The 7000 Year Plan of God

We know that the "day of the Lord" is the Sabbath (Shabbat) and the Sabbath is a foreshadowing of the 1,000-year Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). The 1,000-year Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) is the last 1,000 years of the 7,000-year redemptive plan of the God of Israel.

Each day in the Bible begins in the "evening" and ends in the "morning" (Genesis [Bereishit] 1). The "evening" part of the "day of the L-rd" (the Messianic Age/Athid Lavo) is the tribulation/birth pangs of the Messiah (Chevlai shel Mashiach). The Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus will return to the earth at His second coming as the Kingly Messiah known as Messiah ben David at the "break of the morning." He is the "star that comes out of Jacob" (Numbers [Bamidbar] 24:17) and the "bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16). In the "morning" part of the "day of the Lord" (Messianic Age/Athid Lavo), the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) will teach the Torah to the nations from the city of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) (Isaiah [Yeshayahu] 2:2-3).

THE AGES OF THE 7,000-YEAR PLAN OF God

When the God of Israel created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden), He ordained that from the creation of Adam and Eve to the end of the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) would be 7,000 years of time. Before the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden) was eternity past. After the Messianic Age is eternity future. Future eternity (Olam Haba) will be a return to the paradise of eternity past (represented by the Garden of Eden before the sin of Adam). Time is going forward to the past. That which was (Garden of Eden before the sin of Adam) is that which shall be (eternity future/Olam Habah).In Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) 1:9 it is written:

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

Traditional Judaism understands that the first 6,000 years is known as the present age/world (Olam Hazeh). These first 6,000 years are divided into three 2,000-year periods of time or ages. The first 2,000 years from the creation of Adam to the time of Abraham (Avraham) is known as the period/age of desolation (Tohu).

The next two thousand years from the time of Abraham to the expected arrival of the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) is known as the period/age of Torah. The final 2,000 years of time within the 6,000 years of the present/age world (Olam Hazeh) is known as the days of the Messiah (Yemot Mashiach).

The last 1,000 years is known as the Messianic era or the future age/coming (Athid Lavo). The 7,000-year redemptive plan of the God of Israel can be seen in the following chart.

         yr.   1           2,000         4,000          6,000         7,000
(eternity past)|            |            |              |             |(eternity future)
 Olam Haba---  !------------!------------!--------------!-------------! ---Olam Habah
               |            |            |              |             |
      Days of: Tohu         Torah        Messiah        Athid Lavo                            
               (------------- Olam Hazeh ----------------)                               
                                                                           
                                                                            

THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION IS A BLUEPRINT FOR THE 7,000 YEARS OF TIME

The 7,000-year plan of the God of Israel is a major concept and foundational truth in understanding Bible prophecy and eschatology (study of the last things). The rabbis of traditional Judaism understand that the God of Israel gave the seven days of creation in the book of Genesis as Torah/instruction to teach His people that there are 7,000 years of time from the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gan Eden) to the end of the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). Each day in creation represents 1,000 years in time. This is based upon connecting Psalm (Tehillim) 90:4 to the seven days of creation. In Psalm 90:4 it is written:

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."

In rabbinic literature, it is also taught that each day in creation represents 1,000 years of time. In the Talmud in Sanhedrin 97 it is written:

"It has been taught in accordance with R. Kattina: Just as the seventh year is one year of release in seven, so is the world: one thousand years out of seven shall be fallow, as it is written. And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day; [Isaiah 2:11] and it is further said, A Psalm and song for the sabbath day; [Psalm 92] meaning the day that is altogether Sabbath [i.e. the period of complete desolation] and it is also said, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past". [Psalm 90:4: thus `day' in the preceding verses means a thousand years]."

The traditional Jewish view of linking each of the seven days of creation to 1,000 years of time based upon Psalm (Tehillim) 90:4 is restated in the extra-biblical book of Barnabas Chapter 13, verses 3-6 as it is written:

"And even in the beginning of the creation he makes mention of the sabbath. And God made in six days the works of his hands; and he finished them on the seventh day, and he rested the seventh day, and sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies, he finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this; that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with him one day is a thousand years; as himself testifieth, saying, Behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is it that he saith, And he rested the seventh day: he meaneth this; that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the Wicked One, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars; then he shall gloriously rest in that seventh day."

The traditional Jewish view of each day of creation representing 1,000 years of time is expressed in the New Testament (Brit Hadashah) in II Peter (Kefa) 3:8-10 as it is written:

"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. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

That is why God could say to Adam not to eat of the tree of Good and Evil, for in the day that you do, you shall surely die("muwth", physical death). Adam did not die the same day but when he was 930 years. He did die still in the first 1000 years which is one day to God.

