Posted by Garth [GLamotta] on March 28, 1999 at 08:12:36 {boLUiPtahccN0hHePKnIMW4MSSTtTA17s}:
God's timeline is flexible. Some may be wondering just how the corrected chronology which dates the 1st year of Cyrus in 455BCE affects the concept of the 6,000 years and the Sabbath rest of the 1,000 years?
The overview of the 1,000 years is that it is a rest period of 1,000 years near the end of the 7th Creative day. That means it is the 49th 1000 years period since the beginning of Creation, to be followed by a 50th 1000-year period which is the Jubilee as well as the beginning of the Second Creative Week.
Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses for a while was focussed on 1975 as a critical date for 6,000 years of man's history and we all know about that fiasco. We don't want to make the same mistake by focussing too much on dates, but the Bible does provide us some general guidelines with respect to chronology and we would be negligent not to closely consider some of the parameters. Thus we are simply going to compare how the 455BCE chronology stands up to the overall picture of the millennium.
First of all, we know that God's chronologyis flexible.
The sabbath rest of 1,000 years doesn't necessarily mean that it is the absolute last 1,000 years in the 7th
Creative Day. In fact we know the millennium is moved up a bit in order to take care of some miscellaneous human "paperwork" after the 1,000 years is ended and before the new Creative Week starts when God will make everything new.
Two
events, thus take place after the millennium but before the beginning of the next creative week. Those to events are 1) Satan is let loose for a short time to test those who are alive at the end of the millennium, and 2) After that, the
general resurrection of the dead takes place, both of the righteous and unrighteous, to be judged. This special event is called JUDGMENT DAY.
There are no resurrections during the 1,000-year reign.
The only ones resurrected before
Judgment Day are the 144,000 who are resurrected just before the millennium.
That being the case, applying some general Biblical typology, 40 years is usually the period assigned to a judgment period or testing period. So let's say
Satan is let loose for at least 40 years and that Judgment Day, another testing period is also 40 years. Now at first, one might think with billions being resurrected that 40 years is not long enough for Judgment Day. But remember not
everyone needs to have any lengthy trial.
Many of mankind, for instance, are already written into the "Book of Life" and thus can go directly to the trees of healing after their resurrection. And some have already been condemned to
Gehenna. No time wasted on them. Thus much of the "judging" process would be for those borderline cases. Those who during their lives did not get written into the book of life, but who, after 6,000 years of man's experience under the
influence of Satan and then 1,000 years under theocratic rule by Jesus, can be adequately judged, taing into consideration how much mercy and leeway can be shown based upon Satan's influence versus imperfection, etc. So its possible this
job could be done within 40 years. We're not predicting. But at least we'd consider this as a minimum.
Considering that, we presume at least 80 years post millennium might be needed before the beginning of the Second Creative Week. How does the 455BCE chronology compare with this presumption?
Well, first we must determine the critical difference the 455 chronology represents compared to the WTS current chronology. The period of chronolgy from the time of the Exodus until the creation of Adam is not questioned and seems consistent with the Scriptures. But the period leading up to the date of the Exodus, which the WTS dates in 1513 BCE is definitely changed.
Basically with the 1st of Cyrus dated in 455BCE, the Exodus is dated in 1386BCE, or approximately 19 jubilees (19x49=931 years) earlier. That is, 19x49=931+455=1386. This is consistent with critical Biblical chronology for this period which in addition to reducing the Persian Period, also reduces the time of the Divided kingdom by about 50 years. This means that the 455BCE chronology is about 127 years shorter up to the point of the Exodus than current chronology with all corrections made.
That is, 1513BCE minus 1386BCE is 127 years. Thus, using the 1975 date for the end of 6,000 years of man's existence, are corrected 6,000-yeardate is 127 years later or 2102 A.D. Of course, that gives us about 103 years to go before the absolute end of 6,000 years since man's creation. Empirically, therefore, if the millennium were to begin in 2000, there would be over 100 years left before the implied beginning of the Second Creative Week. That accommodates quite nicely our minimum 80-year period needed for Satan's testing period and for Judgment Day.
But there is another adjustment to consider. And that is the fact that likely Adam was not created just a year before Eve. We might consider, therefore, adding about 30 years on the other side of the 7th Creative Day to this time period.
Two parameters might be considered:
1) One is the fact that with eternity in view, why would God not allow Adam to become mature emotionally and psychologically? Usually the age of marriage traditionally has been around 30 years, when a man is no longer a youth but considered to be a full-grown man and ready to take on a family.
2) Jesus, who was given in exchange for Adam was 33-1/2 when he died. Presuming Adam was married at age 30 when Eve was created and the 6th Creative Day ended shortly thereafter, it would seem that Satan was able to deceive Eve into rebellion within 3-1/2 years. This is consistent with Eve being somewhat immature at the time, not understanding that snakes didn't talk.
Of course, this is general speculation but if we add another 30 years to this period, then there is about 1132 years of flexibility in the current chronology to finish off this old system of things, bring in the millennium of 1000 years, allow a time of testing by Satan as well as Judgment Day before the beginning of the Second Creative Week.
The only mandatory pre-millennium time periods to be considered based upon Bible prophecy is the 42 months of the special feeding in the wilderness of the woman immediately after the kingdom is set up, and a possible extra year of "fertilizing" of the temple organization after a 3-year period of looking for fruit. Remember, Jesus comes to the fig tree looking for fruit and there is none after three years, so it is given one extra year to produce fruit after some cultivation. This is interpreted to mean a year beyond 1996 or possibly later. But since the Messiah is dated as appearing in 1992 we are now approaching seven years post that date which allows for plenty of time for those events.
Thus we are in the freefloating period of
chronology which is left entirely up to Jehovah's discretion, with the only other implied period of time left being "a time and a season" to occur after the destruction of the fourth wild beast mentioned by Daniel, when the first three
wild beasts would give up their rulership.
Just when this will occur is something we have to keep watching for. Beyond that, all other required chronology associated with the setting up of the kingdom has been fulfilled.
That is in particular: The generation of 80 years beginning in 1914 with "nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom" has ended in 1994. The special Covenant with Christendom and in particular JWs who make up the temple organization, ended in 1996. The 1290 days ended in 1947 and the 1335 days ended in 1992, and the 50th Jubilee for the Jews, that is 49x50=2450 years from 455 BCE also ended in 1996 (2450-454=1996). That now combines spiritual and fleshly Israel with a combined jubilee period in 1996, the Jews seeing a significant Jubilee of freedom in 1947 when they returned to Palestine. Of course, 1996 is 4x490 or 1960 years from the Jubilee of 36CE; 1960+36=1996.
In Summary, there is still plenty of time based upon Bible chronology for the millennium to take place, along with Judgment Day and Satan's special testing period, even if assigned 40 years each, before the beginning of the Second Creative Week, thus the 455BCE chronology is perfectly in line with the Bible's overall Timeline, with certain events remaining within Jehovah's own personal jurisdiction beyond those critical timed events, demonstrating that God's Timeline is quite flexible enough to accommodate Jehovah's purposes.
Garth