End of the World is Near!
Analyzing the
Bible Timeline
Apocalypse! Holocaust! Armageddon! The use of these words in the title of a book or movie
guarantees interest and sales of any product. Everyone wants to know the future! What is going
to happen?
People sense today that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. Books and movies focus
on end-of-the-world scenarios with vivid catastrophic effects. Precisely what the crisis will be
varies based on personal beliefs and speculations. Bible believers expect the second coming of
the Messiah, Yahushua, at the end of the world. The events leading up to the second coming
have been endlessly questioned, debated and speculated about by countless millions.
Speculation, however, is unnecessary. Scripture itself indicates how old the Earth will be at the
end of time. Prophetic timelines provide details of events to take place as the Earth itself reaches
the fullness of time allotted to it. Knowing the age of the Earth thus provides insight into where
we are in the stream of time and how close we are to the final events in Earth's history.
There are two basic ways the age of the Earth is calculated: 1) scientifically and, 2)
chronologically. Scientists use carbon 14 dating to estimate their many tens of thousands of
years. Christians, on the other hand, use the more accurate chronology of the sacred scriptures
plus history recorded on papyrus, pottery, stones, etc. The age of the Earth is mathematically
easy to determine and very accurate if one believes the scriptures and uses the Bible record just
as it reads.
The larger and corresponding question is what happens at the end of time. Establishing age can
imply an end of that age. The Bible itself has a lot of information regarding what happens as
probationary time ends. Too often, however, personal speculation has guessed at Earth's final
events rather than using the prophetic time lines, types and anti-types, and the events established
and provable by scripture.
Today, with computers and information available on the internet, it is possible to determine the
age of the world according to the Bible account. The Creator wants His people to know what is
coming on the Earth. He urged, "Take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand" (Mark
13:23, NKJV1).He further warned, "But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the
angels of heaven, but My Father only." (Matthew 24:36) However, believers are clearly
instructed to "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of
Man is coming" (Matthew 25:13).
If it were not possible to know when the second coming is near, than there would not be so many
repeated warnings to watch and be ready. The fact that Yahushua repeatedly urged His
followers to watch and be ready, reveals that it is possible to know when the end of the world is
near. "See, I have told you beforehand . . . So you also, when you see all these things, know that
it is near, at the very doors" (Matthew 24:25, 33). Heaven wants people to know the signs of
Yahushua's soon return!
It was for this very reason that Paul was inspired to write: "Now all these things happened unto
them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world
are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (I Corinthians
10:11 & 12). An "ensample" is a type: something which is a model or pattern of what is to come
in the future. Scripture is full of these types and Paul emphatically states that they were given for
the admonition: the warning and instruction, of those who will be living at the end of time. The
Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation contain information regarding the end of the world and
the pouring out of the Wrath of Yahuwah at the end of time.
It is of vital importance that everyone study and understand the significance of the time in which
we are living. This year, 5997, (fall of 2009 to fall of 2010, Gregorian solar time), means that
the amount of time measured off for the probation of Earth’s people is almost over. All should
number their days and learn what is coming, and when, in order to be prepared for the second
coming of Yahushua.
This article will establish from scripture how the age of the Earth can be accurately calculated
from the Biblical record.
The Great Week of Time
The week as a unit of time measurement is introduced in the first chapter of Genesis. The Earth
was created in six days and on the seventh day the Creator rested. This format of six days of
work plus one of rest has been applied to the time allotted for sin to run its course since the first
century A.D.2 Since the week is made of six work days, the time for Earth’s probation is
understood to be six thousand years.
The Epistle of Barnabas, written circa A.D. 70-131 clearly states:
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 signifieth 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.3
Scripture itself supports the interpretation of Creation week as a symbol of the great Week of
Time as a total of 7000 years. Adam was told: "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of
it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16,17). Adam did not die the very day he ate forbidden fruit.
However, he did die within the first prophetic day of 1,000 years because he died when he was
930 years old. (See Genesis 5:5.)
