Should Hallowe'en be Celebrated? Two Opposing Thoughts

 I have, for your comparison, two articles.  The first argues that Halloween was a church tradition before it became an evil corruption.  The author argues that we should celebrate it for its original merits.  The second article says we should not celebrate at the same time as evil is being celebrated.  You choose which argument you like.

 

Redeeming Holy Days from Pagan Lies — Hallowe’en: A short history

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Pastor Joseph Abrahamson

There is a lot of new mythology about Halloween that has been invented to claim that Halloween is a pagan holiday from the start. That is not true.

 Where Did Halloween Start in the Christian Church?

In the first three centuries after Christ’s resurrection, the lives of the martyrs of the Church were commemorated on the day and in the place where they were killed.

There were so many who were killed because of their faith in Christ during those centuries. Throughout the Christian Church different days were set aside not only for each martyr, but a special day for all Saints (Saints had a different definition then—it meant “super” saints.)

The earliest reference to a day being dedicated to the commemoration of All the Martyrs and All Saints of the Christian Church comes from the 2nd century. The document is titled “The Martyrdom of Polycarp.”  Polycarp was a Christian who was killed because he would not deny Christ. The document says:

Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already finished their course, and for the exercising and preparation of those yet to walk in their steps.(They revered relics back then.)

 

Later, a bishop named Ephraim the Syrian suggests a fixed, and common All Saints Day in 373. So, a common day for commemorating the Saints has been around throughout the Church from very early times. It falls on November 1^st.

 

OK, so what does this have to do with Halloween, the day before? In the Jewish culture, the day begins in the evening the day before, so All Saints Day really began October 31^st.  (Our Christmas Eve is another example.) Halloween is All Hallows’ Eve.’ To hallow means ‘to honor as holy,’ how they felt about the super saints.

 

But, many of the churches in the Reformed traditions today claim that Halloween is a pagan celebration. Very often they do this by referring to Neopagan (i.e., recent pagans), and Wiccan writings. And there are many in the Neopagan and Wiccan communities who have tried hard to claim Halloween as an ancient pagan holiday that had been stolen by the Church.

Don’t ever expect truth from Neopagans or Wiccans. They already live in a fantasy world created by their own ‘fakelore.’ Proof of folklore does not support the Neopagan or the Wiccan claims about Halloween. Instead, they depend on fakelore: invented folklore. The typical claims in current sources are that Halloween came from “ancient Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals, and European folk traditions.” With respect to the origins of All Saints’ Day, these claims are false. With respect to the modern re-paganizing of Halloween, the Neopagan version of Halloween doesn’t really come from ancient pagan sources. It comes from modern sources that pretend to be old but are not. These modern quotes are simply fiction.

 

Doesn’t Halloween Have Its Origins in Samhain?

Neopagans and Wiccans like to claim that the source of Halloween is the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). There are three basic problems with their claim.

1.   The celebration of All Saints’ Day
didn’t originate in Ireland or any other area populated by Celts or their descendants.

2.   None of the days on which All Saints’ Day was celebrated had anything to do with any Celtic holiday.

3.   The celebration of All Saints’ Day in Celtic regions is documented to be older than the documented celebration of Samhain.

 

So let us look at each of these three claims:

1.   In order for the Neopagan and Wiccan claim that Samhain is the origin of Halloween to be true, then Halloween and All Saints’ Day should have started in Celtic areas. But All Saints’ Day began in Syria as early as 373 A.D, in Caesarea in 397 A.D., and in Constantinople (under Chrysostom—modern Istanbul) by 407 A.D. So All Saints’ Day and Halloween didn’t start in the Celtic countries. But it did take some time for the declarations of Rome to reach distant Celtic areas like Ireland.

2.   In order for the Neopagan and Wiccan claim that Samhain is the origin of Halloween to be true, the particular day chosen should have some significance to the Celts and Samhain. But here we run into some serious problems. According to the best sources, Samhain was a Lunar (moon) festival of harvest. That means that the day of Samhain can vary up to a month in difference from any Solar year day. Compare, for example, the wide variety of days upon which Easter can take place. When sources claim that Samhain was October 31 to November 1 in the modern Solar calendar they are being dishonest and disingenuous. Due to the differences between lunar and solar dates, the average Samhain would take place exactly on October 31st only once in about every 30 years. When the reader adds into this the fact that the Western Calendar changed over from the Julian to the Gregorian at different times in different places, the reader can better understand how artificial the Neopagan and Wiccan claims are about Samhain being a fixed date. The Church didn’t get Halloween/All Saints’ Day from the pagans; the pagans are trying to claim that Christians stole from them. But the Neopagans and Wiccans cannot even get their calendars straight. And they are hoping that the reader doesn’t notice how weak and embarrassing their claim is.

