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Prophecy in Week Cycle

One of the great secrets to Bible prophecy is the understanding of the prophetic nature of the feasts of the LORD ("Yehovah"), understood commonly as the Jewish holy days. It appears that this key has been mostly unknown until around the turn of the century. But nowadays you can find many, mostly Messianic teachers teaching it.

If you are not already familiar with the concept, the idea is that the appointed times which God gave to Israel to keep were also prophecy. They contained a prophetic "shadow of things to come" (Col 2:17). Or as Jesus said, he came to fulfill the Law because "not one jot or tittle would pass from the Law until all are fulfilled" (Mt 5:17-18). Jesus did not fulfill all of it, just the spring feasts (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost) and many other aspects. The fall feasts (Day of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, etc.) and other aspects are yet to be fulfilled. It's these other aspects that we'll focus on in this article.

While many teachers grasp how the annual spring and fall feast days of Leviticus 23 are prophetic, few apply what Jesus and Paul taught about the Law (or Torah) to the Sabbath day which is also found in Leviticus 23.

The Six-Then-One Pattern in Torah

The Torah has several instructions relating to groups of six days or years followed by a seventh that is distinct.

• 7-day Week: "Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the LORD wherever you live." (Leviticus 23:3)
• Sabbath Day Picture: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of YHVH, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:" (Isaiah 58:13)
• 7 Day Creation Week: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:...11 For Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 20:8-11)
• 7 Year Slave Release: "When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything." (Exodus 21:2)
• 7 Year Land Sabbath: "10 Sow your land for six years and gather its produce. 11 But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove." (Exodus 23:10-11)

These verses illustrate a pattern of six days or years being for work or enslavement and then in the seventh day or year to rest or be set free. The picture of the Sabbath day goes beyond just rest from work to being a day to cease from self-interest and to honor God.

So what are the Sabbath day and the six preceding days a prophecy of?

The Day-For-a-Year Principle

It's hard to answer that with any confidence from these verses alone. A few other key verses found in the OT and especially the NT shed light on how to understand the six-day work week prophetically:

Psalms 90:4 — For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8 — But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with YHVH as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

These passages establish what is called the "day-for-a-year" principle. It means that when the Bible uses or refers to days, sometimes what is meant, at least on a prophetic level, is years.

This is seen most prominently in Daniel's "70 Weeks" prophecy (Dan 9:24-27). The common accepted understanding interprets the 70 weeks as not literally 490 days, but 490 years. The first 69 weeks of years predicted the timing of Jesus' first coming and the final or 70th week describes the seven years leading up to Jesus' Second Coming.

The implication of this is that besides the Sabbath day and Sabbath year, there is also a Sabbath millennium.

What is the Sabbath Millennium?

This "Sabbath millennium" concept may sound familiar. Most people are already familiar with Revelation's prophecy of the 1,000 year reign of Christ and his saints. It's taught in Revelation 20 where the phrase "1,000 years" is repeated six times.

Rev 20:6 — Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of the Messiah, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Revelation 19 shows that this 1,000 year period begins immediately following Jesus return as king to rule, accompanied by the resurrected/raptured and glorified OT and NT saints. This is a period distinct from the time before, known for peace and prosperity:

Isaiah 2:4 — He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will never again train for war.

Isaiah 11:9 — They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of YHVH, as the waters cover the sea.

Revelation 20:2 — He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years.

Article continues below...

THE END IN 2026? IT'S NOW POSSIBLE

Since learning in 2001 that Yeshua must return in a Sabbath year, I've had to rule out three Sabbath year cycle windows for the final 7 years (2003-2009, 2010-2016, 2017-2023). With the next window (2024-2030) less than 7 years away, I'm ready to share why I believe, based on the real end time sign of Mt 24:14, that this can be the one. If it is, the "birth pains" (WW3 + Wormwood, Lk 21:10-11) would hit near its middle in 2026 with Yeshua returning in 2030. Find out what's changed to convince me about 2026 and what you can do about it...

You can see just from this sampling of verses how different the Sabbath millennium is from today's world. It's in stark contrast to all the preceding millennia filled with deception, confusion, war, destruction and hurt. It fulfills the picture of the Sabbath day that we saw above.

