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"If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." II Chronicles 7:13-14
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By Charles J. Voss
Have you ever wondered what year of the world the year 2000 really was?
In our considerations the year 2000 was the Third Year of UHC?
Maybe it was the Gregorian Year of 2000/2001?
Perhaps it was the Jewish Year 5760/5761?
Or was it the Year of the World 6000?
Keep reading to find the answer.
It has been postulated that the CREATOR's Master Plan in this stage for mankind will last for a duration of 7,000 years. Some scholars believe that the seven literal days of the Creation Week were a millennia type and that they set the pattern for the 7,000 year duration.
To understand the time setting for The Wonderful World of Tomorrow there are things that we must understand about the new millennium--the 21st Century. Technically, the new millennium did not begin until midnight December 31, 2000 with the arrival of the year 2001. For all practical purposes the powerful symbolic value of the round number 2000 has won the day as the beginning of the new millennium. 1 Few of us realize however that our concept of marking time in 1,000-year segments is rooted in Scripture.
We must go back to the Psalms to find the germ of the idea of dividing time into eras or periods of one thousand years. This notion was picked up and made central by early "Christians" who gave it an apocalyptic cast in the New Testament. Revelation's thousand-year period is allegedly the final one thousand years culminating in the resurrection of the dead and the last great Judgment. 2
Dividing time into thousand-year segments occurs in Psalms where the sweet psalmist of Israel stated:
Psalm 90:4. For a thousand years in our SOVEREIGN’s sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.
There seems to be an analogy between:
The first six days of the first week symbolizes the physical creation. The seventh day of that first week began the spiritual creation that is still going on. In addition, on that day the CREATOR created His Sabbath Day of rest thus setting it apart for spiritual use. Also on that day the CREATOR instructed the first man and woman in His spiritual truth. On that day He taught His Way to them explaining His wonderful gift of eternal life and offering it to them freely; it was symbolized by the "tree of life" in the Garden of Eden. He also explained that the rebellion against His Way would end in death--which is physical death.
Various ancient Jewish and “Christian” sources have suggested that the Book of Genesis anticipates later divisions of time into millennia. They see an analogy between:
The six days of Creation (Genesis 1:1-31) which are followed by the final seventh day, the Sabbath, upon which ETERNAL rested from His work (Genesis 2:1-3).
The periods of human history that would last precisely 6,000 years followed by a final seventh “day,” or millennium-- the final 1,000 years. The final 1,000 years like the Sabbath day would be characterized by peace and rest and would be realized in the Davidic Kingdom. The Sabbath has come to mean relief from the toil and domination of Satan’s evil grasp upon this planet. The word "millenarianism" refers generally to any utopian view of a transformed New Age, but more specifically to a “millennial” reign of the Mashiach (Messiah). In particular it refers to 1000 year Davidic Kingdom reign culminating in The Second General Awakening of the dead into ETERNAL’s Wonderful World of Tomorrow.
The notion that our CREATOR created the physical world in six days and rested on the Sabbath and that He would create a New World of spiritual perfection over a 7,000-year period, has become commonplace in nearly all churches. In this world of apocalyptic symbolism, six is the number of humankind operating without ETERNAL. Seven symbolizes the perfection or completion that the Kingdom of ETERNAL will bring about a Sabbath rest.
In Jewish and “Christian” apocalyptic circles, the idea that 6,000 years of human history would unfold according to an overall plan in an ordered sequence orchestrated by the will of The Mighty One was or is? compelling. However, it also offered a second, far more alluring possibility--that of approximating when the end of the age as we know it would occur. Knowing this would give us an approximation of when the Wonderful World of Tomorrow might be established.
After all, if one could determine precisely where one lived in this unfolding sequence of millennia, the idea of the time of the End of the Age drawing near would become much more real to us. In addition, that brings us back to the year 1999. The millennium now ending--the 2nd millennium as dated from the birth of the man from Galilee--is the 6th millennium based on the literal chronology of the Hebrew Scriptures. We will do the numbers together: 4
From Adam to Noah's Flood = |
1,656 years |
From the Flood to the birth of Abraham= |
+ 454 years |
From Abraham to the Exodus = |
+ 430 years |
From the Exodus to Jerusalem's First Temple = |
+ 480 years |
From the First Temple to the Israelite Exile = |
+ 393 years |
From the Exile to rebuilt Temple under Persians = |
+ 72 years |
Total = |
3,485 years |
"The year 3,485 BCE takes us to the time of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah and the completion of the rebuilt Temple by Jews returning from the Exile in 516-515 BCE, the sixth year of the reign of the Persian King Darius (Ezra 6:15). That works out to be just about 2,515 years ago. Add the numbers together--2,515 years taking us back to the time of Darius and another 3,485 years taking us back to Adam--You guessed it. We were then sitting on the cusp 5 of the 5,999th year of world history, based on a literal reading of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now that we are approximately eight years past the 2000/6000 year marker in the days of man, thus we are no doubt walking on borrowed time.
