God's Final Week - 3
Six Thousand Years
CHAPTER 3
SIX THOUSAND YEARS
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 …
— II Peter 3:8-9
The earliest known eschatological perspective is one with which few Christians today are familiar. It is called the Millennial Day theory.
In this paradigm, each day of the creation week is symbolic of a corresponding epoch of 1,000 years. After 6,000 years, human history as we know it will come to an abrupt end.
It may surprise you to learn that this viewpoint was quite common in the early Church and many of the earliest Church fathers proclaimed it. Bishop Irenaeus, a man trained by Polycarp, who was in turn trained by the Apostle John, wrote this around AD 150.
For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded … This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year.
— Against Heresies
Conveniently, the Millennial Day perspective has fallen out of favor of late, perhaps partially because it appears to have failed. By many reckonings, including Archbishop Ussher’s famous chronology, the Second Coming should have already taken place sometime around the year AD 2000. Indeed, many believe the year 6000 has already come and gone. But they are deceived.
Why would something once so widely known as the Millennial Day perspective have become so obscure in our day? Why would we in Christendom reject it right as the 6,000th year is upon us? What psyops has the dragon been running on us in these last days?
I believe that God has hidden many different levels of meaning within the Bible. And he tells us plainly that he has declared the end from the beginning. So why did God choose to create all things in one week? Could he not have done it in a nanosecond? I believe that Yahweh, the Master Storyteller, has woven prophecy and foreshadowing into the Bible in such a way that even the creation story itself is prophetic. The creation account of each day foretells the key event or defining characteristic of the corresponding 1000-year epoch.
The Apostle Peter hints at his own understanding of this in the letter of Second Peter.
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
— II Peter 3:5-8 (ESV)
Notice how Peter directly links the earth being formed out of the water (day 2 of creation) with Noah’s Flood (millennial day 2). This is not a random statement, but one which belies a deeper knowledge.
Day 1: God creates the light and declares it good. In Genesis 1:4, Moses makes a special point of stating that Yahweh divided the light from the darkness. This detail does not seem to be absolutely necessary, given the context of the verse. However, when you consider that this is prophesying regarding Adam and Eve’s fall and their obtaining knowledge of both good and evil, light and dark, then this statement makes better sense.
Indeed, throughout the rest of the Scriptures good and evil are frequently likened to light and darkness.
The fall of mankind was the defining moment of the first millennium, year 0 through year 999.
Note that in Genesis 2:17 God says that in the day in which Adam eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he will surely die. Have you ever wondered why Adam didn’t drop dead that very same day?
Many argue this passage refers to a spiritual death. Yet in the very next chapter, after Adam has disobeyed the command and fallen into sin, God pronounces his sentence in this way.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
— Genesis 3:19
Returning to the dust does not seem to be speaking of a spiritual death but rather of a physical one. This is another clue pointing us to the simple truth. We learn in Genesis 5 that Adam lived 930 years. He did not live past a thousand years but still died in millennial day 1, the same day he had eaten the forbidden fruit.
Also note that for now I have assumed a year 0. We will revisit this assumption in a forthcoming chapter.
Day 2: God creates the sky to divide the waters above from the waters below. The defining event of earth’s second millennium was the global Flood, which destroyed all human beings, with the exception of Noah and his family.
The second millennium, day 2, was years 1000 through 1999.
Day 3: God gathered together the waters below and caused the dry land to appear. This description foreshadows Moses and the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14:21-22, when God miraculously delivered the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. In both narratives, the waters are described as being gathered together. God’s deliverance of his people was the highlight of day 3, and it also pointed to the future work of his Son, Yeshua, who would accomplish the final deliverance of his people from the bondage of sin and death.
Day 3 was years 2000 through 2999.
Day 4: God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Interestingly, Genesis refers to the sun and moon only as the greater and lesser lights. In his Gospel account, the Apostle John refers to John the Baptist and Jesus in this way.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
— John 1:6-9
Jesus and John the Baptist lived and ministered primarily during the fourth millennial day (as we will learn later, Yeshua’s final months of ministry likely occurred in the 4,000th year, which was the first year of day 5). Doubtless the arrival of God’s only begotten Son to redeem his people was the central event of this thousand years.
Day 4 was years 3000 through 3999.
Take note that no life was created on days 1 through 4.
Day 5: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Genesis 1:20). In John 7:37-39, Jesus likens the Holy Ghost to rivers of living water. With this in mind, the language here in Genesis 1 seems to be prophesying about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the year 4000, just shortly after Yeshua’s ascension. Indeed, the Church grew tremendously during this thousand years and the Spirit’s work was accomplished as millions of new converts came to faith in Jesus.
Day 5 was years 4000 through 4999.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh …
— Acts 2:17
Consider that the last days mentioned by Peter in this verse likely refer to days five and six of God’s grand week of history.
