A 6,000 Year Plan?

At this news page, I have often emphasized that the end of human rule is coming soon, but that it cannot come as soon as in 2008 or 2009.

Did you know that early professors of Christ believed that God gave humans 6,000 years to rule over themselves and that after this rule they believed that Jesus Christ would then reign on the world for 1,000 years?

Did you know that even though the Church of Rome considers that latter teaching to be a doctrine of Antichrist, that even a 20th century pope blessed a book written by a Catholic taught a six thousand year plan and admitted that the early Church endorsed the millennial teaching?

Did Second and Third Century Writers Teach the Six Thousand Plan?

Although we in the Living Church of God do not consider that the so-called Epistle of Barnabas is inspired, it does show that in the early second century that some did understand the idea of a 6000 year plan followed by the thousand year reign of Christ:

Moreover concerning the Sabbath likewise it is written in the Ten Words, in which He spake to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai; And ye shall hallow the Sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and with a pure heart. And in another place He saith; If my sons observe the Sabbath then I will bestow My mercy upon them. Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day Epistle of Barnabas, 15:1-5).

Hence the above quote shows that there was a belief among those who professed Christianity that there would be a literal thousand year reign of Christ on the Earth, and a 6,000 year plan for humans prior to that.

Around the end of the second century, a heretical leader named Bardesan wrote the following:

Bardesan, therefore, an aged man, and one celebrated for his knowledge of events, wrote, in a certain work which was composed by him, concerning the synchronisms with one another of the luminaries of heaven, speaking as follows :– Two revolutions of Saturn, 60 years; 5 revolutions of Jupiter, 60 years; 40 revolutions of Mars, 60 years; 60 revolutions of the Sun, 60 years; 72 revolutions of Venus, 60 years; 150 revolutions of Mercury, 60 years; 720 revolutions of the Moon, 60 years.

And this,” says he, “is one synchronism of them all; that is, the time of one such synchronism of them. So that from hence it appears that to complete too such synchronisms there will be required six thousands of years. Thus :– 200 revolutions of Saturn, six thousands of years; 500 revolutions of Jupiter, 6 thousands of years; 4 thousand revolutions of Mars, 6 thousands of years; Six thousand revolutions of the Sun, 6 thousands of years.” 7 thousand and 200 revolutions of Venus, 6 thousands of years; 12 thousand revolutions of Mercury, 6 thousands of years.” 72 thousand revolutions of the Moon, 6 thousands of years.”

These things did Bardesan thus compute when desiring to show that this world would stand only six thousands of years (By a certain Philip, disciple of Bardesan. Appendix after The Book of the Laws of Various Countries. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1886. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

Hence, he felt that the world would last 6000 years.

Irenaeus, another heretical leader (but one Roman Catholics consider to be a saint), claimed to have met Polycarp of Smyrna. Here is some of what he wrote about this:

Thus, then, the six hundred years of Noah, in whose time the deluge occurred because of the apostasy, and the number of the cubits of the image for which these just men were sent into the fiery furnace, do indicate the number of the name of that man in whom is concentrated the whole apostasy of six thousand years, and unrighteousness, and wickedness, and false prophecy, and deception (Irenaeus. Adversus haereses, Book V, Chapter 29, Verse 2. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1. Edited by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

Hippolytus was, and is still considered to have been, an important Roman Catholic leader and saint:

The feast of St. Hippolytus is kept on 13 August…Hippolytus was the most important theologian and the most prolific religious writer of the Roman Church in the pre-Constantinian era (St. Hippolytus of Rome, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910).

Notice what he wrote:

And 6, 000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day “on which God rested from all His works.” For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they “shall reign with Christ,” when He comes from heaven, as John says in his Apocalypse: for “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years.”Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6, 000 years must be fulfilled. (Hippolytus. On the HexaËmeron, Or Six Days’ Work. From Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0502.htm verified 9/17/07).