If the Sabbath millennium mirrors the Sabbath day, it follows that the preceding six work days likewise mirror six millennia of human history leading up to Jesus' return. It would be a time that God has allocated for man to "work" things out on his own, including governing himself. Meanwhile God mostly works only behind the scenes to keep things on the 6000 year schedule.

Why give man so much time first? it appears that the reasoning behind this plan is for man to give all his own systems of government a chance and therefore not be able to say to God when his reign begins that "God shoved his religion down our throat." (I talk about this in depth in my article on Satan in Prophecy.)

Creation Year - Clues in Planetary Alignments

Once you know about the 6000 years of man, the immediate desire is to know when Creation was so that you can add 6000 years to it. Here's the best answer to that question that I have found.

There is a researcher by the name of Eugene W. Faulstich who spent a lifetime researching biblical chronology with the aid of astronomical computer programs. Among the many dates he was able to verify from Scripture was the date of Creation. He determined that Creation Week was March 19th-25th, 4001 BC and that the 8th day was a new moon marking the first month of the first year (Aviv 1, 1) at March 26th, 4001 BC. What he found was there was a "singular planetary alignment" on the 5th day of creation which has never happened since. Likewise, there was a planetary alignment on the summer solstice of that same year which is also incomparable in history.

Why is that important? Genesis 1:14 tells us that one of the purposes of the heavenly bodies is to mark times and give signals. We would therefore expect something significant to be evident in the heavens for a time as important as creation. Likewise, we might expect there to be a similar astronomical event to demarcate the end of the 6000 years. And there has.

On May 5th, 2000 C.E, 6000 years from 4001 BC, there was another rare planetary alignment. It was a conjunction consisting of Venus, Mercury, Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and the Moon. This also happened to be the night of the first visible sliver of the new moon. Biblical years start with the first new moon in the spring after the barley is aviv, or mature. The barley had not been aviv for the previous new moon on April 6th which the calculated calendar that the Rabbis use prescribed as Aviv, 5760. This was also the first new moon in Jerusalem in which the barley grain was ready to be harvested, or aviv. Aviv is the name of first month of the year and is so named because it can only be declared when the barley is aviv so that as early as 15 days later it can be harvested and used in the Feast of the firstfruits rehearsal (Ex 9:31, 13:4, 12, Lev 23:4-11) of the first month.

This seems to confirm that May 5th, 2000 was actually Aviv 1, 6001, the start of the seventh millennium from Adam or Creation.

Passing 6000 Years From Creation

However, if that's the case, then we are way past 6000 years from Creation. This disappointing realization is not new. If you have been aware of this "6000 year plan of God" doctrine for some time like me, you know that even before the year 2000, it was common to see people trying to use this theory for date-setting. They believed that if they could determine the actual year of Creation, they only had to add 6000 years to that and they believed they would know when Jesus was coming back.

But after we passed the year 2000, most chronologies, like Bishop Ussher's and the one above put us already in the Millennium or at least in final seven years of Daniel's 70th week. This creates a big problem for the 6000 years of man theory. How could it be true if we already passed 6000 years from Creation?

This prompted doubts about the theory such as this email I received expresses:

...which is the proper way to count the 6000 years of man's allotted time [to rule himself] on earth? There are about 3 or 4 Hebrew calendars (lunar, solar - 356 days, 390 days give or take), a Julian, a Gregorian, a biblical year, a solar year, etc. but I think from my perspective it all boils down to whether we should be counting from Adam to present by biblical years, by solar 365.25 years, or by straight 24-hour days. Maybe the 6000 years has to be counted in a mix of everything, depending on the prophecy, the dispensation (Age of Law, Age of Grace, etc). It makes me wonder if we are erroneously thinking we are at the 6000- year mark when, in fact, we have been counting wrong all these millennia. — Jim

How Do You Count A Year?

