We hear a lot these days about Y2K and the new millennium. I can remember when only Bible scholars used the word "millennium."
There is no doubt that we stand on the edge of the future, a special moment in time. We all feel it; we all know it. Everything is changing; the future is rapidly unfolding. It is a favorite topic on radio, TV, and the news.
Many look on the new millennium with foreboding and anxiety. Does it signify great tribulation and an Armageddon? Some are preaching world-wide chaos. Others look with rejoicing to the Age of Aquarius and the dawn of a New Age. Christians and non-Christians alike feel that the world is on the brink of a cosmic happening.
The Bible has much to say about the return of Jesus Christ, and about world conditions near the end of time. Many of those conditions exist today. Many Bible interpreters, some even prior to Christ's first coming, have taught that world history would occupy seven millennia corresponding to the seven days of creation week. They counted 2,000 years from creation to the call of Abraham, 2,000 years from Abraham to Christ, another 2,000 years for the Christian era, and 1,000 years of a millennium of Sabbath rest. Ussher's Chronology places the creation at 4,004 B.C... This would place the beginning of the new millennium at 2,000 AD.
Seventh-day Adventists have been given additional light on end-time events. The three angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12 picture a remnant people who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. The Spirit of Prophecy as manifested in these last days through the writings of Ellen White is the "testimony of Jesus." These writings are a special end-time gift from Jesus, our High Priest. We believe that the "end-time" began in 1798 and that probationary time began in 1844 with the commencement of the celestial Day of Atonement when the heavenly sanctuary is being cleansed.
Ussher's Chronology is not universally accepted. In fact, it has been discredited by many scholars of biblical and world history. However, we have numerous references in the Spirit of Prophecy supporting a 6,000 year history of Satan's dominion of earth, and that creation occurred around 4,000 B.C. Whether Ellen White was misguided by the current thinking of her day, or whether this chronology was inspired is a moot question. Whether you have been bitten by the Y7K bug or not, it behooves us to remember that "in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh."
