For anyone who loves Scriptural study of the future, we know that it forbids making a prophecy about an exact date of the Lord’s return. But how about signs to know it’s close? There is a large group of believers who think that His return has no signs to warn us at all--it is "imminent," they say; ie, it could happen at any time without any sign. If you have read my blogs on the Last Days, you know that I discount this theory, believing that while we don’t know the exact date of His return, God will send us signs that the last day is not far away. This proposition is based on a quote from Jesus in Matthew 24:30-33:
“Then… they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!
The fig tree metaphor tells us that harvesting is near—the branches get tender, and the leaves sprout. In like manner, we can expect signs for mankind’s harvest; we can KNOW that “it,” referring back to the Parousia, the coming of Jesus for harvesting His own (the “elect”), is NEAR.
I have a theory about calculating an estimated date of His return. Please do not assume that the calculations in it is accurate, but it’s pretty accurate. It probably has flaws. This “close, but not perfect” result is just as God would intend. He wants us to be as accurate as the fig tree. There are signs to excite us, but not the exact date —that would encourage complacency. This theory I will present does have a momentous and surprising conclusion.
Before I get into it, I have to give credit to Michael Pedrin, a pastor in India from the Seventh Day Adventist Church (I’m not of that persuasion, but I’ll take any great idea from anybody, if it’s realistically based). I made some changes on his base.
By way of introduction, the Word tells us that immediately after Jesus comes for His own, we get to spend a thousand years of freedom from Satan’s attacks, because he is bound for that time (Rev. 20:1-3). There, we will rest, finally, from the ravages of sin all around us and from our own nature. This millennium of one thousand years will be a “great Sabbath of rest” from the ravages of sin. Thee is a key in the word "sabbath." What precedes it? Six days of creation.
The theory’s critical proposition is this: the 1000 years of rest is preceded by six thousand years of man on earth.
The key to this theory is simple: it’s in the 6+1=7 equation. Seven is God’s number of completeness and rest. You begin a cycle with six, the number of days you work, followed by one day of rest. Then the cycle is complete. Creation was like that: God didn’t have to take six days to create—He could have done it in a second. Nor was He tired, and needed a day of rest. He did it as an example for us to follow. He focused on the 6+1 again by instructing His people on how to till the ground. You plant and harvest for six years. The seventh, you let the ground rest. Leviticus 25:3-4:
Six years you shall sow your field…and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
Jesus has some interesting words on this subject in Matthew 13:38-39:
The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
He purposely ties in the cycle of earthly harvest with the cycle of heavenly harvest. Jesus makes a comparison of land’s harvest, which we just saw to be 6+1, to OUR harvest. There is good reason to believe that man likely is also on a 6+1 rapture scale. If the heavenly harvest is followed by a millennium of rest, why not believe that six millennia of man working on earth precedes it?
The Apostle Peter gives us some tantalizing verses on this too. In II Peter 3, he is telling us that there will be many unbelievers scoffing about Jesus’ return. Then, in verses 8 and 9, he counsels us to be patient. Then it seems that he is laying on us an insider hint. II Peter 3:3-4, 8-10a:
….scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? …..But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise…but the day of the Lord will come….
Peter hints how important is what he’s going to say, by his phrase “do not forget this one thing.” And what is that one thing? In talking about Jesus’ return, God is willing to proportionately lay down the idea of “one day=one thousand years.” So, just as Creation was six days of work followed by one day of rest, and then substituting by Peter’s hint, you get six thousand years of work, followed by one thousand years of rest.
I want to make an additional comment about v 10, “the day of the Lord.” The Bible has two contexts for that phrase. First, the Sabbath is called the day of the Lord (Ex. 20:10). Also, significantly, the Parousia, or the Second Coming of Christ is also called the day of the Lord. See I Thessalonians 4:16-5:2, when Paul is comforting believers who were mistaken in their belief that Christ had already come:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 5 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes…
My point here is, using the “day of the Lord” for both, God is perfectly willing for us to compare the Sabbath with His Second Coming. The former is six days of work, then a single-day Sabbath, and God ties it in to the Return, which is followed by one thousand years of rest. We’re suggesting that it is reasonable to assume that this is preceded by six thousand years of work for man on earth.
We thus have five proofs of the 6+1 for Man. The big question is, how long has man been on earth? Are we close to 6000 years?