The answer to this doubt is that while it is true that the Bible and over a dozen calendars indicate that Earth used to have a 360 day year, it's important to note that changing length of the year does not change the definition of a year. Because we are used to saying "a year is 365¼ days" we can fall into thinking that years can be reckoned by days, or the 24 hour revolutions of the earth. However, the real definition of a year is not X number of days, but rather one complete orbit of Earth around the Sun. Calendars intercalate leap months or leap days in an attempt to keep the days and months of the year in sync with this astronomical reality of the seasons coming from earth's orbit.

Others ask why we have to make it so hard when we have the Jewish Calendar showing a year less than 6000 such as the year 5773 for 2012. What most do not realize that the rabbis and scholars do is that there is an error in that reckoning, by some 240½ years (the half year because they improperly start the year in the Fall, rather than the Spring as the Bible instructs). Some say this is on purpose to hide the coming of the Messiah as Daniel's 70 weeks predicted right down to the year he came. Whatever the reason, there is admitted tampering and lost years to make the Jewish Calendar say we have passed a significantly smaller number of years since Adam than Bible chronologies say we do.

Obviously by the right definition of a year and not tampering with it, there's no doubt that we have passed 6000 years from Creation. If that is the case, then does that mean the 6000 years theory is disproven?

Why the Garden of Eden Time Doesn't Count

The solution to the quandary lies in questioning the assumption that the 6000 years began at Creation.

This assumption does not consider that while Adam and Eve were still in the Garden of Eden, they were obeying God and under his government, the Kingdom of God. The 6000 year clock of man's self-rulership should not include that idyllic period. Man's striving against each other and God only started once Adam was kicked out of the Garden of Eden for rebelling against God's rulership. (Of course due to eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.) Only then did Adam begin building his own independent life that the six work days/6000 years picture.

OK, great. Then what year was "the Fall of Man?"

As you might expect, the Bible does not make it easy to answer that. For example, it never tells us how long they were in the Garden. If it did, we would be able to predict the return of Jesus by it long, long ago, certainly by the time of Jesus when he said no man knows (yet). Therefore, I think it was purposely concealed, unlike the year of Creation which I believe is knowable using Biblical chronology or other reckonings.

Application: The Last Possible Year for Jesus' Return?

The 6000 years of man's self-rule appears to be a Scripturally sound teaching and useful insight into the plan of God for preparing man to receive his Kingdom (again). However, it may seem like it is a dead end for getting an idea of when Jesus can come back.

Nevertheless, there is one interesting point that does come out of this research. Although we cannot calculate far in advance the year of Jesus' Second Coming, we can place an upper limit to that year.

The way it works is as follows. The time of Adam and Eve in the Garden could have been many years. However, we have a verse that lets us date the latest that Adam and Eve could have been in the Garden. It comes from this verse:

Genesis 5:3 — Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

How does this help? If you never noticed, Adam and Eve did not begin having children (Gen 4:1) until after they were banished from Eden (Gen 3:23). This means that the longest they could have been in the Garden would have been somewhere under 130 years. The reason is that they did not have Seth until Cain slew Abel; Seth replaced Abel.

How old would Cain and Abel have been to be producing food which they also sacrificed to God and for Cain to be mature enough to murder Abel? 13? 20? 30? It's impossible to know, but it's hard to imagine in such simple times a ten year old or teen killing his brother. In the Bible the age of accountability is 20 years (Ex 30:14). If we go with 20 years as a conservative lower limit for the age of Cain when he slew Abel, then that means Adam was no older than 110 (130 - 20) when he became a father to Cain and Abel (who possibly are twins). If you conservatively assume Adam had Cain on the first year that he left the Garden, then that makes 110 years the maximum time he was in the Garden (give or take nine months gestation for Cain and Abel and another nine for Seth before he was born at Adam's age 130).

Biblical "Hints" of a 7,000 Year Plan

Let’s look at some interesting things in Scripture that support this belief...

1. There are two places in Scripture that say a day with the Lord is as a thousand years:

"For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past." (Psalm 90:4)

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  (2 Peter 3:8)

Curiously, these verses do NOT say that a day is with the Lord as thousands of years (plural), ten thousands of years, or millions of years. It specifically states that “one day” is with the Lord as “a thousand years.” So, when the apostle Peter tells us that a "day" is with God as a thousand years, we should sit up and take notice!

