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Bible Q & A
Q.
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Would you please explain what is meant by God’s 7,000 year plan?
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A.
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Up until now God has allowed
approximately 6,000 years for humanity to write the
painful lesson of “doing its own thing” – going its
own way without the revealed knowledge of its
Creator.
A
study of biblical chronology indicates that Adam and
Eve (our first parents) were created about 4,000
years before Christ (Gen. 5, 10; I Chron. 1-9; Matt.
1; Luke 3). And almost another 2,000 years have
elapsed since the time of Christ’s birth – totaling
nearly 6,000 years of human civilization to date.
And
the Bible tells us that shortly after the appearance
of Christ on this earth again, a peaceful, utopian,
1,000-year reign begins on this planet (Rev.
20:1-10; Isa. 11)
These two general spans of time (approximately 6,000
years of man’s rule; approximately 1,000 years of
God’s rule) add up to a period of about 7,000 years.
Further, the 7,000-year concept comes from an
analogy
between the perfect weekly cycle (seven days) and
the apparent 6,000 years allotted to mankind prior
to the millennium.
We
must realize that even though the saints will live
and reign with Christ for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:4),
there is still an undetermined period of time
allowed after the millennium during which Satan will
be loosed and the Great White Throne judgment will
take place (Rev. 20:11-12). This span of time is
in addition
to the 1,000 year period.
The
main biblical indication of a 7,000-year plan is the
evidence provided by the millennium as a type of
God’s rest of Sabbath (compare Revelation 20 and
Hebrews 4). If the millennium represents a
“Sabbath” then it would be logically preceded by six
similar 1,000-year “days.”
II
Peter 3:8 provides a basis for setting the length of
each millennial day: “...One day is with the Lord
as [Greek: hos] a thousand years, and a thousand
years as [hos] one day.” But we need to realize
that even if we understand this as a literal
statement regarding a 7, ooo-year plan, it is not
giving us a precise, measured duration.
Why
not? Because hos before numerals denotes “nearly,”
“about,” “approximately.” Compare its usage in Mark
5:13, “about
two thousand”; Mark 8:9 “about
four thousand; John 6:19, “about
five and twenty or thirty”; John 21:8, “as
it were two hundred cubits”; Acts 13:18,
20; “about
the time of forty years . . .about
the space of four hundred and fifty years.” |
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