Herbert W Armstrong

   "Has God alloted 6000 years for man's self-rule?" is a question that has been an enigma to many.

   Yes! The world does not understand what is taking place today because it does not know about the 7000-year PLAN OF GOD.

   God has allotted approximately 6000 years for humanity to go its own way. These millenniums of human civilization are nearly over. God is about to intervene in world affairs by sending Jesus Christ. Not until He returns will we have 1000 years of peace.

   The pattern for this little-understood plan is given in the first two chapters of Genesis. It is the WEEK of seven days. As God originally set time in motion, man is given six work days followed by a day of rest. In Hebrews 4:4, 11, the seventh day is mentioned as a day of the peaceful rest — 1000-year rest — that will follow the present age of human labor and futile struggle to master the earth. "The Millennium, then, is compared with a "day" of the week.

   Observe that after Christ's intervention the time of that peaceful rest under His rule is specifically termed "a thousand years" (Rev. 20:4) If the last "day" of God's 7000-year plan is 1000 years, then the preceding six days which He has allotted for mankind to work out his own ideas would amount to 6000 years. And this is exactly what world events are proving today! Look about you! It is obvious that this world is crashing to its DOOM!

   Now notice your Bible. Many Bibles are complete enough to contain chronological charts showing that human life was created slightly more than 4000 years before Christ. And almost another 2000 years have elapsed since — making nearly 6000 years of human civilization to date. In other words, the trend of world events is now proving we are very near the time the Scriptures have always said Christ will return — when the probability of world destruction would become a reality (Matt. 24:22). Six thousand years of human history have almost been completed. Here then is proof — double proof — that Christ is coming in our generation!

   The common assumption that man has lived on earth countless tens of thousands of years is an idle dream. Reason disproves it. Each new archaeological discovery aids in disproving it. True SCIENCE disproves it! Strange as it may seem, the theory of man's evolution is not only unproved, but irrefutably disproved when we understand the facts.

   The apostles did not fully understand this PLAN OF GOD when Christ was yet on earth. They thought the kingdom would be established in their day — after only about 4000 years of God's plan had been completed. But before they died, the apostles knew God's plan. Peter said: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise (of Christ's coming)... but is longsuffering..." (II Pet. 3:9). God is patient. He has refrained from intervening in world affairs for nearly 6000 years. Why?

   Because He will not intervene until humanity is forced to cry out to Him for fear of self-extermination. Recall that the day of Christ's intervention and rule is compared to "a thousand years" (Rev. 20:4). Peter also wrote the same thing — that a day in God's plan is as "a thousand year," and "a thousand years" of human civilization as ONE day in His planned week of SEVEN 1000-year days (II Pet. 3:8).

   Peter knew that Christ would intervene shortly before the close of 6000 years of human struggle and slavery — that God would send Jesus Christ to set up His government to rule during the seventh-thousand-year period — a millennium of peace, a sabbatical rest!

   How marvelous that in our day, at the very time that 6000 years have almost elapsed, the world is threatened with extinction of life. And Jesus Himself said that when we see this taking place HE WOULD COME AGAIN!