2. Scripture also says that there still remains a day of rest for God's people. Paul tells us that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom. 8:22), which means that the creation has not yet entered into the rest that the Scriptures mandate (Isa. 11:10; 14:7; 44:21-23; 49:13; 55:12). This rest will occur under the rule of Jesus when He returns and sets up the promised kingdom on earth for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7)!

Interestingly, in Hebrews 4:4, 11, the seventh day of the week is pictured as a type of the peaceful "rest" on earth which will follow Christ's return! Being a time of “rest” (Heb. 4:4-11), and lasting a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7), it makes perfect sense that God would correspond it to the seventh day rest of Genesis 2:2. Since the last "day" of God's plan for mankind is 1,000 years, it is logical to conclude that the other six days of creation typify 6,000 years of man's government on earth.

Furthermore, the number 6 represents mankind and rebellion (6,000 years of man's self rule?). The number 7 represents perfection (The Millennium?). The number 8 represents new beginnings (New Heavens and New Earth?). Could it be that God is trying to show us something here?

3. There are many "pictures", "shadows", and "types" in the Bible that would seem to confirm the 7,000-year theory:

• King Solomon (a type of Jesus) had 6 steps to this throne and the 7th step was his throne (2 Chronicles 9:18).
• Lazarus (a type of Israel) was sick and dead for a total of 6 days (John 11:1; 5-6; 14; 39). Jesus resurrected him on the 7th day (John 11:40-44). 
• After 6 days, Jesus took his closest disciples up into a high mountain and was transfigured (a picture of the Second Advent) before them (Matt. 17:1; Mark 9:2).
• After 6 days, Moses was called up to mount Sinai to be in the presence of God in the midst of the cloud (Exodus 24:16).
• After 6 days, Jesus went to the wedding feast in Cana (John 1:51; 2:1).
• Noah was 600 years of age when God destroyed the world with the flood (Genesis 7:6). And the ark rested in the 7th month (Genesis 8:4).
• King Joash was the rightful king of Israel but who was hidden in the temple of God for 6 years while an impostor reigned (Queen Athaliah - a picture of Satan the devil, the great usurper). At the beginning of the 7th year, the king was brought forth to sit on his rightful throne, and the usurper was put to death (2 Kings 11:16).
• Slaves worked for 6 years and the 7th year was freedom (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:1).

The list goes on. There are many other instances in the Bible that reflect a similar kind of timeline, and there is no need for such specific information (the six and a distinct seventh pattern) unless it hints at a larger truth!

4. Bible chronology shows there were approximately 2,000 years from Adam's creation until Abraham (Genesis 5; 11) and 2,000 years from Abraham until Jesus Christ. Is this merely coincidence? Given that the Millennium, the final "day" in God's plan for human history, will be 1,000 years, it requires no great leap of exegetical skill to posit a comparable 2,000 years from Jesus' First Coming to His Second Coming.

The notion that there will be 2 days, or 2,000 years, from Christ’s death till the Second Coming, or 4,000 years from Adam to Christ’s death, also seems to be confirmed by Bible analogies:

• Jesus stayed with the Samaritan woman (a type of the Church) for 2 days (John 4:40).
• The Good Samaritan (a type of Jesus) gave the innkeeper 2 pence (equal to 2 day's wages) to care for the wounded man, promising to return and settle the account (Luke 10:35).
• During the 6 days before going to the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus took a trip on the 4th day and was not seen again until the 7th day (John 1:19; 29; 35; 43; 2:1).
• The Passover lamb was set aside 4 days before it was sacrificed (Exodus 12:3; 6). This of course is a type and shadow that pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was to come and die for the salvation of mankind. The Lamb of God was sacrificed from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) and was killed at Passover 4,000 years later.
• “Life” shows up after the 4th day in the creation narrative. Likewise, Christ shows up after 4,000 years and brings “life” (John 1:1-5; 10:10; 3:16; 1 John 1:1-2; 5:12-13).

