THE SEVEN THOUSAND YEAR PLAN OF GOD
IN ANCIENT WRITERS


• ancient Jewish and Christian writers proposed a six thousand year history of the world
with a final millennium of peace based on the six days of creation and the final seventh day of rest—the Sabbath:
(1) 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch 33:1–2 (probably late 1st century A.D.), (2) Rabbi Eliyyahu in the Babylonian Talmud,
Tractate Sanhedrin 93b (6th century A.D.), (3) Epistle of Barnabas 15:3–5 (ca. 175–225 A.D.), (4) church fathers

BIBLICAL NUMEROLOGY AND THE SABBATH 

• 6 is the number of man and 6000 years of human history represents mankind operating without God (6000 is a multiple of 6) 
• the number 7 represents perfection or completion 
• it appears that the seventh day (the Sabbath) is a type of the seventh millennium (the millennial Kingdom) 
• the "Sabbath (seventh) day" is a type or "shadow of what is to come" and the antitype or "body" is Christ (Col. 2:16–17) 
• the millennium is pictured as a glorious Sabbath rest in the Bible (Isa. 11:10; Heb. 4:9) 
• a psalm sung on the Sabbath pictures life in the messianic Kingdom (Psalm 92) 
• "life in the world to come" is called "a day that is completely Sabbath" by the rabbis 

OTHER TYPES 

• there are other types of a seven thousand year plan of God in the Scriptures:
• the six days before Jesus went to the wedding feast in Cana: on the fourth day, Jesus takes a trip,
and is not seen again until the seventh day (John 1:19, 29, 35, 43; 2:1)
• after six days Jesus is seen coming in glory with Moses and Elijah at his transfiguration (Matt. 16:27–17:1)
• for six years Joash was hidden in the Temple and then crowned King in the seventh year (2 Kings 11:3–4)

BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY 

• based on a literal reading of the Hebrew Bible, 1999 is the 5,999th year of world history:
3,485 years from Adam to the Persian king Darius (516/515 B.C.) and another 2,515 years to the year 2000 A.D.
(Adam to Noah's Flood = 1,656 years; Flood to birth of Abraham = 454 years; Abraham to Exodus = 430 years;
Exodus to First Temple = 480 years; First Temple to Exile = 393 years; Exile to rebuilt Temple = 72 years; Total = 3,485 years)

JEWISH CALENDAR 

• according to the Jewish calendar, 1999 is the year 5760 since Adam and Eve—240 years less than the Hebrew Bible
• the Jewish calendar is not based on the numbers given in the Old Testament but on a rabbinic text called Seder Olam:
it shortens the time between the fall of the First and Second Temple (a loss of 163 years)
and shortens Israel's time in Egypt (a loss of 77 years)

CONCLUSION 

• we are close to the end if God has decreed a 7000 year history of the world
• if Jesus was born at the close of the fourth millennium (based on the chronology of the Old Testament),
and if the seventh millennium is the millennial Kingdom (revealed in Rev 20), then the age of the Messiah must be 2000 years
• the end of the age cannot be predicted with precision:
if we start our calendar at the birth of Jesus, the new millennium began between 1994 and 1998
• a 7000 year plan of God is an inference from typology and is not explicitly stated in the Bible