WHAT IS THE CURRENT JEWISH YEAR?

As of this writing, the current year in the Jewish calendar is 5764 (2003 A.D.). In the book, Gates of the Seasons by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in an article written by Alexander Guttmann on pages 7-10, he explains the origin and understanding of the present Jewish calendar.

"The main purpose of the Jewish calendar is, and always has been, to set the dates of the festivals. Our present calendar has its roots in the Torah, but it has been modified by Jewish religious authorities through the ages. The principal rules were established by the Sages and Rabbis of antiquity and were supplemented by medieval scholars. In Talmudic times the regulation of the calendar was the exclusive right of the Jewish leadership in the Land of Israel, particularly that of the Nasi (Patriach). Since that time, such regulation has been regarded as a task of crucial importance for the observance of Judaism.

In the Bible, the Hebrew months are lunar (i.e. each month begins with the "birth" of the new moon). However, since festivals such as Passover and Sukkot had to occur in the proper agricultural season (i.e. according to the solar year), it is obvious that the Jewish calendar must be lunar-solar. This means that the lunar year (approximately 354 days) and the solar year (approximately 365 days) had to be harmonized and adjusted to each other, a complex process that was meticulously refined by the ancient and medieval Rabbis.

The Jewish day has twenty-four hours and starts in the evening. The length of the lunar month is traditionally calculated as 29 days, 12 hours, and 793 parts of an hour (divided into 1080 parts). This is the time span between one new moon and the next. Since it is impractical to start a new month at varying hours of the day, the Sages of antiquity ordained that the length of the month should alternate between 29 and 30 days. Since the lunar month is somewhat longer than 29 days and 12 hours, the remainder is taken care of by making the months of Cheshvan and Kislev flexible, i.e. they can both have either 29 or 30 days.

The introduction of a permanent Jewish calendar became increasingly urgent after Jews began to spread throughout the world. As Jewry dispersed, regular contacts with the Jewish leadership in the Land of Israel, which had the sole privilege of regulating the calendar, became more and more difficult. The most important step in this process of permanent calendar reform was the adoption in the eighth century CE of a nineteen-year cycle of "intercalation" (i.e. harmonization of the solar and lunar calendars). The adoption of this cycle made the actual physical observation of the new moon and the signs of approaching spring unnecessary. This cycle of nineteen years adjusts the lunar year to the solar year by inserting into it seven leap years (i.e. the additional 30-day month of Adar) in the following order: every third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth year.

In the Bible the months are most frequently designated by ordinal numbers. However, there are references both to such ancient names as Ziv, Ethanim, and Aviv and to some of the now customary names of Kislev, Tevet, Adar, Nisan, Sivan, and Elul, which are of Babylonian origin. But, it is only since the first century that the Hebrew calendar has employed the now traditional names of Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishri, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, and Adar.

The Jewish tradition of counting years since the creation of the world has it roots in early Talmudic times, but it was not adopted authoritatively until several centuries later. In Biblical times, dates were referred to as being "two years before the earthquake," the year of the death of King Uzziah," etc. In Talmudic times, we find instances of dating from the creation of the world, but this was adopted as the Jewish method only much later as a response to Christian dating.

It was in the eighth century that Christians began to date their documents generally as AD (Anno Domini, the year of the Lord), and so it is hardly a coincidence that in the eighth and ninth centuries we find more and more Jewish documents dated "since the creation of the world" (sometimes referred to as AM, Anno Mundi, the year of the world). Obviously, calculating dates based on the Christian theological principles were not acceptable to Jews; nevertheless, it was not until the twelfth century that dating "since the creation" was accepted by Jews universally.

Only a minority of Jews today would take the traditional Jewish date as being literally "since the creation of the world" . Jewish texts will often use such designations as BCE (Before the Common, or Christian Era) or CE in order to avoid any dating related to Christianity. In order to determine the Jewish year for a given civil year, the number 3760 is added. The greatest change which the Rabbis made in the festival calendar was the addition of a day to each of the holidays ordained in the Torah, except Yom Kippur.

Not only was the confirmation and sanctification of the new moon - and therefore the new month - the duty of the Israel authorities, but theirs was also the task of communicating the dates of the new moon to every Jewish community. This was a task of vital importance, as the new moon determines the dates of the festivals. At an earlier time, the new moon (i.e. the first of the month) was communicated to all the Jews in Israel and the Diaspora by kindling flares on hilltops. However, after the Samaritans kindled flares at the wrong time to confuse the Jews, the news about the New Moon had to be communicated by messengers.

