BIBLEPROPHECY.NET

For nearly 6000 years the battle between good and evil has been waged on planet earth. The destiny of the whole universe has hinged upon the outcome of the skirmish for Planet Earth. The decisive battle was fought on a hill named Golgotha when the incarnate Son of God withstood the torments and temptations of his archenemy Satan, and his legions of evil.

According to the school of Elijah, a group of teachings that have been handed down from the prophet Elijah, there would be 4000 years until the Messiah and then 2000 years until destruction and the Messiah's return. There have been many Jewish and Christian groups and scholars who have believed this. The Millerite revival in the middle Nineteenth Century in America, the first revival in the history of Christianity that was based on preaching about Jesus' Second, not His First Coming, was an amalgam of Baptist, Methodist, and other Protestant believers of that time. The Christian experience of these believers in the Second Advent cannot be doubted based on a study of their journals and their personal testimonies.

In tracts circulated by the Millerites at that time it was a belief shared by almost all of them that there would be 6000 years of human history and then the millennial period of 1000 years. They saw the Edenic six-day creation with a seventh-day Sabbath as a parable for this 6000 year period and its attendant millennium. The dates in many older King James Bibles are taken from the dates of Archbishop Ussher who put creation at 4004 B.C. and thus Jesus' birth at 4 B.C., coming exactly 4000 years later as the school of Elijah taught. There are many conservative Biblical scholars who have calculated the date of the creation or fall of Adam and Eve based on the Biblical figures and all of them are in the "same ballpark" as Ussher. For people who believe that the Bible must be authoritative in matters such as this, it is impossible to put the creation week any farther into the past than six to ten thousand years.

The dates of the evolutionists cannot be resolved with the time figures of the Bible, at least in terms of the ages of living things.¹ Many devout Christian scholars have given recent dates for the creation of Adam and Eve.² The Holy Spirit has place a tremendous amount of material relating to the chronology of human history in the Bible. It therefore must be the task of the Bible student to extract it. God is inviting out attention to this crucial topic. Following is a brief overview of the Bible's dating of earth's history.

ADAM to the FLOOD

To the conservative student of the Bible there is little dispute in this section of the chronology. From the creation of Adam to the year of the flood there were 1656 years. This can be obtained by simple addition of fathers' ages at the time of birth of the stated son, given in Genesis 5 as follows:

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1656 years

The FLOOD to ABRAHAM

From the flood to the "seed" promise made to Abraham3 there are 427 years. This data is taken largely from Genesis 11, as follows:

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427 years

ABRAHAM to the EXODUS

Galatians 3:17 says "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law (meaning the giving of the Ten Commandments), which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul..." Here we are told that the giving of the Ten Commandments came 430 years after the "seed" promise made to Abraham. The law was given in the same year as the Exodus from Egypt, three months later.⁴ From the EXODUS to SOLOMON 1 Kings 6:1 is as clear a chronological reference as could be stated. {1KI 6:1 KJV} "And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord."

We are here told that there were 480 years from the Exodus to the 4th year of Solomon when he began "to build the house of the Lord." Some have had problems with this reference because the "reigns" of the Judges recorded in Judges seem to add up to more than what the "480 years" will allow. Those who have leveled this charge have not been careful enough students to see that there are two concurrent sets of reigns during the period of the Judges, one for the East of the Jordan, and one for the West, in rough form shown below: Thus the years of the judges are not meant to be added up to obtain a single great sum. That would be like saying that because President Clinton has been President for three years, and Al Gore has been Vice-President for three years, that President Clinton has therefore ruled for six years.

EAST: Jair 22 Ammon 18 Jepthah 31

Philistines 40

WEST: Tola 23 Eli 40 Samson 20 Samuel 9

The ERA of the KINGS

With 1 Kings 6:1 providing the bridge to the temple we have now entered the period of the Kings. There are 286 years from Solomon's 4th until the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah. This length can be determined by adding up the very accurate list the Holy Spirit has left in I. & II Kings. A year must be subtracted between each reign because the Israelites used "backdating", counting the first year of one king's reign and the last year of the previous king's reign in the same year. Here is the listing of references from I and II Kings:

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406 years

There are a total of 406 years in the listings of the kings above. Up until King Hoshea in the above list there are cross references given between the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. The Holy Spirit has thus "locked in" this part of the chronology, as if to save it from tampering. The reason that the above king list records only a 3 year reign for Jehoiakim, the last king listed, is because we are told in Jeremiah 25:1 that Jehoiakim's 4th year is Nebuchadnezzar's 1st: "The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon."