The apostle Peter clearly understood this principle when he stated: "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). The Creator intended us to understand the symbol of one day equaling one thousand
years.
Prophetic time can also use one day to symbolize one year. When the Israelites could not enter
Canaan due to unbelief, their sentence of punishment was that they would spend a total of 40
years wandering in the wilderness: one year for each of the 40 days the 12 spies spent spying out
the land of Canaan. "According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty
days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years" (Numbers 14:34).
Prophetic time was also linked to one year for every day within a week. Moses was instructed
that the Israelites were to let the Earth, the gardens and vineyards, rest for one year after being
farmed for six years. The seventh year was the "Sabbath" rest for the land. During the
sabbatical year, no planting or pruning could be done. The people could harvest only that which
grew naturally on its own. After seven times of counting out the seven year cycles, the year of
Jubilee was announced which was itself a second year of rest after the seventh and last
sabbatical. This was the year of Jubilee:
7 x 7 years = 49 years + 1 Jubilee year = the 50 year Jubilee cycle.
Like a wheel within a wheel, seven years and seven times seven years measured off the larger
cycles of time containing fifty years each.
In the count to Pentecost, the Hebrews were also told to count seven full or complete weeks, then
add the 50th day to make the count "complete." Seven weeks of seven days each, plus one day, is
the count to Pentecost: 7 x 7 = 49 + 1 = 50.
The equation of 6 work days + 1 Sabbath rest = 7 days, or one complete week, is what has been
referred to by many over the last 2,000 years as the Great Week of Time. Applying this same
principle to millennia indicates that there will be six thousand years (six millennia) for the Earth
to labor under a burden of sin, while the grand work for the salvation of souls goes on. The
seventh millennia, the sabbatical for the Earth to rest, is the one thousand years in heaven when
the saints judge the wicked dead. Scripture reveals that after the second coming of Yahushua,
(Revelation 19:11-16), Satan is bound to this earth for 1,000 years. (See Revelation 20:1-3.4)
During this thousand years when the Earth rests, the saints are in heaven with their Redeemer,
judging the wicked dead. (Revelation 20:4.) At the end of the 1000 year sabbatical, the wicked
are raised to receive their punishment with Satan in the lake of fire until they are fully consumed
and eternal death, not eternal torment, is their reward for treason against the government of
heaven. (Revelation 20:5-10, 12-14; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6.)
The foundation for the Great Week of Time was laid in Genesis when, at the time of the flood,
Yahuwah decreed: "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his
days shall be one hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3). This is much more than just the
years Noah preached about a coming flood. This reveals that the total amount of time the Spirit
of Yahuwah would strive with men, seeking to win them to repentance, would be a total of 6,000
years.
Before the flood, life spans were almost 1,000 years. After the flood, the average lifespan
rapidly decreased until Moses could say, "The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by
reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut
off, and we fly away" (Psalm 90:1). Neither before the flood nor after was the standard lifespan
120 years. Rather, when applied to Jubilee cycles, Yahuwah's statement in Genesis reveals that
there would be a total of 6,000 years for sin to run its course!
120 (Man's days)
x 50 (Jubilee cycle)
6,000 years of probationary time
To find the end, the beginning must first be located. The Bible tells us where to start.
Calculating the Biblical Years
From the writings of Enoch to the present, people have added up the years of Biblical time to
understand how much longer it will be until the end of the time granted to mankind. To find the
end, the beginning must first be established. Now, at the end of Earth’s history, the Creator is
revealing His divine time design. It is both a warning and an encouragement to the last
generation.
Bible scholars and lovers of truth the world over have, for hundreds and hundreds of years,
studied the prophecies, chronologies and large time spans given in scripture. Current religious
conditions, political corruption, national and personal economic hardship, social upheaval and
environmental catastrophes are all warnings of coming change. People everywhere are
awakening to the fact that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. People want to know
when time and life as they know it will end. It seems that everyone, both religious and secular,
recognize that we are fast approaching the end of the world as we know it.
This study will first use the Bible as it records the beginning of years, then add in the time of
secular recorded history from 536 B.C. on to the present to calculate the age of the Earth.
