6000 YEARS E. WHITE TEXTS

When Does the 6000 Years End? Part 2

MacKenzie Drebit

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4000 YEARS FROM FALL TO CHRIST’S BIRTH:

“The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme… Human pride and self-sufficiency stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life. Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss. The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life’s peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan’s power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. “Herein is love.” Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” Desire of Ages (p. 48)

4000 OR 6000 YEARS SEEMS TO BE A GENERAL TERM AND NOT PRECISE ONE IN EGW WRITINGS

In her writings, Ellen White repeatedly stated that this world was to exist for 6000 years. For instance, in the book Patriarchs and Prophets (Chapter 29—Satan’s Enmity against the Law), she wrote: “For six thousand years Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom.”

Since the Spirit of Prophecy tells us that this world, in its sinful state and under the rulership of Satan (from the fall of Adam till the second coming of Christ), was to last 6000 years, we need to find the beginning of this period of time. The next statement (found in the book Confrontation, p. 32.1) seems to be the most helpful in providing the required time setting:

“Christ, in the wilderness of temptation (it took place immediately after His baptism, in 27 AD), stood in Adam's place to bear the test he failed to endure. Here Christ overcame on the sinner's behalf, four thousand years after Adam turned his back upon the light of his home.”

We are told here that from the fall of Adam till the temptation of Christ (in 27 AD) in the wilderness (immediately after Christ’s baptism) there were four thousand years. At that time Christ was 27 years old. Therefore, in order to figure out the end of the six-thousand-year period we must simply add two thousand to the twenty-seven years (the age of Christ at that time). As a result, we have the year 2027 which is the sum of 4000 years from the fall of Adam till Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, plus 2000 years to make the 6000-year period of world history between the fall of Adam till Christ’s return!

That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean we can set the exact year of Christ’s return. We still are not able to do this because we can’t be sure whether by “four thousand years” Sister White meant a precise or an approximate time. For this reason, we can’t set a definitive or exact time of the end. Nevertheless, based on the above statement we can draw a reasonable conclusion that Christ's return in 2027 is possible, or that we may at least expect the end-time events around the year 2027, meaning that the end-time events can still take place earlier or later.