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Songs and Teachings of the Bible
Songs and Teachings of the Bible
God's 7,000-Year Plan
God is creating a new heaven and earth
over the course of six millennial days of human history.
"There's a master plan of human history of seven thousand years
The first six thousand are almost over while the last one thousand nears
Six great days for working, then a day of rest appears
In the master plan of human history of seven thousand years"
-- song, Good News
The first six thousand are almost over while the last one thousand nears
Six great days for working, then a day of rest appears
In the master plan of human history of seven thousand years"
-- song, Good News
DAYS OF CREATION
"For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. . . ." (Exodus 20:11)
"For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. . . ." (Exodus 20:11)
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First Day
Light divided from darkness
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Second Day
Waters
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Third Day
Land
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Fourth Day
Two Great Lights to rule day and night
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Fifth Day
Life
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Sixth Day
Husband and Wife given dominion over earth
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Seventh Day
Rest
"Thus the heavens and the earth . . . were finished"(Gen. 2:1) |
MILLENNIAL DAYS OF HISTORY
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. . . ." (Isaiah 65:17)
" . . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. . . . we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (II Peter 3:8, 13)
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. . . ." (Isaiah 65:17)
" . . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. . . . we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." (II Peter 3:8, 13)
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First Day
Two Trees in the Garden: God teaches man must choose between God's way and Satan's
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Second Day
The Great Flood
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Third Day
God promises Land forever to Abraham; brings Israel to the Promised Land
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Fourth Day
God promises Eternal Rulership to David: Israel's Kings Period; Babylon rules the night
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Fifth Day
God offers man Eternal Life; sends Holy Spirit; Church Age begins
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Sixth Day
Christ marries the Church; They are given dominion over the earth
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Seventh Day
The world to come -- a new heaven and earth (Heb. 2:5; 4:4-11; Rev. 14:13; Isa. 65:17-25; 66:22-23; II Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21-22)
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Seven Millennial Day Songs
From "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon, chapter 15:
"The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection."
From The Encyclopediacaps Americana, article "Millennium":
"It is admitted on all sides that these views were . . . very common in the ancient church. The belief was generally founded on Psalms xc, 4, according to which 1,000 years are before the Lord as one day, compared with the account of the creation as given to Moses. The six days of creation are taken as designating 6,000 years of toil, and the subsequent sabbath as designating 1,000 years of rest and happiness. The millennium was to be the sabbath rest of the new creation of mankind in Christ."
From "Why Were You Born?" by Herbert W. Armstrong (1957, 1972):
"For this grand and glorious purpose, God has marked out a duration of SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS! Each 24-hour day of the Genesis 1 creation was a type of the seven millennial days of the spiritual creation.
"Except for those whom God specially and individually calls, for the first six millennial days, God leaves man to WRITE his lesson in human experience. Man made the CHOICE of relying on himself under sway and influence of Satan. God is allowing man to DEMONSTRATE beyond question his helplessness -- without God's Holy Spirit -- to live in a way that produces peace, happiness, and universal abundance.
"Or, the parallel: God is allowing Satan the six millennial days for his labor of deception and evil. And on that seventh millennial day he shall not be allowed to do any of his evil work -- he shall be imprisoned, while the living Christ brings TRUTH and SALVATION to the world. . . .
"Creation was not completed, as described in Genesis 1. Rather, what God is creating is a SPIRITUAL CREATION, and God has mapped out a DEFINITE PLAN, allowing SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS for the process! In His great purpose, the physical and material comes first, and always is the type of the spiritual. A day is as a thousand years to God, and a thousand years as a day. And, as God's revealed Plan is allotted seven thousand-year 'DAYS' for its completion, so God used just seven 24-hour days for the present creation -- the MATERIAL creation described in Genesis 1! So the seven literal 24-hour days are a TYPE of the seven thousand-year 'days.' And in this seven-thousand year period, . . . the SEVENTH millennial day shall be the SABBATH of the ETERNAL our God. . . !"
From "Mystery of the Ages" by Herbert W. Armstrong (1985):
"With God's great master plan of 7,000 years finally completed -- the mystery of the ages finally revealed, and with the re-creating of the vast universe and eternity lying ahead, we come finally to THE BEGINNING."
From "Chronology: The Key to Prophetic Understanding" by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D (1990):
"There are strong scriptural reasons that the plan of Yahweh for the redemption of the human race occupies a span of 6000 years in which mankind has predominance and which will be followed by a 1000 year sabbatical type of reign of the Messiah called the Millennium.
"This 7000 year plan of God for mankind's experience is found in early Jewish sources. In a first century work called Pseudo-Philo we read: 'There will be a foundation for men, and they will dwell between them for 7000 years" (28:8,9). The apostle Peter said, referring to events dealing with the creation account in Genesis, "that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Peter 3:8). This same principle is found in a Jewish work published some 150 years before the birth of Christ (Jubilees 4:30), and supposedly was a reflection of the teaching of Moses recorded in Psalm 90:4 -- "a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday."
