The theory that God is on a 6,000 year plan of redemption just as His original creation lasted 6 days (a day as a thousand years) was first proposed by the Hebrew Rabbi and later by the early Church Fathers. The Rabbi believed the end of the 6,000 years would begin the seventh millennium of rest (Shabbat) with the coming of Messiah. Christian Elders saw a similar 1,000 years of rest beginning with Christ’s second coming at the end of the 6,000 years. If the date of creation that Bishop Ussher calculated (4004BC) was correct then the 6,000 years would have ended in 1995AD. This date takes into account that there is no year zero. The Bishop used the age given for Adam as 120 years old when he bore Cain his son as the first reference point to establish his counting. What we are not told in Genesis is how old Adam was when God created him and if the 120 year age given was his actual age or just his apparent age. The New Testament refers to Adam as the first creation in God’s image and Jesus as the second Adam. Since it is unlikely that God created Adam as an infant we must ask ourselves how old did God create Adam to be from the start? If Jesus was about 33 years old when He was hailed as Messiah and Adam was created 33 years old from the beginning then the date for creation would be 3972BC (end of 4004BC to the beginning of 3972BC is 33 complete years). Because there is no year zero there would be 3,972 years BC plus (2,000-1) years AD to complete 6,000 years. The sixth millennium would be complete at the end of (3,972+1,999) =2027AD. 2028AD would start the seventh millennium. Since God starts the year in the spring on Nisan 1 we can speculate that the seventieth week of Daniel would span the seven years between Nisan 1 of 2021AD and Nisan 1 of 2028AD. Then there's the question of how far the Church can go into that last week before it is removed to heaven. Only God knows but I don't expect it would be long. Should be 3,972Bc to 2,027AD =6,000 years. Add a year for no year zero. It's a good question, and a number of years ago I did some research on Ussher's dates. I also found the best chronology came out at 4004 BC. I wondered where we were relative to 6,000 years. However... That only works if a child in the genealogy was born on the same date his ancestor was, which is unlikely. I agree with the concept of 6,000 years mirroring the six days of creation. I also think there must be some significance behind the 40 days, or 40 years which pop up frequently. I'm not sure if anyone on earth can correctly determine when the 6,000 year marker occurs. Certainly the angelic creation would know, although I doubt they would be able to figure out when Jesus is coming based upon it. Well said! And the fact that Jesus :yahoo: was cut off 7 yrs before he was 40 yrs of age! TR And the fact that Jesus was cut off 7 yrs before he was 40 yrs of age! Good point! I never made that connection.