3.   In order for the Neopagan and Wiccan claim that Samhain is the origin of Halloween to be true Samhain, they should be able to prove that Samhain is older than All Saints’ Day. But, in fact, the opposite is true. We have a manuscript from 843 A.D. where the Irish bishop Oengus of Tallaght wrote about the celebration of All Saints Day in his geographic area. It was celebrated in the Spring of the year at that time and in that place. The Decree of Pope Gregory IV had still not reached Ireland so that All Saints’ Day was not celebrated November 1^st as others were that year.

 

But the earliest-ever-mention of Samhain in Irish folklore doesn’t come until the 10^th Century (Ronald Hutton’s 1996 book ‘Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain.’)  There is no mention of Samhain outside of Ireland until centuries later.

 

These are the facts:

Samhain comes from the 10^th Century A.D. and is a newer invention. All Saints Day is older than Samhain. All Saints Day came from the practice of honoring the Christian Martyrs in Israel, Turkey, and Syria as early as 373 and possibly earlier. All Saints’ Day and therefore Halloween originated outside the Celtic sphere of influence and had nothing to do with what the Neopagan and Wiccan claims are about its origin.

In fact, the newer Samhain holiday, was a Lunar holiday. This means that it could be celebrated on any of 30 or so days in Autumn of a given year depending on when the harvest moon was recognized in Ireland. And very, very rarely did this moon happen on October 31^st. This simple truth cannot be emphasized enough.

 

Any book or website or article that claims that the ancient Celts celebrated Samhain on October 31 is perpetrating a lie. Modern Neopagans and Wiccans invented their own calendar through the 1970s and 1980s and they chose Oct. 31 to be the day for Samhain. It was a move on their part to put forward the false claim that Halloween started in paganism.

 

Why Would the Non-Christians Want to Undermine This Holiday?

 

October 31 has another  meaning in the commemoration of the Christian Church because of the Reformation. It was on October 31^st, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, Germany. It was on that date he chose to challenge the corruption in the official church about the notion that salvation in Christ could be bought with money or works. All saints, all who are saved by Christ’s blood, are saved by Grace, through Faith, revealed by God’s Word in Christ.

 

So October 31^st is also Reformation Day. On October 31, 1517 the Church of Christ began to return to the authority of Scripture alone over the traditions and will of man.

It should not be surprising that Satan and the World have gone to such extremes to defile Halloween with anything that would distract Christians and the unbelievers from Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia and Solus Christus (Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Grace Alone, and Christ Alone).

 Halloween Traditions:

In this world some traditions have become the mainstay of Halloween. Though these traditions are not necessarily a problem by themselves, they have been claimed by the Neopagans and Wiccans as evidence that Christianity is a fraud and newcomer that has replaced the “Older” so-called “Truth”. But they lie.

The Haunted House started in the early 1970s. The first records of Haunted Houses were from Cincinnati, Ohio where the Jaycees (Junior Chambers of Commerce) introduced the first Haunted Houses as a way to keep kids entertained on Halloween.

So which is older, All Saints Day starting in the 4^th century or Haunted Houses starting in the 1970s?

Jack o’Lanterns are an American invention from the mid-1800s. Ireland and Britain had older traditions of carving vegetables into lanterns. But those traditions are not ancient. Historian David J. Skal writes:

Although every modern chronicle of the holiday [Halloween] repeats the claim that

vegetable lanterns were a time-honored component of Halloween celebrations in the British Isles, none gives any primary documentation. In fact, none of the major nineteenth-century chronicles of British holidays and folk customs make any mention whatsoever of carved lanterns in connection with Halloween. Neither do any of the standard works of the early twentieth century.
(see this and other helpful references cited at The Scoopie)

It was in 1837 that the term “Jack o’ Lantern” first appeared as a term for a carved vegetable lantern. (Previously the term referred to the man or boy a town hired to keep the street lamps lit through the night.) The pumpkin was used with the cornucopia as a fruit that was displayed throughout fall harvest time in America as a sign of God’s providential blessing.

There is a lot of folklore about the Jack O’Lantern, but it is fakelore invented to create a fictional scary history for the Jack O’Lantern. But which is older? All Saints’ Day or the Jack O’Lantern?

Trick or Treating is very popular in America and several other countries. In the Middle Ages (1300s to 1500s or so) there was a practice where children or the poor would go from door to door to beg. In some places these beggars would sing or perform in order to get gifts of money or food from householders. While this happened any day of the year, because these beggars had to eat every day, they were particularly active on holidays. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day were special days when children and adults would go from home to home singing hymns and carols and begging. A good source for what these people would sing is the Oxford Book of Carols.

In Shakespeare’s 1593 play The Two Gentlemen of Verona the character Speed accuses his master of “puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas.” That’s a reference to Halloween. The term ‘mas’ at the end is short for church Mass.