This represents a great change in the history of Israel. National independence was taken from Judah and from this point onward in the Bible, Old Testament and New, dates are given in terms of Gentile kings. Daniel's dating, Ezra and Nehemiah's dating, and Luke's dating are all done with reference to Gentile rulers.5 This follows the Bible's pattern; up to this point we have had to stay close to the Bible, to study it, to learn. But now the time comes where we must go outside the safety of our own study to the world outside to get proper dates. God will use the potential unreliability of the secular historians the same as he used secular King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams in Daniel chapters 2 and 4, to act as links in his prophetic chain. "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. " {HEB 13:13 KJV} And so it is with the gospel.

Have you been close to Jesus? Has He blessed you? Have you tasted His sweet fellowship? It is time to go outside, time to tell others. God's gifts, His goodness, is to be shared. We are at the end of the rainbow and there is a pot of gold. It has crept up quickly, quietly. For Nebuchadnezzar's first year is placed by almost all scholars at 605 B.C. We now have all the dates to show that Jesus' birth, in 4 B.C., was exactly 4000 years from creation! Elijah was right!

THE BIBLE CHRONOLOGY FROM ADAM TO CHRIST

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TOTAL, ADAM----->CHRIST 4000 Years

The school of Elijah did not only say that there would be 4000 years to Messiah, however. It also says that there would be 2000 years until destruction and Messiah's return. Where are we now in relation to the ending of that 2000 years?

2000 YEARS FROM CHRIST'S FIRST COMING TO HIS SECOND

Christ's birth was not in the "0" year between B.C. and A.D. dates as one might assume. Christ was born in 4 B.C.! This seems a contradiction. How can Christ be born "before Christ"? Jesus could be born "before Christ" because the designations "B.C." ("before Christ") and "A.D." (Latin anno domini, "in the year of our Lord") and the calendar that goes with them did not come into existence until many centuries after Jesus was born. When the calendar was put together centuries later its originators "missed" on the true date of Christ's birth. This was discovered after the calendar had been instituted. Almost all scholars on the subject acknowledge this today.6 If Christ was born in 4 B.C. and that was the 4000th year from Adam's creation, then it should be a simple matter to calculate what year, from Adam, 1994 is. It must be remembered that when you go from "B.C." to "A.D." in calculating such dates that there is no "0" year, as the diagram shows:

Thus, for instance, there are five years between 4 B.C. and 2 A.D., not six. Therefore 1994 is 1997 years after Christ's birth and 5997 years after Adam's creation. Thus the end of of the Twentieth Century is about 6000 years from the creation of Adam. While I believe the chronology elaborated here is largely correct, part of the inspiration that God has handed to man, I cannot be dogmatic about the year of the Lord's return. The student must remember that the Lord said "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." {MAT 24:36 KJV} But notice, the Lord did not say the YEAR could not be known, just the day or the hour. Thus it is not unthinkable or unBiblical to think that the Lord might reveal the year of His return. The Lord Jesus also said that "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." {MAT 24:22 KJV} This "shortening" seems to be a reference to the idea that there was an intended time-length for earth's history, but this originally intended ending-point will have to be "shortened"--brought nearer in time to the present--from what otherwise would have been an ending later on. 

A further element to consider here is this, in light of the fact that we are PAST year 6000 by the above calculations...There will be 4000 years to Jesus' DEATH, not His birth, and thus 2000 years from His death would make year 2000 be somewhere around the year 2030 AD

The fact that we are near the end of the Biblically-derived 6000 year chronology is simply one more evidence among many (see especially the signs Jesus mentions inn Matthew 24...) that His return is near...Hallelujah!

ADJUSTING THE JEWISH CALENDAR

Some may wonder if the above accounting is correct, why isn't  the current year on the Jewish calendar close to the year 6000 if that is truly the number of years since Adam. Instead the Jews give the current year as somewhere in the 5760 area.  There is thus about a 242 year difference between the dates we have just calculated above (nearly 6000), and what the present Jewish calendar tells us (about 5760). What is the source of this difference? As I surveyed Jewish material to get at the sources of the present Jewish calendar, I realized that the explanation would have to be a powerful one. Times, dates, and calendars are not things that change flippantly, casually, or often. Every effect must have a cause powerful enough to explain it. In my research I discovered an adequate cause to explain this powerful effect, that has Jews all over the world incorrectly numbering the years from Adam. It is a reminder that religious hierarchies have often misled their constituencies in the history of this world.

The compilers of the Seder Haddoroth, charged with arranging the calendar, placed the rebellion of Bar Cochab as beginning at 3892 (from Adam). Now Bar Cochab's false claims to be the Messiah came in 132 A.D. So the Haddoroth compilers made 132 A.D. to be 3892. The problem is that 132 A.D. was really the year 4130, that is 4130 years from Adam. 3892 had already occured 238 years ago, in 107 B.C., the beginning of the Hasmonean Kingdom. What would have possibly led the Haddoroth compilers to so flagrantly tamper with the numbering of the years? Many times in history a mighty dictator comes in and has the history of the past changed to flatter his own accomplishments and to meet his own political ends. We saw Kruschev do this to Stalin; the Assyrian and Egyptian kings engaged in this. So the records of history have often been slanted for political and self-serving ends. Now Jews have always been diligent and respectful scholars when it comes to maintaining the integrity of their own history. But they have come to a time now when most Jews do not believe in the historicity of the Exodus or the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. Their much education has blinded them to their true spiritual and historical roots.

