(According to the Bible we are still in the 6th millennium)
Have you ever heard well meaning people refer to the biblical account of creation in Genesis as the "seven days of creation?" Hopefully most of us know there were only six days of creation, because the Bible tells us God was all done "creating" things by the end of the sixth day. God then said that He ended, or more properly as the Hebrew puts it, He will complete that which He had already created/made during the first six days, on [meaning throughout] the seventh day [the seventh thousand year]. Thus, GOD first created some things that afterwards He intended to finish or complete by bringing them into the fullness of what He desired. The reason creation must be a two part process is because of the free will GOD gave to every person He ever created. In other words, some things just could not be "spoken" into existence; they needed to be chosen by the creature.
SIX DAYS TO CREATE & THE SEVENTH TO COMPLETE THEM
"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, [being created or made] and all the host of them." Genesis 1:31-2:1
NEW DISPENSATION BEGINS
(Dispensation of The Fullness)
"And on the seventh day God Ended [H3615: meaning to complete-(ness); finish] his work which he had made [during the first six days]; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made [on the sixth day and then brought into the fullness on the seventh]. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that IN IT he had rested from all his work which God created [H1254: choose/selected] AND made." Genesis 2:2-3
There are a couple of very important details that some of us have failed to recognize concerning the seventh day, and one of them is this: there is no "evening and morning" attributed to the seventh day. That's because the Bible tells us there will be "no night" (spiritual ignorance) therein, seeing "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters [the Word of God] cover the sea [the nations]" Isaiah 11:9b. Moreover, the Bible definitely tells us the seventh day/seventh millennium does not have a spiritual "evening" or darkness attributed to it. Therefore, it stands to reason that the seventh millennium cannot start, and or continue in, what the Bible calls "gross darkness" (Isaiah 60:2), as the sixth millennium will have ended in. It should be noted that some teach that premise to justify their errant doctrine of placing the great tribulation within the seventh millennium's parameters. These teachers wrongly insist that we are even now in the seventh millennium just because the Gregorian calendar says we are. I for one will not choose ancient secular humanist fallible calculations over the Bible's (God's Word) definition of what constitutes the beginning, middle, and or end of the seventh millennium. The second aspect of GOD'S creation plan concerning the the seventh millennium, comes against a better known false doctrine that teaches God will do "no work" during the thousand year reign. Howbeit GOD Himself tells us the work of redemption ("...but deliver us from evil") is not done until Revelation 21:6, which is after the White Throne Judgment has taken place.
"And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Revelation 21:6
As concerning the overlapping of dispensations or the "thousand year days" (which some will use to justify darkness within the seventh millennium), there is one thing we know for sure, the seventh day/seventh millennium is unlike all the other days. This fact alone tells us God is not going to "mix" any part of the sixth with the seventh, or any other day together. Meaning, He's not going to meld these last two days which also contain the last two major dispensations (the end of the 6th, and the beginning of the 7th: grace with the fullness (the "in-part" ministration with the fullness of all things). You may think this is an insignificant point to keep belaboring (the purpose for each day), but it establishes a very important principle when it comes to properly interpreting biblical prophecies, especially when they're used to define a dispensation. We are to understand that God likens each day in the story of creation to its corresponding millennium. That is to say, what the first day of creation shows "in type," is what God brought forth (spiritually speaking) during the first one thousand years of time, and so on and so on; each day had/has a specific purpose in GOD'S master plan. You will find one of the principal verses behind this revelation comes from 2-Peter.
"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2- Peter 3:8
It's even more important that we understand what God did in the first six days of creation, is completely different from what He will be doing in the seventh day. This understanding is crucial if one is to see the differences between the last two dispensations that are described in the Bible, especially when it come to chronology of events.
