The seven day theory or seven thousand years from creation theory
by Don Koenig
The seven day model of creation leads many to believe that there will be a millennial week of seven days (seven thousand years) from Adam until the end of the seventh millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
The earth was created in six days according to the scripture. There are two places in scripture that say a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Scripture also says that there still remains a day of rest for God's people. Further, we have been told that God rested on the seventh day and likewise He promised a day of rest for His people. This rest will occur under the rule of Jesus when He returns and sets up the promised kingdom on earth for one thousand years. We are told six times in Revelation that this reign on earth will last a thousand years. After the thousand years Jesus will offer up the kingdom to the Father and Satan will be released out of his prison to deceive the world one last time. Satan will then be cast into the Lake of Fire and a new heaven and earth without sin, death or the curse will be created for man to dwell in for eternity. The seven day theory is based on this thousand year week theory that has 7000 years from creation or from Adam until the eternal kingdom (some believers say 7000 years from creation and others say 7000 years from Adam).Are their any problems with this dating?
Scholars have disagreement on the amount of time that passed since Adam and the date of the flood.
Some are dogmatic about the dating from Adam using the Masoretic text of the Old Testament. By their count (using Bishop Usher's chronology), six thousand years from Adam would have occurred in 1996 AD because Bishop Usher has Jesus being born 4000 years from Adam in 4 BC. However, Bishop Usher may be wrong because other ancient texts say Terah was 145 when he died reference. Some scholars think the Masoretic text is in error. If this is true and Abram was actually born when Terah was 70 as Genesis 11:26 seems to imply Usher's dating would be off by 60 years.
After not not seeing the millennium in 1996 AD, I am inclined to believe that Bishop Usher's dating is in error by 60 years due to the explanation given above. Therefore, It is my opinion that if the seven day theory is true, then the seventh day will begin until about 2057 AD (give or take a number of decades because some scholars see other dating problems). However, let's not not get overly dogmatic about this. Christian scholars disagree some think that Adam could have lived as long as 12,000 years ago.Some insist that the dating given in the Old Testament had generation gaps that were perfectly allowable in Hebrew writing. Some proof they use for this theory is the dating and genealogy given by the Jewish historian Josephus and the dating and genealogy given in the Septuagint (the Hebrew scriptures translated into Greek approximately 300 BC by seventy chosen Jewish tribal leaders). The Septuagint indicates Adam was created about 1,500 years before the date given by Bishop Usher. The Septuagint was actually translated 800 years earlier than the Masoretic text version of the Hebrew scriptures from which we get the Old Testament. The Septuagint is a good translation into Greek of the way the seventy leaders understood the Hebrew texts in 300 BC so that should carry some weight since they were much closer to the language at that time. However, the Septuagint is a translation and exact translations are impossible. Ancient text scholars using ancient documents such as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" claim that the Masoretic text has some minor differences with more ancient Hebrew texts so their might be some possibility of minor error in the Masoretic text as well.
It appears that the Septuagint was either quoted by Jesus or that He understood the Hebrew scriptures in much the same way as those who wrote the Septuagint. If creation was actually about 1,500 years earlier as the Septuagint indicates, this curiously would be the same amount of time as Bible chronology indicates there was from Adam until the flood (more about my own theory on this later).
The early dating from the Septuagint might even be almost correct. Calendar changes might have occurred that introduced error. Earth upheavals and time abnormalities recorded in the scriptures might explain the differences in the records. The Septuagint writers might have had better understanding of the amount of time since creation from records no longer available to us. The Septuagint has the flood approximately 1,000 years earlier than Bishop Usher's chronology. Josephus, the great historian, has the flood dated about 900 years earlier than Bishop Usher. Other ancient texts put the flood hundreds of years earlier than either the Septuagint or Josephus. Perhaps we should put more weight on these ancient texts then on Usher's chronology or even by our own counting of the years using our incomplete understanding of God's dating system.
Archeologists claim there are known facts of civilizations that make a 2300 BC flood impossible because there are known civilizations that existed centuries earlier than that date. Thus, most scientists cannot believe the account given by some Bible fundamentalists who declare that Bible chronology indicates Adam was created about 6,000 years ago. If the flood was actually about 1,500 years earlier than Bishop Usher's dating the valid arguments of the archeologists would vanish. Of course this early dating of the flood would demolish a literal seven thousand years from creation theory.
All this leads me to a seven day theory of my own (which probably is wrong as well).
If we subtract out the time from Adam until the flood and start over with Noah using the timing in the Septuagint from creation, then a seven day theory might make more sense. God may have started His seven thousand year plan afresh at the flood. This all happened according to Genesis and the non-canonical book of Enoch because the angels came down and corrupted the flesh on the earth. God may have even provided the answer to the seven day riddle Himself. God told Noah that His Spirit would strive with man for only 120 more divisions of time. (It was not years until the flood as some think, because the flood came 100 years later. Those who say God was saying man's life span would be 120 years after the flood could not be correct either. Man's life span after the flood was still hundreds of years and then it dwindled to the 70 to 80 years that God declared it would be in the ninetieth Psalm).
God might have been telling Noah that there would be 120 Jubilees of 50 years each or 6,000 years before He poured out His Spirit on all flesh. After this 6,000 year period we would be in the millennial day of rest where God's Spirit would not be striving with men because in the final millennium, under the Messiah, all flesh will be filled with knowledge about God.
In my theory the exact date of the flood is not known so I have to go back 6,000 years from the year that I think all world trends indicate that Jesus will come in order to determine the year of the flood. I believe Jesus will physically return as King within a decade of 2035 AD (the rapture of His Church being seven or more years sooner). That would place the flood around 3965 BC or if was from the time that God declared this declaration to Noah 3865 BC. Those dates would make the birth of Adam about 7500 years ago and more compatible with the dating of Josephus and the Septuagint . I know this is circular reasoning but my theory allows the seven day theory to remain valid with scientific evidence of older civilizations. I only offer my conjecture as an additional possibility.
Ages
Even the heavens proclaim God's plan and timetable. A Zodiac age is approximately 2,000 years.
Some ancient calendars such as the Mayan indicate that this present age ends around 2013 AD.
Jesus said He would be with His Church through the Holy Spirit until the end of the age (at which point He would come back physically). He did not say "ages" although He does speaks of an age to come in another passage. Thus, we know He was talking about coming at the end of this present age - not some distant future one.
Signs of the time
Jesus was raised from the dead early on the third day. The spiritual body of Christ is also likely to be raised early on her third day. (A day is as a thousand years so the Church would be taken to heaven shortly after 2030 AD if one uses solar years or anytime after 2004 AD if one uses the 360 day biblical year)
I do not believe we can be dogmatic about the seven day theory or the accuracy of ancient calendars but the theories and timing I present fit the scenario that most of the generation living today will see Bible prophecy fulfilled within their life span.