Since it often happened that the messengers did not arrive in time at the places of their destination outside of Israel because of road hazards, wars, or political upheavals, a second day was added to the holidays for the Jews. This assured that one of the two days on which they celebrated the festival was indeed the proper holy day.

In Israel the addition of these "second days" to the festivals was not necessary because the news about the sighting of the new moon, proclaimed in Israel, reached every part of that land in due time, i.e. prior to the dates of the festivals. The exception was Rosh HaShanah, which falls on the first day of the month of Tishri, making timely communication about this New Moon, even in Israel, impossible.

During the Talmudic period a stable, scientifically determined calendar was adopted, and so the pragmatic need for "second days" disappeared. But the Israeli authorities did not abolish these extra days of observance for Diaspora Jews (nor the second day of Rosh HaShanah for Israeli Jews) because of the Rabbinic principle that we "may not change the custom of [our] forefathers."

Because it was mostly in response to more and more Christians beginning to date their documents around the eighth century as AD (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord) and because it was not until the twelfth century that the present way of Jewish dating of time was accepted by Jews universally, it can be concluded that the modern Jewish calendar is not literally "since the creation of the world." When the Jewish people recalculated time "since the beginning of the world", they did not recalculate all of the years when they were taken captive in Babylon (Judaism in the 1st Century )Volume I, Chapter 1 by George Foote Moore.

One error is from a misunderstanding of Daniel 9 when the Jews assumed that there were 490 years between the destruction of the first and second temples rather than 656. This introduced a 166 year discrepancy. The other is a copyist error into the Septuagint text of geneologies of Gen.5 of 73 years, for a total of 239, making the year 6002.

Biblically, the God of Israel did ordain that there would be 6,000 years of time from the creation of Adam to the beginning of the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). Therefore,only the God of Israel knows for sure exactly when that is and how close we are to the conclusion of 6,000 years of time and the beginning of the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). But the year 2000ad (on Rosh Hashana), could very well be the year. Sometimes God uses the simple to confound the (so-called) wise.

The greatest 1,000-year period of the 7,000 years of time will be during the days of the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo). This period of time follows the first 6,000 years of time known as the Olam Hazeh (the present world/age).

Being Jewish, the disciples (talmidim) of the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus had an understanding of the 7,000-year redemptive plan of the God of Israel and knew that they were living in the Olam Hazeh (the present world/age). By knowing that the Olam Hazeh (the present world/age) is followed by the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) and by knowing that they were speaking to the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus Himself, they decided to ask Him what signs that His people should expect to see so that they would know when the present world/age (Olam Hazeh) was concluding and the Messianic Age (Athid Lavo) was about to arrive. In Matthew (Mattityahu) 24:3 it is written:

"When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim [disciples] came to him privately. `Tell us,' they said, `when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that you are coming and that the `olam hazeh' is ending?' " (The Complete Jewish Bible version by David Stern)

We should notice that the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua did not rebuke His disciples (talmidim) for understanding that the first 6,000 years of time were known as the Olam Hazeh (the present world/age). However, the Jewish Messiah did acknowledge the premise of their question and gave a detailed answer in the rest of Matthew 24 known as the Olivet discourse.

THE JEWISH MESSIAH WILL COME AFTER 4,000 YEARS OF TIME

It is traditional Jewish understanding that the Jewish Messiah would come 4,000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve. In the Talmud in Sanhedrin 97 it is written:

"The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation; [i.e. no Torah. It is a tradition that Abraham was fifty-two years old when he began to convert men to the worship of the true God; from Adam until then, two thousand years elapsed] two thousand years the Torah flourished; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era, [i.e. Messiah will come within that period] but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost. [He should have come at the beginning of the last two thousand years; the delay is due to our sins.]"(that's sad!)

Therefore, as recorded in the Talmud in Sanhedrin 97, there was an expectation that the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) would come after 4,000 years of time. In an article in the Jewish Press newspaper (Brooklyn, New York) by Rabbi Sholom Klass entitled, The Coming of the Messiah, he explains that there was a high expectation among the Jewish people for a Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) during the first century. In his article, Rabbi Sholom Klass writes:

"The belief in a personal Messiah reached its highest tension during that period of the first century when Rome sent her despotic procurators to rule over Judea. The yoke was most oppressive and the Jews awaited a leader whom God would send to articulate their latent spirit of rebellion and free them from the Roman tyranny."