Lastly, Hosea pictures Christ's Second Coming 2,000 years after his ascension, in one of the most remarkable passages that supports the theory of God having a 7,000-year plan:

“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” (Hosea 5:15-6:2)

No one seems to be able to explain this verse. But if you apply this verse inside the 7,000-year template: “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence . . .”  refers to Jesus returning to heaven after being rejected and crucified by the Jews. He will remain there until they “acknowledge their offense” and “seek” him in the Great Tribulation, which the passage calls “their affliction.” They will then “return unto the LORD” and be revived “after two days,” which equals the third 2,000-year time slot in God’s Plan, toward the end of which Israel becomes a nation (1948) in preparation for a spiritual revival later. Finally, “in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” refers to the nation being totally revived and regenerated at the Second Coming of Christ and living in His sight in the millennial kingdom, which is the “third day” after Calvary, the “third day” after their offense of rejecting Christ.

Keep in mind that not all uses of the word "day" in Scripture mean a 24-hour solar day (Gen. 1:5). Take, for example, what God told Adam in Genesis 2:17:

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). 

Adam died at the ripe old age of 930 years (Gen. 5:5). The "day" in which he died was certainly not the "24 hour" day. But the Word of God also speaks of the "millennial" day, or the "thousand year day."

5. Scripture statements seem to support that we have been in the LAST DAYS ever since Jesus died:

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." (Acts 2:17)

"In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe." (Hebrews 1:1-2)

These verses are likely referring to the latter days of the 7,000 year week. If there is no 7,000-year plan, then the New Testament statements above about then being in the last days make little sense.

6. Everyone is aware of the weekly Sabbath, the seventh day of the week under the law of Moses, but most do not realize that God has more than one Sabbath. In the Bible, there is a "Week of Days", "Week of Weeks", "Week of Months" and a "Week of Years" (see a more in-depth discussion here)! If there are "weeks" (groups of seven) of days, weeks, months, and years, what about millennia? 

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There are many other Scriptures showing support for a 7,000-year plan, and the lateness of the hour makes this truth more relevant today than at any time in human history.

When Does the 6,000-Year Rule End?

Have you ever wondered why the Bible records the ages of people all the way back to Adam? Or why it records the number of years the Kings of Israel ruled? It seems God wanted us to be able to count the years from creation. Interestingly, after stating a thousand years is as a day in Psalm 90:4, the Psalmist writes that our own days are limited and we should number our days that we may have the heart of wisdom (Psalms 90:4-12)! Could understanding approximately where we are in the 6,000 years be a wise thing to do? 

Historical records indicate that almost 6,000 years have elapsed since the re-creation of the earth and almost 2,000 years since the death of Jesus Christ. Based upon certain calculations that I am currently aware of, it seems that Adam and Eve were created and/or apparently left the garden of Eden between roughly 3959-3975 B.C. (it is most likely that the 6,000 years began once Adam sinned as Adam had not rebelled before then). This would suggest that the 6,000 years should be up sometime between 2026 A.D. - 2042 A.D.


However, a more accurate way to calculate when the 6,000-year period ends would be to add 2,000 years from the year Jesus Christ was crucified - and the Church Age began - which likely marks the beginning of the third 2,000-year time slot in God’s Plan. Although we cannot state with absolute certainty the amount of time that passed since Adam, we can establish the date of the crucifixion with fair certainty: Virtually all scholars believe, for various reasons, that Jesus was crucified in the spring of either 30 A.D. or 33 A.D. Based upon this calculation, we COULD expect the 6,000 years to end, and Jesus Christ to return, in 2030 A.D. or 2033 A.D. (Please note: I am NOT setting a specific date for Jesus to return, but only suggesting a "possibility" based on whether the 7,000 year plan is correct).

Conclusion

Considering almost 2,000 years have passed since Christ's crucifixion (making a total of nearly 6,000 years—or six millennial days—from Adam), and at this precise juncture in human history mankind stands poised with the ability to blow up and blast out of existence all life on planet Earth, the 7,000-year plan is more believable than ever! 

In any case, with Israel being a nation in the land again, and many other prophetic implications ramping up as of late, we know that Jesus will return very soon. The time is short.