Did you know that it’s possible to count, with close proximity, how long man has been on earth? (PS: As you can tell, we’re ignoring the rantings of atheistic evolution). After all, Matthew 1 and Luke 3 give many names from Adam all the way down to Joseph or Mary, Jesus’ stepfather and mother. It has this thing about genealogy. There are long boring lists of ages in Genesis. So let’s put to good use, for once, those lists of names in Genesis and II Chronicles. They go from Adam down pretty much through the generations to the exile in Babylonian captivity. Sprinkle in some Scriptural shortcuts and prophecy. From there, a final nod to secular history. Let’s go:
Event |
Verse # of yrs Note
From Adam to Seth Gen. 5:3 130
From Seth to Enosh | Gen. 5:6 | 105 | 1 |
From Enosh to Cainan | Gen. 5:9 | 90 | |
From Cainan to Mahalalel | Gen 5:12 | 70 | |
From Mahalalel to Jared | Gen. 5:15 | 65 | |
From Jared to Enoch | Gen. 5:18 | 162 | 2 |
From Enoch to Methuselah | Gen. 5:21 | 65 | |
Methuselah to Lamech | Gen. 5:25 | 187 | |
Lamech to Noah | Gen. 5:28 | 182 | |
Noah to Shem | Gen. 5:32* | 502 | 3 |
Cumulative years Adam to Shem | 1558 | ||
Shem to Arphaxad | Gen. 11:10 | 100 | |
Arphaxad to Salah | Gen. 11:12 | 35 | |
Salah to Eber | Gen. 11:14 | 30 | |
Eber to Peleg | Gen. 11:16 | 34 | |
Peleg to Reu | Gen. 11:18 | 30 | |
Reu to Serug | Ge. 11:20 | 32 | |
Serug to Nahor | Gen. 11:22 | 30 | |
Nahor to Terah | Gen. 11:24 | 29 | |
Terah to Birth of Abram/Abraham | Gen. 11:26* | 130 | 4 |
Cumulative 2:Shem to Abram's Birth | 450 | ||
Shortcuts: From birth of Abram | |||
to promise to Abraham | Gen. 12:4 | 75 | |
From the promise to Abraham | |||
to the giving of the Law | Galat. 3:16-18 | 430 | |
From the Exodus of Egypt to the | |||
Beginning of Solomon's Reign | I Kings 6:1 | 476 | |
Back off: From Exodus of Egypt | </ td> | ||
to Giving of the law (counted twice) | Ex. 19:1 | -0.1 | 5 |
Solomon's Reign | I KI 11:42 | 40 | |
Rehoboam's Reign | II Chron 12:13 | 17 | 6 |
Abijah's Reign | II Chron 13:1,2 | 3 | |
Asa's Reign | II Chron. 16:13 | 41 | |
Jehoshaphat's Reign | II Chron. 20:31 | 25 | |
Jehoram's Reign | II Chron 21:5 | 8 | |
Ahaziah's Reign | II Chron. 22:2 | 1 | |
Athaliah's Reign | II Chron 22:12 | 6 | |
Joash's Reign | II Chron 24:1 | 40 | |
Amaziah's Reign | II Chron 25:1 | 29 | |
Uzziah's Reign | II Chron 26:3 | 52 | |
Jotham's Reign | II Chron 27:1 | 16 | |
Ahaz's Reign | II Chron 28:1 | 16 | |
Hezekiah's Reign | II Chron 29:1 | 29 | |
Manasseh's Reign | II Chron 33:1 | 55 | |
Amon's Reign | II Chron 33:21 | 2 | |
Josiah's Reign | II Chron 34:1 | 31 | |
Jehoahaz | II Chron 36:2 | 0.3 | |
Jehoiakim's Reign | II Ki 23:36 | 11 | 7 |
Jehoiachin's Reign, then Exiled | II KI 24:6, 12, 14 | 8 | |
Cumulative 3 from Abraham | |||
to Exile in Babylon | 1411.2 | ||
Time in Exile=Sabbath for Land | Jere. 29:10 | 70 | |
From Artaxerxes' Rebuild Edict to Palm Sunday | Ezr1:1,2; Dan 9:25 | 483 | 8 |
Adjust: Birth of Jesus to Palm Sunday | -31 | 9a | |
From Jesus' Birth to Today | 2023.9 | 9 | |
Grand Total: Lines 12, 22, 52-56 | 5964.1 |
Wow! We be close.
Note 1: We do not need to record all of Seth’s life. Only from his birth to the birth of his son, Enosh. Same treatment throughout. (Since the question here is, "How long each person been on earth?" we don't care what age Adam was when created. Gen. 3:3 says "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son....Seth." Similarly, 3:6 says "When Seth had lived 105 years...")
Note 2: Interesting point about Enoch: He is the 7th generation, and he deserved a special kind of rest—a rest from dying (Gen. 5:22-24). There’s our 6+1 again. Six generations of men dying, followed by a single generation of rest from dying. In the same way, I’m suggesting that there will be 6 millenniums of men dying, followed by a single millennium of men, raptured, in heaven, not dying. That’s our sixth proof that this theory is real.
Note 3: Gen. 5:32 actually records that Noah “was 500 years old…begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” They were not triplets, and Shem was only mentioned first because he got the birthright (i.e, from his descendants would come the Christ.) So Noah wasn’t 500 when he had Shem. So, how old was Noah when he begot Shem? Find out by comparing Gen. 7:6: Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth” with Gen. 11:10: This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad, two years after the flood” If Shem was 98 at the time of the Flood, and Noah was 600 at Flood, then Noah had to beget Shem at age 502.