The Bible tells us God used "six days" of creation in which He first chose what He would make, after which He made them. Then after the sixth day God said He was "finished" creating and making those things (the heavens, the earth, and all their host). The word "create" as used in the original language meant to choose or select something. That is why Genesis 2:3 says God not only "created" (Strong's: chose what to make) but then He actually "made" them. However, everything was still in an unfinished state, so creating and making was/will be a done deal (spiritually) by the end of the sixth day/six thousandth year. Therefore God finished creating before the seventh day could begin. That is what Genesis 2:1 tells us. Then it says God will make something new out of those things which He had already created and made (behold, I [begin to] make all things new [at the start of the seventh millennium]). This is why I say there is no truly identifiable blending into the seventh day, of the sixth day’s work, in type or otherwise. Nevertheless, this blending, or overlapping of the ages doctrine, is exactly what some proclaim when they say the (major) dispensations and or feast days crossover into one another, "and we just can't know where we're at in time." Moreover, Yeshua warned us about this fuzzy math type of doctrine when He said.
"For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Luke 19:43-44
I have heard it said that since Jesus ministered during the dispensation of the Law that this in some way proves there was an overlapping into the Church age (Pentecost) from the dispensation of the Law, but the Holy Spirit (grace) was not even given until after His resurrection: John 20:22. Keep in mind Jesus said He came to fulfill the scriptures, which obviously needed to take place during the Old Testament. Jesus Himself told the one leper to "...go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them" Matthew 8:4. Which means Jesus Himself knew He was still operating within the dispensation of the Law; Jesus knew He was to close out the Old Testament and point the way to the New Testament (the work of the Church age: grace), which was to start corporately at the first post-resurrection Pentecost. Now one could say that grace/the Holy Spirit/the Church Age started when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit as mentioned above in John 20:22. However, that still took place after the three and one half years (42-months) of Jesus' ministry. The dispensation of the Law was definitely finished and closed out by that time because Jesus' death on the cross "fulfilled the scriptures" concerning Jesus being the Lamb of God. What the Apostles were in type, were the first of the first fruits. Even so, this giving of the Spirit was still well after Jesus finished ("it is finished" John 19:30; Lk 22:37) His ministry.
What the Bible does tell us about the seventh day is that God will "end" His work, which means to finish or complete that which He already made. Then by the end of the seventh day/seven thousand years (Rev 21:6) God will be completely done with man's deliverance from evil. Think of a little baby; it's born as a whole human being and yet it must grow and change. Now it's still the same baby that first came into the world, but by the end of its life cycle many things will have changed both physically and spiritually. Simply put, God is going to use the seventh millennium to bring mankind into the prophesied perfection (the image & the likeness of God) that was promised in Genesis and John 7.
"If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?" John 7:23
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." Hebrews 10:11
"And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Revelation 21:6
It seems there truly is meant to be a separation or a distinction made between what happens in the sixth day vs. the seventh day as far as the creation process goes. This fact alone tells us we must still be in the sixth day of God's creation plan no matter what mans' calendar says (Rom 3:4). We know this to be true because Satan has not been bound yet, the judgment seat of Christ has not come forth, and the thousand year reign of the perfected saints has not yet begun. In like manner, some of the things that need to close out the sixth millennium have not come forth. Things like the 42-month ministry of the Two Witness Company, who coincidently will be given the "double portion" of God's power while still within the sixth millennium, just like the Hebrews were given the "double portion" of manna on the "sixth day"—not the seventh! I mean come on now brethren, is God going to violate the types after He himself established them? Furthermore, we need to see the Beast confederacy come forth, the False Prophet come forth, and Armageddon begin and end, all before the seventh millennium begins. Thus I proclaim to all that we are still in the last moments of the Church Age, with Yeshua "tarrying" and "delaying" His coming, just like He said He would. Once again, since the seventh millennium is said to have "no night" in it, how can that day start in gross darkness (the great tribulation) like some teach it must?
I will conclude this teaching by saying that the first six days of creation were meant to be a bringing forth action. The last of those six days was to allow the man/the soul/carnality and wickedness to come to its fullness: "666." This left the seventh day/the seventh millennium to complete the process by bringing the soul of mankind into the fullness/likeness: H1819: resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like:- fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude' of Christ & GOD Himself. To me this speaks of two different millenniums (the 6th & 7th) with two different goals, which are shown to be very much separate in both chronology and purpose.
Please visit the following link for a more informative study on the age of the earth: Creation.com