stretches of chronology over which there is no dispute affecting this issue. This will make the explanation somewhat easier, though I will necessarily have to summarize the less important points as they relate to the possibility of a 7000 year plan. A a comprehensive treatment will be found here.
    The sticking points are these:

    1. Was Abraham born when Terah was 70 or was he born when Terah was 130. This disupte involves a 60 year difference in the total number of years.

    2. Were there 614 years between the Exodus and the 4th year of Solomon or only 480. The difference here is 134 years.

    3. Were there 390 years from when Jeroboam introduced the sin of idolatry to the northern kingdom till the vision in Ezekiel 4, or something less than that?

    4. Do historians correctly know the dates that Babylonian and Persian kings ruled, so that when the Scripture uses Babylonian and Persian dates we know when it was?

    The Scripture says that Terah lived to be 205 years old (Gen. 11:32). Also it says that Abraham left Haran "after his father died" (Acts 7:4) at the age of 75 (Gen. 12:4). Josephus confirms Terah's age at 205, and Philo further confirms "after his father died he then departed...." (Migration, 177). So 205-75=130. Abraham was born when Terah was 130. Why then does Gen. 11:26 say "And Terah lived 70 years, then he begat Avram, Nahor, and Haran"? What this means is that Terah lived 70 years to the birth of his firstborn, which was evidently not Avram. Avram is only listed first because he is regarded as the most important to subsequent history. The precedent for this manner of speaking was set when the Scripture says Noah lived 500 years and then he begat Shem, Ham, and Yafet. We learn later that Shem was 100 years old two years after the Flood. The Flood took place in Noah's 600th year. Therefore Shem was not the firstborn, and Shem was not born when Noah was 500. So by the Scripture's own method, Avram need not be born when Terah is 70. So there is no contradiction with Acts 7:4 and Gen. 12:4. Avram left Haran "after his father died" at the age of 205, when Avram was 75. Conclusion. Unless one is willing to reject the authority of either Acts 7:4, Gen 12:4, or Gen. 11:32, Abram was born when Terah was 130. Those who reject these texts invariably have to become textual critics.
    Retaining the 60 years brings the date of the Exodus down to the year 2508 of the world. The Rabbinic chronology has a figure 60 years lower: 2448.
    Now I turn to the time from the Exodus to the 4th year of Solomon. The figures are as follows.

   

Wanderings	40 years
Settlement till Jair	300 years	Judges 11:26
Jair to Samuel	171 years	Details 1 Details 2 Details 3 Details 4
Samuel	19	Computed
Saul	40	Acts 13:21
David	40	1Chron 29:27
Solomon	4	1Kings 6:1

    The sum here is 614 years. Chronologers have either chosen 480 years, or they have chosen 614 years of some similar figure. No matter what you do, however, it is impossible to reduce the figures in the text down to 480. What then do the 480 years represent? These are 480 years when Israel was able to celebrate the memorial of the Exodus when they were not being oppressed by other nations.  And sure enough, if you add up the time they were oppressed by other nations the figure is 134 years, so that 614- 134 = 480.  1Kings 6:1 says "In the 480th year of the Exodus...," which is to say it was the 480th celebration of the Exodus at the annual feast in the 4th year of Solomon.
    Recall that the first mistake was made by blindly assuming that Abraham was born when Terah was 70, even though the text only says Terah lived 70 years and then begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Using Scripture to interpret Scripture, we found out that Abram was born when Terah was 130. The second mistake is made by blindly assuming that the "480th year of the Exodus" is counting every year. If it said "there were 480 years from the Exodus...." then it would have to be only 480 years, but it does not say that. It says "In the 480th year of the Exodus....", or it may be translated, "In the 480th year FOR the Exodus" (לצאת). When Israel was in national rebellion then even if some celebrated the Exodus, it was not reckoned as a national celebration because the nations leaders were rebelling against Yahweh.  In the other 134 years Israel was not coming out of "Egypt" spiritually. Rather they were returning to Egypt.
    The matter is further confirmed by the injudicious manner in which those who want the years to be only 480 try to solve the problem of there being too many years. I summarize Floyd Nolen Jones:


    But this explanation contradicts the Scripture. It says, "So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years" (Judges 3:29). The Hebrew word explicitly means "be quiet" "undisturbed." Since oppression and war is certainly a disturbance to be contrasted with rest an inclusion of the 18 years of oppression within the 80 years of rest is impossible. This only allows Jones to reduce the 614 number by 18. He has to perform similar "interpretations" to overlap enough years to reduce the number to 480.
    That the total years were more than 480 has long been recognized by chronologers as far back as Josephus who puts the figure at 592 years which is but 22 years short of the actual 614 (because he omitted the 2nd Philistine oppression; See here.)
    The next sticking point is the 390 years of Ezekiel 4. These are the number of years of the sin of Israel. If one accounts for all the years between the time Jeroboam divided the kingdom and introduced idolatry to Israel until the date of Ezekiel's prophecy for the 390 years, one finds that the sum of years is 390! The long number is given in Scripture to certify those who correctly compute all the reigns down to the date of the prophecy. And it can be shown specifically where those who fall short have errored provided they provide all their figures in charts.
    So I have stated that the Exodus was in Anno 2508.  The 614 years brings the total years to the building of the temple to 3121. Add 36 years for the remainder of Solomon's reign, such that the total is 3157.  Another 390 years brings us forward to Anno 3547.
    We now come to the last sticking point. Are the Babylonian dates given in the Scripture accurately known? Or to ask another question, why would the Scripture use Babylonian dates if they could not be accurately known? The conquest of Jerusalem is put in the 7th year of Nebuchadnezzar, which according to historians corresponds to 597 BC.  This begins the exile of king Jehoiachin.  Ezekiel dates his vision in the 5th year of his exile, i.e. 593 BC.  So Anno 3547 = 593 BC.  Now from 592 BC to the present year AD 2013 is 592 + 2013 = 2605 years. Add this to the year of the world current in 593:  3547 + 2606 = 6152. Therefore, the current year of the world is 6152.
    Let us go back to the first point. 60 years are omitted because no attention is paid to Acts 7:4 and the fact that Shem's birth suggests we consider another interpretation for Gen. 11:26.  At the second we must pay attention to the texts which say the land had rest for so many years. Those who shorten the chronology ignore this. They also ignore that 1Kings 6:1 says the 480th year, and not 480 years, and that there is no way to reduce the Judges figures to 480. They end up short 134 years. The third point where chronologers try to shorten the years is during the 390 years. Usually they are short 22 to 52 years here. In every case so far, the short chronology is simply ignoring the Scripture.
    By the mere fact of using Babylonian dates, the Scripture is certifying that such dates can be accurately known. And anyone who studies the abundance of astronomical texts from ancient Babylonian knows this to be the case. The positions of the sun, moon, stars, and planets recorded therein, as well as lunar eclipses are shown by modern astronomical calculation to correspond to only one set of BC dates. And these records are themselves dated in terms of the reigns of Babylonian and Persian kings just like in the Scripture.
    The oppositon will cry conspiracy, and say that either the astronomical calculations are wrong or the historians are lying, or the archaeology is misinterpreted. And here I don't just mean those who promote the 7000 year theory of time. I mean everyone who finds fault with the apparent Babylonians dates. Now I ask, if they throw out all of this evidence, then with what will they replace it? For the Scripture dates things with Babylonian and Persian dates. Are they not simply throwing out the foundation of those dates? The fact is there is no conspiracy except the conspiracy of their theological and prophetical speculations which they put at the center of their world view. With these presuppositions then, they proceed to reject anything that does not agree with it. In the end, it is purely circular reasoning. Another way they try to reason is to engage in name calling. "Those dates are Babylonian...they were idolators." Well the Babylonians sighted their new moons just like ancient Israel. Does that mean the dates the Babylonians picked for the new moon are idolatry? Such reasoning is idiotic, but all too often such reasoning is expressed in Pharisaical religious zeal with the intent to control, subdue, cow, or intimiade the opposition. Really, we must wake up to the fact that truth is thrown under the bus by religous people pretending to carry our own flag just as much as when the enemy is clearly identified.
