In 2 Peter 3, we find an interesting verse,
”Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (v.12).
I suggest the reader read verses 9 – 14 for a more complete context.
We understand the goal of the Gospel, Romans 12:1,2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We have the added testimony found in 8T 23.4
“It is the privilege of every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.”
I have seen presentations stating that God is waiting for the 6,000 years to be completed, before He comes the second time. This concerns me that people are basing their expectation upon another date. We know that since 1844, there is to be no more prophetic periods, i. e. no prophesies based upon time.
"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" [Revelation 10:5, 6]. This message announces the end of the prophetic periods. The disappointment of those who expected to see our Lord in 1844 was indeed bitter to those who had so ardently looked for His appearing. It was in the Lord's order that this disappointment should come, and that hearts should be revealed. {17MR 9.3}”
I was challenged by one such speaker to do the timeline from the creation to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. That siege happened in 597 BC, according to sources I could find online.
I had started a timeline many years ago from Adam to Israel that is very straight forward, but going from Israel to the king Saul was much more difficult. I asked the Lord for wisdom and especially claimed His promises in, James 1:5 and Deuteronomy 29:29. The thought process used was to make the earth as young a scripture practically allows. We do not have exact dates for certain times, however we have enough to get a very good idea that the 6000 years since creation of this earth has long since passed. Habakkuk 2 tells us of a tarrying time. I believe we are in that time.
Note that for every year I add to the time table that means that the earth is older according to the calculations. If I have made mistakes please let me know.
I did the years of creation and then correlated it to the standard convention for numbering years. Below is a summary of the journey, if you just want the data, skip to the table at the end. There I list the scriptures used and the dates
Israel (Jacob) met the Pharaoh when he was 130 years old. This is the date I use to start the sojourn in Egypt, 2236 year of creation (YOC). From here I use Exodus 12:40 that states the Egyptian stay was 430 years.
The next interesting time period is when Joshua led the Children of Israel. We know that Joshua was over twenty when they left Egypt. Therefore, he was at least 60 when he crossed the Jordan, but could have been 80 years old or older. I don't know. Joshua died at 110 years old. Caleb was 40 years old when he went as a spy. Joshua 14:6-13. Using Caleb's age for Joshua is the approximation I am using. It is probably wrong. Using the Caleb's age, that would put 30 year in conquering the land of promise, instead of 50 years. Joshua is not a "Judge" per Acts 13 -- so, time spent conquering the land should be between wilderness exodus and time of Judges. This is an indeterminate amount of time. I arbitrarily picked thirty years as a reasonable guess. It could be between fifty years and ten years.
Another interesting time frame is mentioned in Judges 2:7 , "And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. " We don't know how long this time frame is. Also see Acts 13:18-20. I am not adding years for this event. We don’t know when to start the timing for the Judges. It could be 10 years of fifty, I don’t know.
The time of the Judges is given to us by Paul In Acts 13:20, Paul speaking at Antioch, "..after...he gave unto them judges about the space of 450 years, until Samuel the prophet." However we don’t know the time between the Judges and when Samuel the prophet was considered in power. The judges ended around 3186 YOC. I use that date to start the reign of king Saul. I understand that I could be off as much as forty years here, but stay with me.
We have all the kings next, so the timeline is easy. When Jehoiachin was king and Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem it was around year 3688.5 YOC. This translates to 597 BC. Going back on our timeline this means that creation happened in the year 4285 BC or before. Remember we didn’t add years for some items that had years.
This means that on or before the year 1715 AD, the earth was 6000 years from the creation.
This shocked me.
I looked at the timeline to see where I made a mistake. The only estimation I made that could make the earth younger was the amount of time given for Joshua to conquer the land of Cannan. I estimated that he was 80 years old when the conquest of the land of Cannan started. We know that he died at 110 and the conquest had basically ended with the seven kingdoms of the Cannanites. Worst case scenario for the timeline is an subtraction of thirty years which would mean it only took less than one year to conquer Cannan. That would cause the 6000 years to end in 1745 AD. This is still much before 1844, when the 2300 year prophesy ended. This is why I am not concerned about a few years that are unaccounted for in the scriptures.
Here is the chart with the scripture references I used.
The reason I am sharing this is to allow people to look at the evidence and not be deceived as concerning the time. Today is the day of salvation, to none is given the assurance of tomorrow. Please look for and hasten the day of the Lord.
May the Lord guide, direct and keep us.
Your brother in Christ,
David Belcher
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