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 there any problems with this dating?
Scholars have disagreement on the amount of time that passed since Adam and also on 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 scholars see text dating differences in the manuscripts and calendar problems). However, let's not not get overly dogmatic about this. Christian scholars disagree, some think only key people were named in the genealogies and 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.
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 almost 1,500 years earlier than Usher's chronology as the Septuagint indicates.The early dating might 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 and Josephus have the flood several hundred years Bishop Usher's chronology. 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 world 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 that declare that Bible chronology indicates Adam was created about 6,000 years ago. If the flood was actually even only 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 impact a literal seven thousand years from creation theory. It is interesting that a wooden structure and artifacts was recently found at 13,000 feet on Mt. Ararat and it carbon dated at 4,800 years old. That would put the flood about 2790 BC.
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 to take His Church to heaven). Jesus did not say "ages" although Jesus does speaks of an age to come in another passage. Thus, we know Jesus 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 modern 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.
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