2000 AD and the Seventh Millennium

The seventh millennium theory was first propounded by a Jewish writer, probably contemporary with Jesus. His book is called the The Secrets of Enoch, Slavonic Enoch, or sometimes 2 Enoch. "And I blessed the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, on which he [Adam] rested from his works. And I appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day should be the first-created after my work, and that the first seven revolve in the form of the seventh thousand, and that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years, nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours."

–Enoch 32:2; 33:1, 2 (quoted in Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1 pp. 195, 196).

This theory was adopted and promoted by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, in AD 177, so it has been in Christian circles for quite a while. Reference is sometimes made to 2 Peter 3:8: "…With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." This verse is used out of context to suggest that the six days of Creation correspond to six thousand years of earth’s history, and that the seventh-day Sabbath of Creation week represents the seventh millennium of peace with God.

The problem is that this is sheer speculation, with neither Moses, Christ, nor Peter suggesting any such interpretation.

When Christians (including Ellen White) make reference to "six thousand years of earth’s history" they are probably paying unwitting tribute to Archbishop Ussher, of Armagh, Ireland (1581-1656). His dates have been printed in the margins of English Bibles since their revision and insertion by William Lloyd in 1701.

In 1650 Ussher published a book, based upon his interpretation of biblical chronology, in which he asserted that the Creation occurred on October 26, at 9:00 a.m., in 4004 BC, exactly 4000 years before Jesus’ birth in 4 BC. To make it come out that way he had to use the Hebrew manuscripts sometimes, and the Septuagint sometimes, because they don’t agree in chronological matters. He also had to make some important assumptions about how the ancients recorded the passage of years.

He dated the Flood to 2519 BC. That’s a problem for us, because the Babylonians and Egyptians carefully preserved their own (post-flood) chronologies which extend back to beyond 3000 BC. It wasn’t a problem for Bishop Ussher, because he didn’t know about it. This information is available because of modern biblical archaeology, which hadn’t even got started in Ussher’s time.

The earliest event in the Bible that can be dated for sure, is Nebuchadnezzar's capture of Jerusalem, on March 16, 597 BC. We’re sure about the Babylonian dates of that time, because the Babylonians set their calendar by astronomical events–and the stars are still a clock to which we can refer.

We don’t know the date for Christ’s birth. It could not be later than 4 BC because Herod the Great (who killed the babies of Bethlehem) died in that year. 2000 years from 4 BC extends to 1997 AD.

Adventists have been reluctant to accept much just on the authority of bishops. And there aren’t many biblical scholars who are nearly as sure about the date of Creation as Ussher was. It is likely that the beginning of the seventh millennium did not come in 1997, but was already long past.

Despite years of speculation and calculation, we do not know the year of Christ's return. But consistent with God’s goal to save all who are willing to be saved, I hope it is sooner, not later.

–R. Wresch M.D.