"It was also felt by the early Jews that the seven days of creation were each to be reckoned as one thousand years each in prophetic time or, 7000 years for mankind's existence on earth. The last 1000 years was to be a time for God to rule on earth and for the earth itself to have a "Sabbath rest." In the Book of Hebrews we find this very teaching shown. "There remains therefore a sabbath-keeping to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9 Greek). This was a reference to the Millennium or the final 1000 years - a seventh millennial "sabbath" which occupies the last 1000 years of what appears to be God's 7000 year plan.
"What is interesting is the fact that the chronology of the Old Testament makes the passage of time from the First Adam to the coming of the Messiah (the Second or Last Adam) as being exactly 4000 years in length. This exact period of 4000 years leads directly to the Messiah of Israel as beginning his prophesied role precisely at the start of the year 4001 from the First Adam. And following the 7000 year prophetic plan as indicated above (6000 years for man and 1000 for a millennial "sabbath"), then there would remain exactly 2000 years from the first advent of the Messiah to his second advent and the beginning of the Millennium. This means that the exact 4000 years' period is important.
"While all of this may be true, when does the 4000 years (determined through Old Testament chronological indications and including Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks) have their termination? If one reckons the first 69 Weeks of Daniel to end with Messiah's birth in 3 B.C., then adding 2000 years shows the Millennium would logically start in A.D. 1998. . . . But if one takes Christ's baptism in A.D. 27 as the terminus of the 4000 years of Old Testament chronology, then one should add a further 30 years (to reach A.D. 2027) before Christ will begin to rule on earth." ELM on Chronology
Comment: God began calling and training Mr. Armstrong in 1927, exactly 100 years before 2027, the year mentioned by Dr. Martin above as representing the end of the 6000 year period, and used him to proclaim the Good News of the World Tomorrow openly and publicly for over 50 years. HWA on Prophetic Time Cycles
"There are strong scriptural reasons that the plan of Yahweh for the redemption of the human race occupies a span of 6000 years in which mankind has predominance and which will be followed by a 1000 year sabbatical type of reign of the Messiah called the Millennium.
"This 7000 year plan of God for mankind's experience is found in early Jewish sources. In a first century work called Pseudo-Philo we read: 'There will be a foundation for men, and they will dwell between them for 7000 years" (28:8,9). The apostle Peter said, referring to events dealing with the creation account in Genesis, "that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Peter 3:8). This same principle is found in a Jewish work published some 150 years before the birth of Christ (Jubilees 4:30), and supposedly was a reflection of the teaching of Moses recorded in Psalm 90:4 -- "a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday."
"It was also felt by the early Jews that the seven days of creation were each to be reckoned as one thousand years each in prophetic time or, 7000 years for mankind's existence on earth. The last 1000 years was to be a time for God to rule on earth and for the earth itself to have a "Sabbath rest." In the Book of Hebrews we find this very teaching shown. "There remains therefore a sabbath-keeping to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9 Greek). This was a reference to the Millennium or the final 1000 years - a seventh millennial "sabbath" which occupies the last 1000 years of what appears to be God's 7000 year plan.
"What is interesting is the fact that the chronology of the Old Testament makes the passage of time from the First Adam to the coming of the Messiah (the Second or Last Adam) as being exactly 4000 years in length. This exact period of 4000 years leads directly to the Messiah of Israel as beginning his prophesied role precisely at the start of the year 4001 from the First Adam. And following the 7000 year prophetic plan as indicated above (6000 years for man and 1000 for a millennial "sabbath"), then there would remain exactly 2000 years from the first advent of the Messiah to his second advent and the beginning of the Millennium. This means that the exact 4000 years' period is important.
"While all of this may be true, when does the 4000 years (determined through Old Testament chronological indications and including Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks) have their termination? If one reckons the first 69 Weeks of Daniel to end with Messiah's birth in 3 B.C., then adding 2000 years shows the Millennium would logically start in A.D. 1998. . . . But if one takes Christ's baptism in A.D. 27 as the terminus of the 4000 years of Old Testament chronology, then one should add a further 30 years (to reach A.D. 2027) before Christ will begin to rule on earth." ELM on Chronology
Comment: God began calling and training Mr. Armstrong in 1927, exactly 100 years before 2027, the year mentioned by Dr. Martin above as representing the end of the 6000 year period, and used him to proclaim the Good News of the World Tomorrow openly and publicly for over 50 years. HWA on Prophetic Time Cycles
"Plan your life as if Christ isn't coming for two hundred years, but live morally as if He is coming tonight!"
-- Advice given by Herbert W. Armstrong to a handful of senior students gathered around his dinner table on March 1, 1976 My Story
-- Advice given by Herbert W. Armstrong to a handful of senior students gathered around his dinner table on March 1, 1976 My Story
"The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. . . ."
(Isaiah 29:11)
(Isaiah 29:11)
" . . . seal the book until the time of the end . . .
for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end . . .
none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand."
(Daniel 12:4, 9-10)
for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end . . .
none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand."
(Daniel 12:4, 9-10)