Notice therefore that “the most important theologian and the most prolific religious writer of the Roman Church in the pre-Constantinian era” taught the 7,000 year plan (6,000 for humankind, followed by 1,000 from God).

Thus certain second and third century leaders who professed Christ clearly believed in the teaching that there was a 6,000 year plan.

From Modern Living Church of God and Roman Catholic Writers

The Living Church of God understands that God has given humankind 6,000 years (like the six days of the physical creation) to live cut off from God and that this will be followed by the 1,000 year millennial reign (like the seventh day which was created by God’s rest) of Christ. Notice:

Our Creator is working out a 7,000-year plan. Almost 6,000 years of recorded human history have now passed. And although our present man-made calendar may be off by about 15 to 20 years because of details (such as the accession years of kings) that mankind has failed to calculate precisely, we likely are now living in the last full generation before our Creator will supernaturally intervene in human affairs…

God is indeed longsuffering and patient. He counts a “thousand years as a day.” So in His “work week” of dealing with rebellious mankind, God has allotted six millennial days (6,000 years). And the seventh “day” of 1,000 years will be the millennial reign of Jesus Christ—finally bringing genuine PEACE and GODLINESS to a deceived world. “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall REIGN with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6) (Meredith RC. A Turning Point in World Affairs. Tomorrow’s World Magazine, July-Sept, 1999).

This view is not unique to the Living Church of God. According to even Roman Catholics, parts of this view have long been the belief of those who claim to believe at least part of the Bible:

Millenarians, i.e., believers in the reign of a thousand years. This belief was common in the early Church…It appeared from time to time in the Middle Ages, and is still advocated by some of the more obscure sects…

…the time of the First Resurrection will end…It is the time when the Seventh Millennium will set in, and will be the day of Sabbath in the plan of creation…It has been the common opinion among Jews, Gentiles, and Latin and Greek Christians, that the present evil world will last no more than 6,000 years…Christians and Jews, from the beginning of Christianity, and before, have taught that 6,000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve, the consummation will occur. The period after the consummation is to be the seventh day of creation–the Sabbath…St. Jerome said, “It is a common belief that the world will last 6,000 years.”

…I believe that as the last days come to an end so will the sixth day of creation (Culligan E. The Last World War and the End of Time. The book was blessed by Pope Paul VI, 1966. TAN Books, Rockford (IL), pp. 67,113-115).

In the November-December 2008 edition of Tomorrow’s World magazine, RC Meredith of the Living Church of God wrote:

Many Bible scholars agree that we are very close to the end of 6,000 years of recorded human history. The God of the Bible clearly indicates that He has in mind a 7,000-year plan. This first 6,000 years—the “days of man”—are given over to human beings living under the influence of Satan the Devil, during which they are writing the lessons of life, but not yet learning them, as they will later on. At the end of this 6,000-year period, Jesus Christ will return as King of kings and set up the Millennial Sabbath—the seventh “day” or thousand-year period of human history. Those thousand years will be under the direct rule and direction of the living Jesus Christ, who will bring genuine peace and joy to all humanity (Isaiah 11:9–10).
Describing the beliefs of the earliest Christians, highly respected historian Edward Gibbon states in his monumental work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: “The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection…. The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine” (Vol 1. pp. 403–404).

This 6,000 year time period, which even some Catholics have held to throughout history, is almost up and we are in the end times that are leading up to the millennium.

To learn more about when the 6,000 years will be up as well as to see direct scriptural support, please read the article God’s Six Thousand Year Plan.

The end of human rule is coming soon, and there are many biblical reasons that this is so.

Several articles of possibly related interest may include:

Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it. Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near?
Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2009, 2010, or 2011? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans (the Hindus may have some predictions for the next decade as well). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Does the Dresden codex show destruction of the earth by flood? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States?
Barack Obama, Prophecy, and the Destruction of the United States Some claim that Barack Obama is the prophesied “son of Kenya”. Might Bible prophecy be fulfilled since he is to be the USA president?
The History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?