Note 4: Gen. 11:26 says: Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran” We see the same problem as Noah and his sons; here again, Abram was not the first son. So, how old was Terah when he begot Abram? Compare verses again for the answer. Start with Gen. 12:1, 2: Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you (Canaan, the promised land). I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing…. Note that it required that he move away from his father’s house and family to receive this magnificent promise. But in Gen. 11:31-32, you’ll read that he broke God’s requirement--the whole family left Ur, and they never got to Canaan. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot (and more) …. and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32 So the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.” So they only went, as it turned out, halfway to Canaan, and stopped in Haran. Now read Acts 7:4: Then he (ie, Abram)came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell (ie, Canaan). There is every reason to suspect that Abram packed up and headed for Canaan quickly after his father’s death. He was, as you will see, old, and he didn’t want to die outside Canaan--if he did so, he would miss out on God’s promises. Finally, the clincher verse: Gen. 12:4: …And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” I believe that when Terah died, Abram immediately left Haran. We conclude that at the time of Terah’s death at age 205, Abram was 75. Thus, Terah was 130 at the time of Abram’s birth. This is not rock-solid by any means. Probably the weakest entry above. Just a guess.
Note 5: A small portion of the exodus trip was counted twice. Experts say God didn’t waste any time, once they started their trip, to get them to Mt. Sinai to give them the Law. It took, best estimate, 47 days, which is .129 of a year. So we backed off .1 year because it was counted twice in the shortcuts.
Note 6: Since Jesus came from the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5), we followed only Judah and descendants’ births. Even when the tribes split up, we only follow David’s line, since he was from the tribe of Judah. His son’s son was Rehoboam. And down from there.
Note 7: While we generally assume that once Babylonians took over the government (Jehoiakim was a “puppet” for the last 8 years), that the exile immediately began, so the land would get its denied rest. Truth is, it was delayed. II Ki. 23:36 and 24:6-14 clearly show that the real exile didn’t take place until the eighth year of his son’s reign.
Note 8: Daniel’s 9:25 prophecy shows that “62+7=69 weeks” was the time period indicated from Artaxerxes’ edict to “Messiah the Prince.” It is assumed by experts that “weeks” could be translated as “sevens,” with no explanations as “seven what—weeks, days, years?” Because the time period from the Artaxerxes edict to Jesus’ hearing the hosannas on Palm Sunday (i.e, “Messiah the Prince”) was, historically, 483 years, the “weeks” must be years—69x7 years, or 483 years.
Note 9: From Jesus’ birth to today may seem obvious, but Scriptural things are never that. It’s not “2022” (which I’m modifying to 2022.9, when I’m publishing this, OK?) He was born, best guess, 2 BC. Finally, there is no “zero year.” So, Jesus’ birth to today is 2022.9+2-1, or 2023.9.
Note 9a: We’re counting something twice again. The note 8 shortcut took us out to Palm Sunday. Jesus was 32 then. Proof? We have, in another blog, shown that Jesus was crucified in 30 AD. He was that age on Palm Sunday too. Note 9 says he was born 2BC, and there is no “zero year.” Thus, we have counted 30+2-1, or 31 years, twice. So we’re backing it off.
So, mankind has been around for 5964 years, see my totals. So only 36 years, best guess, til’ 6000 is up and those alive then (and the dead in Christ) blast off to heaven for 1000 years of rest. Now, if you’re over 70 when you read this (as I am), this 36-years-away from rapture could be considered a buzzkill. It would be so cool to be alive already when He comes. But I thought again—I believe that Christians of that time will have to endure most of the 7 years of trouble (see my blog elsewhere), so you want to change your thinking--you DO want to miss it. It’s 7 years of persecution and disease and martyrdom before the rapture. So, subtracting 7, for my younger readers, it’s only 29 years before such terror begins—if my data are accurate, which they are quite possibly not. If you’re a Scripture thinker, please comment to me if you find any mistakes. But, hey, if you’re old, that still leaves two things to consider: Anybody that dies before the last days, if a Christian, his or her soul goes to a wonderful place. Your soul is very alive, conscious, and will love it. (It joins the body at the rapture). But you need to MAKE SURE that you’re a Christian. You tune up your car before a trip, right? Even if it isn’t making any telltale noises, right? Just so, I highly recommend you read some of my many blogs on what it takes to be a Christian. Or, you can try a much better way: Put all the complacent assurances you’ve cherry-picked from Paul, and set them aside. Start reading Scripture, hours at a time. Read with fresh eyes what Jesus said involving what it takes for heaven—and what kinds of people go to hell. Read Luke, Matthew, the Gospels, writing down every sentence the World’s Greatest Teacher said about (eternal) life or (eternal) death. You’ll be surprised at the result. Please don’t be afraid to break from your denomination on some points (as I have). Seminarians and pastors have led us into an “easy believism” which they substitute for the Gospel. It’s not a conspiracy: It’s just the way the Western hemisphere is headed. We are sliding, ever so quickly, into downright Apostasy. A sign of the last days, wouldn’t you know it.
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