They persecuted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who simply were trying to tell them the truth. But even so there has been a historic respect for the Scriptures among them. Think of Jesus' references to their phylacteries. But the one thing more than any other which has caused the Jewish mind to lose clarity and level-headed rationality is the claim of Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. If the chronology of their fathers had been followed, as given in germ in this issue, they would have had to take seriously the words of Jesus given in the beginning of Mark's gospel: And saying, "The time is fulfilled..." {MAR 1:15 KJV}

No! they could not do it! The preferred to go with Bar Cochab, one who claimed to be the Messiah in 132 A.D. Bar Cochab proclaimed himself Messiah and was accepted by Rabbi Aquiba. He raised the standard of revolt in Judea and flouted the Romans. Now this is the kind of Messiah that Jesus tried to warn His disciples about, but that unregenerate human flesh longs for. A hero! A muscle man! The Romans were forced to send their best generals against Bar Cochab, and after three and one half years they utterly slayed his forces in 135 A.D. 580,000 Jews were killed in actual fighting!!!!! besides the number who succumbed to famine, disease, and fire. Over a million Jews met their death as a result of this deluded forger of the Messianic claims. The result was that in 135 the Romans forbade the Jews from entering Jerusalem on pain of death. What a price to pay for following an imposter, a false Messiah. Yet the three and a half year period of Roman siege ending with the cutting off of the Jews was said by these later compilers to be the final three and a half years of Daniel's 70 week prophecy, calculated from the 2nd year of Darius I (3402 from Adam).⁸ This made 132 A.D. be 3892. But 3892 had always been 107 B.C. by all former Jewish calculations. But the compilers of the Seder Haddoroth, coming this side of Jesus, had a political and religious purpose in rearranging the chronology--to discredit Jesus as the true Messiah and to put on the throne instead a Barrabbas; Bar Cochab.

That is why to this day the Jewish calendar is off by over 200 years from the true number of years from Adam. Expensive delusion!⁹ It is a definite part of God's plan for God's people, true Christians, to work for the salvation of the Jewish people now, at the end of this age. {ROM 11:30 KJV} For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: {31} Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. {MAL 4:6 KJV} And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

May this humble effort at drawing out the Bible's chronology and the discrepancy in the Jewish year be used to reach the Jews with the good news of their Messiah, Y'shua, the Lord Jesus. Maranatha!

[E-mail Larry]  [Home]

FOOTNOTES

1 It is possible from the words of the Genesis account of creation to conclude that the inanimate parts of the earth were created by God long ages ago. In that sense there may be something to the long ages of evolutionists. But please note, this is not a species of "gap theory" at least as pejoratively used evangelical creationist circles, because it is not positing a creation from long ago that was wiped out by catastrophe, etc. The Bible evidence is plain that men, animals, and all living things were created recently. The Bible is not so plain as evangelical dogma insists that the inanimate creation is recent. Study closely the account of Genesis 1 and consider the usages of the different Hebrew verbs for "make" or "create" and consider too that God says things like "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. " (Gen. 1:9) The waters are already there and so is the land. We are not told when it was created.

2 For instance Melancthon 3964 B.C., Kepler 3993 B.C., Luther 3961 B.C., Hales 5402 B.C., Lightfoot 3960 B.C., Playfair 4008 B.C., the Samaritan text as 4305 B.C., Isaacson 3950 B.C., Josephus 5555 B.C., and Petavius 3984 B.C.

3 {GEN 12:1 KJV} "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: {2} And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: {3} And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. {4} So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." and {GAL 3:17 KJV} "And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect."

4 {EXO 19:1 KJV} "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai."

5 This may be a key in pinning down the phrase Jesus used in the Olivet discourse, "the times of the Gentiles". "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. " {LUK 21:24 KJV}

6 Please see my booklet The Secret Time of Jesus' Birth. This booklet examines the significance of Jesus' birth and shows He was not born on December 25.

7 The Jewish New Year is in the fall, not January, and thus the slash "/" date.

8 Read about this in Ezra 4 and 5. "Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia." {EZR 4:24 KJV}

9 It will be noted that there are several years discrepancy between the years that this study has presented as the number of years from Adam and the revised Jewish year, accounting for the error exposed here. I have not plugged myself into this study yet, but the years are close to each other. By the revised Jewish count the present year (1994) would be 5993, not 5997, thus implying that the year 6000 would not be until 2000/2001. My earlier comments about being tentative in this area would apply here. My main aim is to show that the time is near, not to give an exact date for the Lord's return.