Day 6: God creates the beast of the earth after his kind and then he creates man in his own image. To my mind, this is possibly alluding to the age of man and the concurrent rise of the beast spoken of in the book of Revelation. It was primarily during day six that man discovered science and used its resultant technologies to vastly increase earth’s population. I believe this is a large part of why so much of the Bible points to the end times, the times we find ourselves living in right now. And that is because it appears that around 15-20% of all human beings who have ever lived are alive right now. This population explosion was only possible thanks to achievements such as the Haber process, which allows for the production of modern fertilizers, along with the availability and abundance of diesel fuel, and the efficient, albeit toxic, methods of modern farming.
Alongside this growth in human technological capability, the beast system has flourished and spread its tentacles throughout society. Anyone who has been watching understands that the courts have been corrupted. The media has been corrupted (fake news). The medical establishment has been corrupted. The financial system has been corrupted. Governments have been corrupted. Do you really think the Church has escaped this festering corruption? In a future chapter, we will look more closely into some of the psyops Satan has been wielding to great effect on Christendom during these final days of history. This is not simply fifth-generation, unconventional, asymmetric warfare. This is 120th-generation spiritual warfare.
Those of us either awake or awakening during this time of worldwide tribulation – a dangerous position to be in, no doubt – may know the shadowy group of controllers behind these corruptions as the cabal, or the deep state, or the death cult, or the globalists, or the powers that be. At bottom, these are all just different names for the beast system, which is ultimately run by the dragon and his minions.
If you go far enough down the rabbit hole in researching these entities and their plans for humanity, you come to the inevitable conclusion that this level of darkness, this level of evil and deception, cannot be conceived and brought to fruition by men alone. There is a far older malevolence at work here. The fingerprints of fallen angel activity are all over the powers that be and their various secret societies and shadowy organizations. But we should not be surprised. Satan is called the god of this world in Scripture, and this realm is his temporary domain.
And yet, in the creation account of day six, God appears to have prophesied regarding all of this from the very beginning. He creates the beast of the earth. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11). Interestingly, this second beast did indeed come to life during day six.
It is also curious that there was no life created in the first four days, just as for the first 4,000 years mankind was dead in trespasses and sins. And then, after Yeshua’s work on the cross, he sent forth his Spirit to bring spiritual life to his followers, just as in the last two days of the creation account life was at last created.
After day six, we are told in Genesis 2 that God ended his creation. Once again, this appears to be a subtle prophecy of things to come. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Genesis 2:2). This wording is significant.
In the Epistle of Barnabas – not a part of the canon of Scripture, but nonetheless an important New Testament period work – the writer has this to say regarding the seventh day.
He speaks of the Sabbath at the beginning of the Creation, “And God made in six days the works of His hands and on the seventh day He made an end, and rested in it and sanctified it.” Notice, children, what is the meaning of “He made an end in six days”? He means this: that the LORD will make an end of everything in six thousand years, for a day with Him means one thousand years. And He Himself is my witness when He says, “Behold, the Day of the LORD will be as one thousand years.” So then, children, in six days (that is, in six thousand years) everything will be completed.
— Epistle of Barnabas 15:3-4 (LSV)
Considering the degree of clarity this text brings to God’s timeline, is it really any wonder that it was hidden from Christians for centuries? Why did they not teach us this in Sunday school?
Take particular note also that while the evening and morning are specifically mentioned for days one through six, there is no mention of evening and morning for day seven.
Day 6 was, is, and will be years 5000 through 5999.
The start of the year 6000 marks the beginning of day seven. This is the day when God will rest with his people.
Interestingly, within the first sentence of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) there are seven words. Transliterated they read:
Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim v’et ha’aretz.
If we take these words in order, they also have a curious way of corresponding to the six thousand-year days and the seventh period.
The first word, as we know, is bereshit, the beginning of all things, the beginning day. The second word is bara meaning to create or to fill or to fatten. During day two, of course, God filled the earth with water. The third word is Elohim. It was during the third day that God revealed himself to Abraham and formed a covenant with him. Also during the third day, God made a covenant with Jacob/Israel, and later with Moses and the people of Israel.
The fourth word in Genesis 1:1 is et. Et in Hebrew is not defined, but it serves to link verbs with their direct objects. It also happens to be composed of the first Hebrew letter, aleph, and the last letter, tav. This points to Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega in Greek. Jesus came to earth and lived primarily at the close of the fourth day. The fifth word is hashamayim, meaning the heavens. The Son, Jesus, returned to heaven at the beginning of the fifth thousand-year day.
The sixth word is v’et, meaning “and et” or “again et.” Jesus will come again at the close of the sixth day. The seventh word is ha’aretz, meaning earth. Jesus reigns over the new heavens and the new earth and dwells with us on the new earth for the eternal seventh day. Or, potentially, Jesus reigns on earth for a literal thousand-year day seven. We will explore the idea of the Millennial Reign in a forthcoming chapter.
Once again, the design within this structure of seven words is apparent. God has hidden these things in plain sight within his Word, waiting for us to draw out their deeper levels of meaning.