Wearing costumes on Halloween is first known in Scotland in 1895 and in the United States in 1911. The earliest use of the words “trick or treat” is from 1927 in the United States. In the early 20^th century, there were thousands of postcards made with Halloween themes, but none of them showed “trick or treating” until the 1930s.

 

Halloween, Reformation Day, All Saints’ Day are the names for the same day. It is a very special day of the year for the Church. We commemorate all saints--past, present, and future--with the confession that we cannot save ourselves with our own works, no price we could ever pay would be good enough. But Christ has paid for the whole world. And all believers in Christ, we saints, will be raised on the last day to eternal life. Reclaiming Halloween means knowing where it comes from, why the day was established, and the historical significance it holds for the Christian Church. Satan and the world are always willing to undermine and steal anything that is of value to the confession of the truth of Scripture. Let us not fall prey to the lies.

Enjoy Halloween! Enjoy Jack O’Lanterns, Enjoy Trick or Treating. But confess the truth!

 

Pastor Joseph Abrahamson serves Clearwater Lutheran Parish: a parish of four Confessional Lutheran congregations in very rural Northwestern, Minnesota. He and his wife, Mary, have 10 children. Pastor Abrahamson is a graduate of Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary, and of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies. He has served on the Faculty/Staff at Bethany Lutheran College teaching Religion, Linguistics, Archaeology, and Self-Defense; and was on Staff at the University of Wisconsin as an Information Processing Consultant (Computer Geek) while doing graduate work in Semitics. Pastor Abrahamson has served Clearwater Lutheran Parish (ELS) for since Dec. 2001.

 

Second Article: Why Christians Absolutely Should Not Celebrate Halloween

6:00AM EDT 10/21/2015 JAMIE MORGAN

 

Setting aside a day to celebrate evil, darkness, witchcraft, fear, death and the demonic brings disdain to God. Period.

 

Many Christians celebrate Halloween. Some churches and pastors even do. I recently saw a church advertising they were having a Zombie Run. Seriously? God's House? I, for one, do not celebrate Halloween and neither does my church.

In a spirit of full disclosure, when I was a brand-new believer, I allowed my son to go trick-or-treating. Part of the reason was because my husband was not yet saved and he insisted we do so. The other part was because I didn't see the harm in it. After all, many Christians I respected did it, so as a new Christian I justified that it must be OK. Right? Wrong!

As I grew closer to the Lord and gained more knowledge of His Word, I began to feel convicted about Halloween. I had thoughts like:

o    God is a God of life, but Halloween focuses on death. Should I celebrate a holiday where people decorate their front yards with tombstones?

o    The Scriptures tell us to put away deeds of darkness (Rom.13:12), and that light has nothing in common with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14). Is celebrating a dark holiday something a child of the light should be doing?

o    I have been delivered from fear and panic attacks and knew that fear comes from the enemy. Should I participate in a holiday that has fear as its very foundation?

o    Witchcraft is clearly detestable to the Lord (Deut 18:10-13). Shouldn't something that glorifies witchcraft (just take a walk through the Halloween store) be detestable to me as well?

o    Halloween is a sacred, high holiday for Wiccans (the official religion of witchcraft). Is this a holiday Christians should celebrate alongside Wiccans?

o    Is it cute when we dress our kids like the devil (or witches, ghouls, scary characters, etc.)?

o    What if my child dresses in a wholesome fireman costume? Romans 16:19 says that we need to be wise to what is good and innocent of evil. If I let him participate in Halloween, even while dressed as a fireman, aren't I sending him a mixed message by allowing him to participate in a celebration of evil?

o    The Lord said in 2 Cor. 6:17, "Come out from them and be separate ... Touch no unclean thing ..." Doesn't God want His children to be set apart from the world and from sin and evil? Aren't we supposed to be peculiar people?

o    My extended family thinks it's ridiculous that we not allow our son to dress up for Halloween. Should their opinions matter to me more than God's? Shouldn't pleasing God be my utmost concern?

o    If there is even a question in my heart and mind that it might be wrong, shouldn't that be my first clue? Why would I continue to do so with even a lingering thought that it is wrong?

o    Does Halloween bring glory to God? No! It glorifies the devil! Nuff said.

So as a new believer, saved only two years, I responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, repented of displeasing the Lord and put a stop to Halloween. And as a pastor, after observing firsthand the amount of destruction that the enemy brings into peoples' lives when they give him a foothold, I am even more convinced I made the right decision to close the door to the enemy and on this evil holiday.

Setting aside a day to celebrate evil, darkness, witchcraft, fear, death and the demonic brings disdain to God. A Christian celebrating Halloween would be like a Satan worshiper putting up a nativity scene at Christmas while singing, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" The two just don't go together. Jesus has nothing in common with Satan (2 Cor. 6:14), and neither should we.