    So now let us look at the 7000 year interpretation. Are there any Scripture passages which straight out say that history will last 7000 years. Absolutely not. However, the word "day" in Scripture, in some contexts, may mean 1000 years. Adam was told in the day he ate the forbidden fruit that he would die. Sure enough he died at 930 before reaching age 1000. The Millennial reign of Messiah is spoken of as the "day of Yahweh," so here again we have a sense of "day" for 1000 years.  In Hosea 6:1-3, it says "after two days he will revive us," which might suggest that after 2000 years Israel will be restored.  But where does this 2000 years start. Perhaps it starts with the crucifixion. We really won't know until it happens that way.
    Another passage says "a day with Yahweh is as a 1000 years."  A "day" in Hebrew already can be a 1000 years. So what does this passage mean.  As it is applied to the Second Coming, I suppose it might mean that it will happen after 2000 years, but before the expiration of 3000 years from his resurrection. But does this mean the principle should be applied to creation week to arrive at a 7000 year timetable? Well to say the least creation week does not have the eschatological context of Hosea 6:1-3, and just like saying this passage means Messiah will return after 2000 years has an element of speculation, so also the other theory was speculative from the start. Only in the case of the 7000 year theory, the passage of time, and the chronology of Scripture have disproved it. We are now in the year 6152.
    Meanwhile, speculators attempt to cram biblical history into a symmetrical straightjacket of whatever mathematics they think is elegant. It is kind of like Kepler trying to create the Mysterium Cosmographicum.  It is like the Greeks who wanted to see mathematical symmetry even where reality contradicted it.
    A large part of the problem is the idea that Yahweh has somehow arranged all of history on some kind of precise timetable. I'm sure he has a timetable, but it is not an exact deterministic one. That such a timetable exists is derived from the philosophy of fatalism, or to put it in religious terms Calvinistic predestination. When the Scripture says "Concerning that day or hour no one knows, not even the messengers of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (Matthew 24:36) it means that the Almighty has general parameters of time which we do not know, and whose precise outcome is contingient on the responsiveness or non-responsiveness of people to his appeals to them to repent. In otherwords, the Almighty One knows both how short the time can be and how long it can be. Between the two, the matter is not determined until humans make choices either prolonging the time or hastening it.
    We already know that the word "day" in Hebrew is a general word for "time" as in "Day of Yahweh"; What few know is that the Greek word "hour" is used in precisely the same way to mean an undefined period of "time." 1John 2:18 says "It is the last hour...";  What he means is that it is the "last time", or "end time", which on the grand scale of prophecy was true then, since it was after the first coming of Messiah. This last segment of history will culminate in the coming of the Anti-Messiah.  Now note that Yeshua did not say "Concerning an exactly set time for him to come no one knows but the Father....."; Messiah did not define the nature of the "time" that is only known by the Father. I believe, just as I have said that the Father has parameters contingient on the human response to his gracious overtures.
    I should mention I do believe that the Messiah will come on the Day of Atonement, however this is still undefined, because I don't know which Day of Atonement, and further, I think that it is possible for even the Almighty to have a series of such days in mind, but not yet to have actually chosen which one it will be.  Those who say that Yeshua meant the day or hour is unknown because the new moon day will be unknown are still stuck in English thought patterns (call it Greek if you like), however, it is neither Greek thought or Hebrew.
    So the bottom line is that there is no 7000 year plan of history. The year is 6152. Messiah did not return 152 years ago.
    Every year that goes by someone's speculative theory is blown up. I don't oppose speculation so long as it is called such, hypothetical, or an educated guess. The problem is that teachers are presenting their theories as fact and as doctrine. Then they get a cult following until their theory is blown up by the passage of time. What I say is that they want to call it a fact to imply that they know something about the future that others don't when they really know nothing at all. It is human nature to trust people who say they know the answer.  It is also human nature to say one knows the answer when they don't just to get people to listen. Yahweh knows that I have labeled my end time speculations as "an educated guess," and I can say one thing. My educated guess has always been better than what they think they know.
    There was a certain ministry that predicted the end on March 2013. There are others predicting 2014, 2016, etc. I think we need to get away from emphasis on the predictions whether they are labeled speculative or not, and get on to teaching the necessity of faithfulness to Messiah, the foundation of which is the death and resurrection of Messiah.
   
   Return to torahtimes.