Dear friends:

While scholars may debate and try to explain or deny it, it is a fact that biblical chronology describes about 6,000 years from Adam and Eve to the Millennium, or end of history.

The six creation days of Genesis were undoubtedly prophetic of a planned six "millennial days" of human history, followed by the seventh, or Sabbath, Millennium. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8). God did not require six or seven days to complete creation. He could have done it in a microsecond or less. The seven days were obviously prophetic, a picture of His planned 6,000-year history of man.

The right of "dominion" over the earth that God gave Adam in Genesis 1:28 was no doubt only a 6,000-year lease -- six millennial days -- the time period established for man's rule. After the earth lease has expired, Christ, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), will return and assume dominion of the earth as ruling King during the seventh Millennium, having legally purchased back the lease and dominion with His own blood. This would follow the 2,000 years when “God first visited the Gentiles (nations) to take out of them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).  A possible transition period would provide a cleansing of the earth, what we call the Tribulation. Solomon's reign was a type of Millennium, and it began with a cleansing. Or, the transition might simply be a parenthetical period on God's calendar between the sixth and seventh millennia.

Early Christian writers held that at the end of 6,000 years of history, Christ would return and reign for 1,000 years (referred to as the Millennium). These included Barnabas (c. A.D. 100), Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (c. A.D. 150), Lactantius (c. A.D. 325), and Methodius, Bishop of Tyre (c. A.D. 300).

For example, Barnabas wrote: "As there had been 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham, and 2,000 from Abraham to

Christ; so there will be 2,000 years for the Christian era and then would come the Millennium."

Church father Irenaeus wrote concerning a belief of the early church: "For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed; it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand years." Lactantius, tutor of the son of the Roman Emperor Constantine, stated in his Book of Divine Institutes, Chapter 14: "Let the philosophers know that the six thousandth year is not yet completed; and when this number is completed, the consummation must take place."

The writings of other church fathers such as Victorinus, Bishop of Petau and Hippotylus support the argument that the apostles and the early church believed and taught that the Millennium would commence at the end of 6,000 years.

So did early Jewish writers

Even the writings of the early Jews expressed the view that the Messiah would come at the end of 6,000 years. After the Bible, the Talmud is the most authoritative source of Judaism. The view frequently expressed in the Talmud, according to researchers, is that the world as we know it would last only 6,000 years. For example, the Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: "The world is to exist 6,000 years. In the first 2,000, there was desolation (no Torah, from Adam to Abraham), 2,000 years the Torah flourished, and the next 2,000 years is the Messianic era (He should have come within that period . . . He should have come at the beginning of the last 2,000 years; the delay is due to our sins)" (emphasis added; ironically, Messiah did come the first time at the beginning of the last 2,000 years because of our sins!).

Rabbi Ketina said in Gemara, a commentary on the Talmud, "The world endures six thousand years and one thousand it shall be laid waste (that is, the enemies of God shall be destroyed), whereof it is said, 'The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.' As out of seven years every seventh (is a) year of remission, so out of the seven thousand years of the world, the seventh millennium shall be the millennial years of remission, that God alone may be exalted in that day."

Biblical history and the sabbath principle

Because of God's own emphasis on the sabbath, both literally and spiritually, and since a thousand years to the Lord is as a day (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8), ancient and modern scholars see the seventh millennium as the Sabbath Millennium, with many prophetic implications; namely, the return of the Lord and His 1,000-year reign on the earth. God's labor of creation took six days, followed by a day (millennium) of rest.

So where does that leave us today?

Many are looking to the next few months for the rapture (catching away) of the church and the Tribulation.   Specifically, for reasons stated, Pastor JD Faraq of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe in Hawaii, is looking to April 2014:

For order, I will number his major points of interest:

1.  In late July 2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave Israel and the Palestinians nine months to establish a plan for their peace and security.  It is significant that he did not say eight months.  Not ten months.  But nine months. 

2.  The words "peace and safety' remind us of Thessalonians 5:3: "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them..."  This verse speaks of the sudden destruction coming at the same time they are saying peace and safety, and when they (not we) shall not escape.  It implies that "we" shall escape this destruction. 

3.  Verse continued... "as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  The words labor pains and pregnant woman in Thessalonians 5:3 indicate that the human gestation period of nine months is in play here, whenever they are saying "peace and security."

4.  Nine months from late July 2013 takes us to late April 2014, probably right in the middle of Passover, which is April 14-April 22.  Will something be birthed at the end of that nine-month period?

5.  Jesus said, "There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity" (Luke 21:25). In 2014, the first of 4 blood moon total lunar eclipses occurs on Passover (First Feast Day), April 15, 2014, followed by a solar eclipse on April 29, 2014.  Since 1 AD, this tetrad has occurred on these holy days a total of 7 times.  In 2014-2015, it will be the 8th time.  It won't occur again for another 500 years.  Tetrads of four sequential lunar eclipses with no intervening partial lunar eclipses occurs 6 other times in this century, but this is the only time it occurs on the Jewish holy days of Passover and Feast of Tabernacles.  See http://www.jesusonmymind.com/services

Collectively, these above points seem significant. 

For Pastor Faraq's teaching on this, see http://www.rapturewatch.net/apps/videos/videos/show/18106574-mid-east-prophecy-update-august-4th-2013 -

Finally, many believe 70 years represent a biblical generation, and Jesus said that a generation shall not pass away until all things take place.  The rebirth of Israel, God's time click,  was in 1947, + one generation (70 years) = 2017, and  2017 minus  a 3.5-year Tribulation = 2014. 

I am hoping Pastor Faraq is correct, and I will see y'all soon!

Jim