God's 7,000-Year Calendar

A thousand years is as a day to Him, and it's close to midnight on Day Six

In the Bible, the number seven is clearly important to God.

In Genesis 1, He takes seven days to create the world.

In Leviticus 25, God tells the Hebrew people to mark every seventh year as a Sabbath year. During the Sabbath year, they are to let the land rest and plant nothing. (After seven Sabbath years, they are to commemorate with the Year of Jubilee.)

In Joshua 3, when Joshua and the Israelites miraculously cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, God promises to drive out seven specific nations: the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

In Daniel 9, God says the Antichrist will execute a seven-year covenant with Israel.

The number seven is also prominent in the Book of Revelation, which was written to seven churches and features seven lampstands, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders and seven stars.

For centuries, Jewish scholars have taught that God counts time in sevens. According to them, the seven days in Genesis 1 correspond to 7,000 years of human history. Remember, 2 Peter 3:8 says a thousand years are like a day to the Lord.

That’s why I believe the seven days of Creation prophetically parallel each of the seven millennia of human history. Consider this timeline:

Day One: Light Separates from Darkness

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.—Genesis 1:3-5

On the first day of Creation, God separates light from darkness. Then the sins of the first humans, Adam and Eve, separate them from the God of light. Light and darkness separate physically and then spiritually.

This separation was the most significant event in the first thousand years of human history.

Day Two: The Waters Above and Below Separate

6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.—Genesis 1:6-10

On the second day, God separates the waters above from the waters below. In the second human millennium, God accessed these waters above and below as a judgment in the Flood. God brought the waters together, flooded the earth, and then separated them again, just like on the second day of the Creation.

Day Three: Seed-Bearing Plants Fill the Earth with Life

11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.—Genesis 1:11-13

On the third day, God creates plants with seeds. For the first time, the earth has life. In the third millennium of human history, the Lord made a lasting promise to Abraham that through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Day Four: Lights Fill the Sky

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.—Genesis 1:14-19

On the fourth day, God makes lights to fill the sky: the sun, moon, and stars. In the fourth millennium, God raised up prophets to give light to Israel. Then God sent His Son Jesus as the Great Light, the Light of the World.

Day Five: God Creates Living Animals

20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.—Genesis 1:20-23

On the fifth day, God creates the first living creatures. In the fifth millennium of human history, God raised up new creatures—a new generation of people—who would inherit eternal life because of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

Day Six: God Creates Humans as the Crown of His Creation

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”—Genesis 1:26-28

On the sixth day, God creates man and woman. He tells them to fill the earth and subdue it.

The sixth millennium is the one in which we are living today. God has empowered the Church to grow and take authority in the world, just as He did for Adam and Eve. Like the first humans, the Church has failed in God’s commands. But by the Holy Spirit, He continues to empower us to accomplish what He originally called us to do.

Day Seven: God Rests

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.—Genesis 2:1-3

After God created everything, He rested on the seventh day. We have not yet reached this “Day of Rest,” but it is near. In the coming seventh millennium, God will restore the earth, and all humanity will rest with Jesus as our ruler for the next thousand years.

The apostle John describes this thousand-year reign of Christ in Revelation 20:1-7. It assures us of the certainty of the last thousand years of human history as the millennial rule of Jesus Christ.

Close to Midnight on Day Six

We are living at the end of “Day Six,” during the time before the Rapture and the Tribulation—a seven-year period which will be the most severe time in history on earth, and a time during which believers will experience a wedding with Jesus in heaven.

It’s not lost on me that a traditional Jewish wedding lasts seven days. At the end of this seven-year Marriage Supper of the Lamb, Jesus will return again. We, as His Bride, will return with Him. He will slay the Antichrist and throw Satan into a bottomless pit. Then Jesus will establish His millennial kingdom on earth.

In the very beginning, by creating everything within seven days, God was effectively saying, “I am allotting 7,000 years for humanity.” During the first 6,000 years, humans will have an opportunity to manage the earth. Then Christ will reign on earth for a thousand years.

That thousand-year period is the “seventh day”—the day God rests. And it will be as a day to Him, just as Peter wrote.

This 7,000-year calendar has been present since the very beginning. With the Lord, one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. God isn’t stalling or delaying needlessly. He is just giving every living person an opportunity to repent and believe, and following His perfectly timed plan.