Much has been written about the times or eras of human history. The Lord has been moving my thoughts on this same subject lately. A great deal of comfort can be drawn from the knowledge that time is about to run out for the evil of this current age.
For reasons known only to our beloved Creator, He pre-determined 7,000 years of earthly human history. The first 6,000 being current human history as we know it, and the last 1,000 being the blessed kingdom of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, during which He will physically rule here on earth with a rod of iron from Jerusalem. The scepter shall not depart from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah:
“Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk” (Genesis 49:9-12).
As some excellent articles have recently stated, the cradle of civilized Man was formed in the Middle East and is anchored to the timeline of the Jewish people. In order for humanity not to prosper too fast and use up all of earth’s resources before the allotted time (6,000 years) expired, God isolated and held the boundaries of mankind’s dwellings within a small arid location in the Middle East. God gave man everything he needed to prosper and multiply yet at the same time held him to that location via the vast expanses of the surrounding deserts.
After the Flood and the subsequent rebellion of mankind at the Tower of Babel, God drove the peoples to lands apart from the plains of Shinar where the boundaries of the future dwellings of new nations would be established.
God has pre-appointed the specific years and the boundaries of the dwellings of all peoples who have ever lived on the earth in order to fulfill His purpose to usher all who believe into His thousand year rest. In other words, God determines the where and when for all people who have ever lived on earth.
“God, who made the world and everything in it, has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord” (Acts 17:24a, 26-27a).
God held world population in check from the time of Christ until approximately the 19th century. However, from the 1800s until today, God has allowed world population to soar exponentially, as shown by the following statistics:
• .2 billion in A.D. 40
• .3 billion in 1000, (960 years later)
• .5 billion in 1500, (500 years later)
• 1 billion in 1804, (304 years later)
• 2 billion in 1927, (123 years later)
• 3 billion in 1960, (33 years later)
• 4 billion in 1974, (14 years later)
• 5 billion in 1987, (13 years later)
• 6 billion in 1999, (12 years later)
• 7 billion in 2011, (12 years later)
Today the world’s population is approximately 35 times greater than it was at the time of Christ. God is now allowing all human spirits whom He has known since before the foundation of the world to be born on earth. It interesting to note that it was not until the technological means were firmly in place to propagate the gospel around the globe, that God allowed world population to rocket skyward.
Now is the appointed time for all of the billions walking the earth today to choose the eternal path they must take, their time is running out. Of course, all peoples who have already lived and have since departed from earth will remain in the place they have chosen (heaven or hell) until the appointed time God has chosen for the continuation of one of the following programs for each group:
The Rapture for those church age believers when the “dead” in Christ will rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Then we will live and reign with Christ for one thousand years (Revelation 20:4).
Entrance into the millennial kingdom for Old Testament saints after the Tribulation (Daniel 12:2, 13).
The Great White Throne Judgment for the rest of the dead after the millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:11-15).
Consider how the following verses demonstrate the Lord’s use of specific time allotments to administrate human history. These verses paint the picture of the truth of God’s 7,000 year plan for human history:
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work” (Exodus 20:11a, 9-10a).
“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy” (Daniel 9:24).
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).
“Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25b-26a).
“For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
“For we who have believed do enter that rest. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:3a, 9-10).
It all comes back to a plan I believe God has had all along, for all human spirits who love Him to live with Him in perfect peace and righteousness. Where do all of the human spirits come from? I have no idea. Somehow, some way, God knew all of us intimately enough to set those of us who would love Him apart from those who would not, before He formed us in the womb:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5a).
“Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
Again, it is my estimation that God only wants to intimately fellowship with the people who love Him. In order to bring about this plan He has to separate those who love Him from those who hate Him by providing all of humanity with the choice of two paths to follow: the narrow path to heaven for believers and the superhighway to hell for the rest.
“Today, if you will hear His voice: ‘Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, for forty years I was grieved with that generation, so I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest’” (Psalm 95:7b-8a, 10a, 11).
Following the biblical account of human history in congruence with a calendar demonstrates that we are indeed at the close of the first 6,000 years of the allotted time. The consummation of the blessed millennial kingdom will soon replace this current era. The seventh day will dawn filling the earth with the pure light of the Bright and Morning Star.
“But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!’” (Joshua 6:15a, 16)
Look up into the heavens and see Shiloh holding His iron scepter high above the earth. James saw Him and exclaimed in James 5:9, “Behold, the Judge standeth at the door!”
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).
We can take courage in the knowledge that the darkness currently rolling over planet earth will soon be extinguished by the white hot heat emanating from the Bright and Morning Star. Just check your calendar, the time is about “up”!
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:16, 12, 4-5).