"However if you are familiar with the traditional Jewish calendar you will immediately spot a problem. According to their calendar 1999 is the year 5760 since Adam and Eve rather than 5999. So how can we account for the 240-year difference? The answer is that the traditional Jewish calendar, based on the rabbinic text called Seder Olam, is rooted in rabbinic tradition and theology, not on literal numbers taken directly from the Hebrew Scriptures. The rabbinic chronology results in 163 fewer years and dates the Babylonian Exile to 423 BCE. 6 This is impossible according to modern scholarship; we know with certainty that the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar when he destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple and exiled the Jews, was either 587 or 586 BCE. The rabbis also count Israel's time in Egypt based on Exodus 12:40 differently from what I [Dr. Tabor] have done above, accounting for an additional difference of 77 years between the rabbinic and ‘Christian’ systems--giving us a discrepancy of 240 years. 7 "
In any case, most people do not believe that the world began only 6,000 years ago. They believe that Homo Sapiens existed many hundreds of thousands of years ago. A mere 6,000 years is a blink of an eye against human and planetary evolution. However, there are millions of creationists who do take these numbers as absolutes and who believe that the first human beings with a human soul can be traced back to a literal Adam and Eve around 4000 BCE. But beyond that, there are many conservative Bible believers who fully accept the evolutionary timetable of millions of years for the development of life on this planet (interpreting the days of Creation in Genesis 1 as ages) but nonetheless see civilization (literate humans in Egypt, Sumer and China) as dating only to approximately 4000 BCE. Thus, those who see the chronology in the Scriptures as a metaphor for scientific chronology can still maintain that human history has about run its course.
What is particularly intriguing about the general chronological scheme of 6,000 years (our year 2000 equals 6000 years after Adam) is that it does not have the slightest relationship to the birth of a man from Galilee. All the numbers are taken from the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet, there is a fascinating correlation between the Hebrew and the “Christian” Calendars. In and of itself, passing the 2,000th year mark since the supposed birth of J-sus appears to have no significance in the Hebrew Scriptures or even in the New Testament. There are no passages in the New Testament that specifically state that the present age is to last 2,000 years.
Joshua 24:15 (TLB). However, if you are unwilling to obey ETERNAL, then decide today whom you will obey. Will it be the “gods” of your ancestors beyond the Euphrates or the “gods” of the Amorites here in this land? But as for me and my family, we will serve the SOVEREIGN.”
So the CREATOR allotted the first six thousand years for physical man to live his own way (deceived and swayed by Lucifer) to prove by 6,000 years of suffering mountainous evils that only His Way can bring desired blessings. Those 6,000 years we can call "The Day of Man.”
So in other words the CREATOR allotted the first 6,000 years to allow Lucifer to labor at her work of deceiving mankind as a test to determine who would love the SOVEREIGN with all their heart, mind, soul, and being. Those who have done that will be in the 1000 Years or Seventh Day. Put another way, the CREATOR SOVEREIGN marked out six millennial days to allow man to indulge in the spiritual labor of sin followed by a millennium of spiritual rest under the enforced Government of the CREATOR Himself.
The Observational, Scriptural, Hebrew Calendar has Abib 1 as beginning at sunset on April 18, 2000 on the Gregorian Calendar. This first day of Abib, in the year 2000, began the third year of United Hebrew Congregations but in the larger scope of things it began the 6000th year of the world from Adam.
What is the significance of this new knowledge? When in the scope of world history does the Time of Jacob's Trouble (Tribulation) begin and end? Who but ETERNAL, knows what He has planned and when He has it planned to happen.
But, there will come a time that there will be a voice behind you saying, “Don’t turn to the left or to the right” and in that day a little child will lead a lion and lamb together (Isaiah 11). That time is The Wonderful World of Tomorrow and oh how great a blessing that Day will be. See you there.
1. This article was adapted from an article by Dr. James Tabor
2. According to Catholic/Protestant theology.
3. See our article "New Proof of the Messiah."
4. "Although there are a number of ambiguities in the chronological system that runs through the Masoretic text, these numbers are generally quite easy to come up with from a literal reading of Genesis 5:11,25; Exodus 12:40; 1 Kings 6:1; the Exile and Return as described in 2 Kings 25 and Ezra; and passages chronicling the reigns of the kings of Judah. However, the writings of Josephus and of the Septuagint give very different numbers throughout." Dr. Tabor's note.
5. Dr. Tabor wrote his original article in late 1999 CE just before the beginning of the 5999th year of the world that began after midnight on December 31, 2000. Remember that technically, the new millennium did not begin until midnight December 31, 2000 with the arrival of the year 2001.
6. "There is a theological reason the rabbis collapse their history and lose 163 years during the Persian period. They insist that there were only 490 years between the fall of the First and Second Temples based on how they interpreted the "70 weeks" prophecy of Daniel 9:25-27; a period they maintain ended with the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE and not with the coming of 'J-sus' as Messiah, as 'Christians' were interpreting it." Dr. Tabor's note.
7."It is worth noting that some mystical Jewish sources still find significance in this 20th century of the ‘Christian’ era although they accept the year of the world as 5760 based on the standard Jewish calendar. The Zohar predicts that "in the year 600 of the sixth millennia [5600 on the Jewish calendar, or the year 1840] the gates of wisdom from above and below will be opened to [begin] to rectify the world to prepare it to enter into the seventh millennium" (1.117A).
"This analogy, comparing a thousand years to a day means that 1999 still 240 years from the seventh millennium on the Jewish calendar is just "hours" before the arrival of the cosmic seventh millennium or Sabbath. Just as pious Jews prepare for the Sabbath each week several hours before sundown, the events of the late 20th century (especially the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the Six Day War in 1967) are seen as just such a Sabbath preparation--the "footsteps of the Messiah," as it were.
"By such a cosmic measure, 1999 would be equivalent to the Friday afternoon of human history, about five hours before sunset! Ironically, one mystical rabbi of the 15th century, Abraham Azulai, actually ascribed significance to the precise year 5760 (1999 CE!). He reasoned that the measure of the world is the same as the measure of the mikveh (ritual bath), 40 seah. A seah is 144 eggs (these are Talmudic measurements of volume), and 40 times 144 equals 5760. Writes Azulai: "Thus the length of days of this world shall be 5760 years. Then, shall the world be renewed. For as the mikveh purifies the unclean, at this time, the Set-apart One, Blessed Be He, will remove the unclean spirit from the world …but this is only the beginning of the redemption." Dr. Tabor's note.