Opinions differ on whether Adam measured his age from Creation or the start of sin. Some
chronologists choose sin because time is not important when one expects to live forever. Others
choose Creation because the sun was to measure years and certainly Adam would have
understood time and the cycle of years. However, it really does not matter. Either way makes
no difference in the overall count.
Genesis 5:3 states that Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born. This begins the first
method of counting: adding the age of each generation at the time the first son was born. The
Bible gives a long list of "begats" that list the age of each patriarch at the birth of his first son.
This count, beginning with Adam, continues past the flood down to Jacob.
This is the first time period, 1656 years, to which other distinct periods will be added until the
year of transfer to time as recorded in secular sources in 536 B.C. is reached. There are two
methods used to count the age of the Earth:
1. Anno Mundi is a Latin term for counting from the beginning, numbering 1, 2, 3, and on
forward in time from Adam.
2. B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (anno domini, or, the year of our Lord) which counts
backwards (B.C.) and forwards (A.D.) from the time of the Messiah. (Ussher’s
Chronology mistakenly placed His birth in A.D. 1.)
Both methods yield the same count. (Scripture also gives ages for many people that will not be
counted in this study because they are not in the lineage of the Messiah.) The following chart
shows the patriarchs' ages:
At birth of first born son
Age at death
Accumulated years from Adam in Anno Mundi time, counting forward from the
beginning.
It is most interesting to see the age relationships. Lamech, the father of Noah, could and probably
did, talk to Adam. Abram most likely talked to Noah and Shem as they lived in the same general
area before Abram journeyed away from his kinfolk in Ur of the Chaldees.
There are seven distinct time periods that track the number of years from Adam down to 536
B.C. History from 536 B.C. on is firmly established in archeological and written records, so that
particular year is used as the transition year between Biblically recorded time and secular time.
The following chart shows these time periods using the B.C. method of counting backwards from
the time of the Messiah. The first time period goes from Adam to the flood. The flood did not
last a year, only forty days. Noah and his family did stay in the ark for a year, but that year is
counted and calculated into the ages of Noah and his sons, and listed from the beginning of the
flood, not after.
The second time period starts at the beginning of the year of the flood and counts 391 years to
the covenant made with Abram by the additional "begats."
Controversy has existed over the age of Terah at the birth of his triplets. The Bible says "And
Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Genesis 11:26). Therefore, 70
years will be used. Scholars have also debated which event in Abraham’s life should begin the
count of the 430 years of the covenant promise to bring his descendants, the Israelites, out of
Egypt. The Bible gives the answer.
"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto
him, . . . This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee;
Every man child among you shall be circumcised." Genesis 17:1,10.
Abraham was age 99 when the covenant that began the 430 years started. A covenant is always
between two parties and must be ratified or accepted. Circumcision was the method the Creator
chose for Abraham to demonstrate his acceptance by his own blood. This places the Exodus
firmly at 1512 B.C.
From the Exodus until the reign of Solomon was another 476 years. The reigns of the kings can
be confusing because the Hebrew year began in the spring but did not change the year number
count until the fall when the regnal year began. (A "regnal" year is simply the date from which a
king's reign is counted.) This problem is solved by either rounding up or rounding down. As
long as the same method is always used the count will be the same.
Solomon reigned for 40 years and then the kingdom was divided for another 390 years. Judah
went into captivity in 606 B.C. and was held for the 70 years that were determined upon the
Hebrew people in the prophesy given to Daniel.
When these seven time periods are added together, the total equals 3453 years. Adding the 536
years of secular time that reaches from the end of the Babylonian 70-year captivity down to the
year 1 B.C., equals 3989 total years. This gives a beginning date for Adam’s creation, or sin, of
3989 B.C.
3453 (total of seven time periods given in Scripture)
+ 536 (secular time from extra-biblical sources for release from captivity)
3989 B.C.
The final step is to subtract the 3989 from the 6000 year total probationary time. One year must
also be added to accommodate for the change between B.C. and A.D. time counts. This is only a
mathematical correction. Dating goes directly from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1. There should have been a
year 0 between the years counted as 1.
