When God created the world, He foreknew the elements that would be needed to accomplish His objectives. Because He knows the duration of every event, God created the phenomenon we call time so that we could measure every event. What is time? Time is the duration between two events.
God established the synchrony of the day, the month and the year at Creation. These great clocks have a synchrony that cannot be separated from planetary motion. God is deliberate and purposeful in everything He does.
God designed and established the synchrony of each clock to serve this planet for as long as time lasts. Unfortunately, history reveals that man abandoned God's excellent methods for measuring time.
The fourth clock to come from Creation was the weekly cycle of seven days. The weekly cycle is odd in that it is not based on planetary motion. Therefore, the operation of the weekly cycle cannot be physically observed. Knowledge of the weekly cycle exists only in the mind of man. Nothing in the heavens or on the Earth or within the Earth is synchronous with the weekly cycle.
The synchrony of the weekly cycle cannot be determined by solar study or test tube investigation because the weekly cycle was synchronized with a one time event that no one saw; namely, Creation's week. (Actually, Adam and Eve did see the seventh day of Creation.)
Every seventh day of the week marks an anniversary to God's Creation and the only way one can accurately determine the synchrony of the weekly cycle is to compare Scripture with history and observe man's actions. God devised the weekly cycle at Creation and man's knowledge of it uniquely conveys from Eden — to Noah — to the Exodus — to the time of Jesus — to our day.
The passage of months, seasons, years, centuries or millenniums does not disrupt the order of God’s weekly cycle. The enduring and global presence of a seven day weekly cycle is one of the wonders of the world.
All four clocks, the day, the week, the month and the year are perpetual, three on the basis of planetary motion and one on the basis of divine decree. These four clocks do not operate at intervals of time that violate their synchrony. In other words, this writer finds that God always reckons these four time periods according to their creation. Therefore, a day always begins at sundown, not at midnight. (Leviticus 23:32) A month is not just any period of 30 days.
As far as God is concerned, a month is a period of time that reaches from one new moon to another. (Numbers 10:10; Isaiah 66:23) Yes, a week may have seven days, but not just any seven days. (Exodus 20:8-11) A week is a time period that is synchronous with Creation's week. If a week could be any seven day time period, then the seventh day would occur randomly, at the whim of man.
Even more, if man could redefine the weekly cycle (and short lived attempts have been made), then man could eliminate the weekly anniversary of Creation and God expressly forbids this in the fourth commandment.
For 40 years God withheld manna on the seventh day of each week because He wanted Israel to understand His regard for the synchrony of the weekly cycle which He crowned with His Sabbath. (Exodus 16:29,35) The Lord's day of rest is perpetually synchronous with Creation's seventh day. (Genesis 2:1-3)
To preserve this synchrony, God declared the seventh day holy at Creation and God included the observance of the seventh day in the Ten Commandments because the seventh day of the week is synchronous with the seventh day of Creation. (Exodus 20:8-11) Fallen man is naturally inclined to reject, neglect or ignore the works of God, so our Creator began the fourth commandment saying, "REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…"
When God sees His children resting on a Sabbath that is synchronous with Creation's Sabbath, He is pleased. (Exodus 20:8-11; Isaiah 58:13,14; Luke 4:16; Acts 13:44; Hebrews 4:9-11) No other seventh day will satisfy the fourth commandment because no other seventh day is synchronous with Creation's week. Therefore, no other unit of time should be understood as a week except the time period of seven days that is synchronous with Creation's week.
God is constant, time is constant, synchrony is perpetual. Synchrony of God’s Creation clocks and times are nonnegotiable.
When Jesus was upon Earth, He did not explain the lengthy prophetic time periods written in the book of Daniel or His disciples would have been overcome with discouragement. Jesus said to His disciples, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…" (John 16:12,13)
Later on, the disciples pressed Him again about the time of His return and Jesus said to them, ."..It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." (Acts 1:7) Do these statements mean that Jesus' disciples will never know or understand the times or dates the Father has set? No. The inclusion of prophetic time periods in Daniel and Revelation were put there for understanding.
We can understand the times and dates set by the Father when the time arrives. If the disciples knew in A.D. 30 that 2,000 years were ahead of the church, they would have lost faith. But, now that we have reached the end of the age, a comprehensive understanding of the times and dates which the Father has set is not harmful to our faith. Actually, this knowledge will prove to be helpful during the Great Tribulation because an understanding of the duration of certain time periods will be a source of immeasurable encouragement.
I do not know the day or hour of our Lord's return, but I am confident that we have entered a narrow whisker of time where the 6000th year will occur and the Sabbath millennium will begin.
Jesus is coming. His appearing will be right on time. When He comes we can joyfully say, "This is the day the Lord has made!" Let us be glad and rejoice in it." (Psalms 118:24)
Jill Soto
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