So, what did we do instead? Hide in the basement with the lights off? Hustle the family out of the house? No, darkened homes are the enemy's victory! Where does your light shine the brightest ... in the darkness!

Halloween is the one day a year when neighbors come to your door expecting to receive something.
So give them JESUS! (PS: Some Chick tracts are great.) Our family chose to give God the glory and the devil a black eye by reaching out to our neighbors with the gospel of Jesus Christ! "You are the light of the world ... let your light shine among men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:14-16).

So stop justifying why it is fine to celebrate this demonic, worldly, evil holiday. There are no muddled lines or gray areas about it. A committed follower of Jesus Christ should not celebrate Halloween.

 Jamie Morgan is the pastor of Life Church (Assemblies of God) in Williamstown, N.J., and the Life House of Prayer (24/7 prayer).

Now I’d like to bring a few words. Jamie might also direct her efforts toward belaboring her U.S. House Representative to explain how the school systems can ban Christian clubs, prayer by coaches before a team’ game, or not allowing a valedictorian speech to include testimony. BUT they can have Wiccan clubs where how to cast spells or curses are taught. It is a proven fact that Wiccan is a religion, and if you grant school freedom there, you have to grant it for any religion who wants freedom to speak or act, as long as it’s responsible.

 

We Have Been Around for 5966 of 6000 Years of Man on Earth

 

45. We Have Been Around for 5966 of 6000 Years of Man on Earth

 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?  We have a Biblical theory that could do that, below.

On the other hand, 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 you can read Scriptural signs that tell us 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 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 are accurate, but it’s pretty accurate.  It probably has flaws.  This “close, but not perfect” result is just available for correction.  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, considering what evil we could do in the meantime.  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. Therein is a key in the word "sabbath."  Thinking back to Original Creation in Genesis 1, God rested on the seventh day.  What precedes it?  Six days of creation. So, God’s pattern was, six days of creation work, then one day of rest. But what happens if you multiply that math by one thousand?

My theory’s critical proposition is this: the 1000 years of rest in the End Times is preceded by six thousand years of man on earth, struggling, as in work, through six “days” of labor.

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 in the heavenly harvest.  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, it seems, 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 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. Well, 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 Scriptural proofs of the 6000+1000 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                           #yrs        Note

From Adam to Birth of Seth                                 Genesis 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                                             Gen5:18                                                 162              2

From Enoch to Methusaleh                                  Gen. 5:21                                                  65

Methusaleh to Lamech                                         Gen. 5:25                                                187

Lamech to Noah                                                   Gen. 528                                                 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                                                          Gen. 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

Shortcut: From Birth of Abram to promise

      To Abraham                                                     Gen. 12:4                                                   75

From Promise to Abraham to Giving the Law      Galatians 3:16-18                                    430

From the Exodus from Egypt to Beginning

       Of Solomon’s Reign                                        I Kings 6:1                                              476

Back off: Counted twice: from Exodus from

        Egypt to Giving the Law                                 Exodus 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’s reign                                                         II Chron. 36:2                                          0 .3

Jehoiakim’s reign                                                       II Kings 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                              Jeremiah 29:10                                         70

From Artaxerxes Rebuild Edict to Palm Sunday        Ezekial 1:1-2, Daniel 9:25                     483        8                

Back off: Counted twice: birth of Jesus to

       Palm Sunday                                                                                                                         -33       9a          

From Jesus’ Birth til’ today                                                                                                       2026.8      9       

Grand Total                                                                                                                                5966

Wow! We be close to 6000. Only 34 years away to the Rapture

 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 has been on earth before the next generation?" 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 7^th 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 necessarily 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; (this was) two years after the flood” This is saying that Shem was 98 at Flood time. 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…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  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 from surrounding Scripture, old (for his day), 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 from that assumption 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, 2-1/2 months, which is .2 of a year.  So we backed off .2 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 “2025.8 years” He was born, best guess, 2 BC.  Finally, there is no “zero year.”  So, Jesus’ birth to today is 2025.8+2-1, or 2026.8.

Note 9a:  We’re counting something twice again. The note 8 shortcut took us out to Palm Sunday.  Jesus was 33 then, according to the best proofs.  Thus, we have counted 33 years, twice. So we’re backing it off.

So, mankind has been around for 5966 years, see my totals.  So only 34 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 34-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 27 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, His second coming).  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. Don’t just assume (lazily, I think) that your denomination has it right and every other denomination has it wrong. 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 4 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.

My final thought: We are, it is suggested, two years away before the digital prison will be constructed. Ultimate Surveillance will then follow; this will, in time, be directed by the antichrist.

Acknowledgement:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfmNxkN7ZQo&t=783s&ab_channel=AnswersinGenesis  This does a good job of proving that mankind has only been around for about 6000 years.