In conclusion, most people are familiar with the numbering system of James Ussher, Anglican
Archbishop of Armagh, who wrote a 17th-century chronology of the history of the world
formulated from a literal reading of the Bible. His year numbering is used in the King James
Version of the Bible for any dates found there. Following is a chart showing just where this
chronology differs from Ussher. It will be observed that there is very little difference between
the two.
For further information and a detailed explanation on these time calculations, as well as time
frame comparisons, please download "The 7000-Year Bible Chronology." This power point
study describes how the time segments have been calculated and compares segments of time
with each other. While the power point study is quite lengthy, the research is extremely
interesting and invaluable for understanding this important topic.
The total time calculation of 6,000 years reaches from Adam at 3989 B.C. to the year 2012.
Since the year count begins in the fall, the 6,000th year, 2012, does not end until the fall of 2013,
at the time of the fall Feasts. The year itself must be lived through to reach the 6,000-year ending
mark. The next millennium would not begin until the end of that last year in the fall of 2013. The
time allotted for mankind would not end until all of the 6,000 years had been lived out.
If additional time is granted the world for repentance and the acceptance of Yahuwah’s invitation
to accept the sacrifice of His Son, Yahushua’s gift of eternal life, it would be short at best. Any
additional time of grace is far from assured. After the fall of 2013, every additional day granted
by Yahuwah should be regarded as living on borrowed time.
The righteous and the wicked will still be living upon the Earth in their mortal state—men will
be planting and building, eating and drinking, all unconscious that the final, irrevocable decision
has been pronounced in the sanctuary above.
When the work of the investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for
life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of
heaven. 5
Although the precise day and the hour of the Second Coming cannot be known, believers are
admonished to watch and pray to know the times (year) and seasons. Even though there will be
increasing extremes of storms, earthquakes, fires and floods, these are mercy judgments to
awaken mankind to the times (years) in which they are living.
Final events will happen very rapidly and without respite. The chaos of warring nations, the
strife for supremacy by the Papacy and the Muslims, famine and disease, will all merge into the
pouring out of the Wrath of God in the Seven Last Plagues. The "way marks" given in the Bible
to which many are looking as warnings are those events that happen primarily after the close of
probationary time when it is too late to repent and receive forgiveness. Now is the accepted
time. Will you choose to prepare and be ready?
Few people, even among Bible "believers," accept Earth’s history to be as young as six thousand
years old. There are fewer still who believe Yahuwah’s foreknowledge has exactly measured out
an allotted time for sinful human history, or that He will bring that history to a close at a
precisely measured, predetermined time. This exactness reveals a Creator who is much more
involved with human events and much more omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent than the
human mind can comprehend.
This personal, loving Father, Yahuwah, is seeking a relationship with you. He promises: "Ye
shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).
This search must be made by prayer and study using the mind and emotions, and surrendering
the whole soul. What an amazing Heavenly Father and His Son are to be found – the ultimate
demonstration of the most incredible love, caring, goodness, holiness, peace, happiness, on and
on, ad infinitum. As the Creators of life, They are also the supreme Mathematicians, the
ultimate Physicists, the Makers, Sustainers and Measurers of time. From things seen only by
electron microscopes to galaxies; from DNA to thundering oceans; from single cell complexity
to beauty and precision in function and time, these are all Their handiwork.
We are also Their handiwork. Now is the accepted time for the end of the history of probation.
Now is the time to restore what was lost through sin. The Creator promises, "Behold, I make all
things new" (Revelation 21:5).
If you are amazed by what you have discovered in this article, if your heart is touched, praise
your Creator and Redeemer, the Father and the Son. Seek for full repentance and personal
restoration while there is still time.
No single proof can prove the shortness of time. It is the accumulation of evidence that
establishes how close the end of the world, as we know it, really is. The Wrath of Yahuwah
will soon be poured out, and then Messiah will return for His waiting people. Will you be found
ready?
