Rick Baugh Follower of Christ cleverly disguised as a software engineer

According to both the Hebrew calendar, which claims to set year numbers since creation, and the analysis of Bishop Usher of biblical chronologies, it was about 4,000 of our calendar years from Adam's creation to Jesus' birth.

In another sense, is was 4 days from Adam to Jesus, in that scripture gives an interesting viewpoint of "a thousand years" as God sees it. Both Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3 tell us that a thousand years is like a day in the sight of the Lord. Now some would say that these passages merely are implying that time is irrelevant to God, and that these passages could have inserted any other big number just as well. But they didn't, and I'm more of a view that nothing is irrelevant to God, as "even the hairs on your head are numbered", and of every star in the heavens "he calls each of them by name."

So if you run with the idea that the Holy Spirit actually meant "a thousand years" when he inspired these authors to write it, then that opens up some interesting viewpoints of both past and future history. For example, in Eden God told Adam not to eat of the forbidden tree, "for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Gen 2:17 Adam lived 930 years. In the view of a "day is like a thousand years" then this prophesy of God was literally true. But if you reject it then you have to spiritualize it to say something like, "well, God meant he would die spiritually, even if not physically", which starts you on that slippery slope of wondering what else in Genesis should be spiritualized, analogized, or otherwise not taken as literal history or prophesy.

There is also a promise in Revelation that Jesus will return to and rule the nations of this Earth "for a thousand years", during which Satan will be bound and not able to tempt or torment the people. Rev 20:4-6. If God also views this period as "a day", could this be the day spoken of in Hebrews 4, a seventh day, God's Sabbath, as a day of God's rest that we are encouraged to strive to enter? 

In Isaiah 46:9-10 we read "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come." In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth, and all that is in them in six literal days, and then he rested on the seventh, and declared the seventh day holy. Why did God take six days to do what He could have done in an instant? And God does not tire, and Himself has no need for rest, so then why did He? Perhaps, more than simply laying our our work week, He was declaring something much more important: "the end from the beginning", that this creation would endure for 7 "days" that would include a holy sabbath day of rest at the end.

"On the third day" is a period of special significance in scripture. When Israel came to mount Sinai with Moses, they were told to sanctify themselves for 2 days, and be ready for the third day when the Lord would come down "in the sight of all the people." Ex 19:11 After Jesus died on the cross, He rose again on the third day. The prophet Hosea told of a future restoration of Israel, "After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence." Hos 6:2 In 1948, Israel was reborn as a nation after nearly 2000 years of nonexistence; 2 days. Will they literally live in His presence "on the third day"?

On the Hebrew calendar, it has been nearly 6000 years since creation; the end of the sixth day. Nearly 2000 years since Christ died, 2 "days". No one knows the literal day or hour of Christ's return, but perhaps we should ready ourselves for that third day since Christ died, also the seventh day of creation, for God's holy Sabbath, when the Lord will descend in the sight of all the people. For that day may be very near.

July 15 2023 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Discussed at https://ebible.com/questions/1494-what-is-the-age-of-the-earth-how-old-is-the-earth and https://ebible.com/questions/21659-how-many-years-has-man-been-on-earth, with a resulting calculation (based on ages and events as given in the Bible) of approximately 4,000 years from Adam to Christ.

July 08 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report