November - December 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel
The New Millennium
Dr. Sidney Davis
As the new millennium approaches, some of us may be
wondering if it has any spiritual significance. I
believe it does and it doesnt.
It DOES, because the Bible not only
speaks of weeks of days, but also weeks of weeks, weeks
of months, week of years. It also strongly implies a
week of millennia - 6,000 years under the curse of sin
and the 7th millennium of rest for the earth. In fact at
the end of each week cycle or period of time
there is Sabbath.
It DOESN'T, because we can no longer
establish the exact age of the earth since creation. But
some do believe that the 6 millennia under the curse are
about to end.
The 7th millennium, when the earth rests, begins with
the Second Coming of Jesus. Conditions in the world
today reinforce the blessed hope that our Lord
is about to return.
"Seek ye the LORD while he may be
found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." Isaiah 55:6,7.
In the Sabbath seminars that I conduct around the
country the meaning of the Sabbatical cycle is a
favorite presentation that I give to prove the Sabbath
truth. Many churches are joining with the papacy with
its declaration of a Jubilee. We are hearing cries from
many nations, invoking the spirit of the Jubilee, and
asking for the forgiveness of debts owed.
This declared papal Jubilee is said to be the
eve of the seventh millennium. The millennium Sabbath is
itself a part of a divine pattern, or cycle of time,
punctuated by the number seven. It points to the
typological function and meaning of the Sabbath as being
the template of holy time. The Sabbath is the
culmination of a week of days. The Pentecost, or Feast
of Weeks, is the culmination of a week of weeks. The
Feast of Trumpets is the culmination of a week of
months. The sabbatical rest of the land is the
culmination of a week of years. The Jubilee then is
seven weeks of years. These cycles of sevens, which
betoken the Sabbath of millennia, show the Sabbath as
the template of holy time.
Yes, and today He still requires that we
number not by seven (singular) but by
sevens all of holy time. The seven Sabbaths of the
Biblical calendar testify to the significance of the
number of sevens, which we count, and point to
the primacy of the Sabbath as the festival par
excellence. Many have been lead to understand the
Sabbath truth in the study of the holy days because they
testify as to how God has required his people to count
by sevens. Undoubtedly, the seventh millennium figures
into that counting by sevens which points to the earth's
rest, the earth's Sabbath. What a wonderful testimony to
the Sabbath truth.
Isn't it interesting that even The Lord's
Prayer teaches the truth of the Sabbath?
"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors," is a Sabbatical
reference that betokens the forgiveness of debts every
7th or Sabbath year as well as in the Jubilee. This
concept of the forgiveness of debts, of which the Bible
speaks, is the rationale behind the Pope's declaration
of the year 2000 as the Jubilee and his calling upon the
industrial nations of the world to forgive the debts of
the debtor nations. The pope in this action seeks to win
over the nations to assent to his moral authority.
Yet the Papacy, and the Christian churches who follow
his Jubilee declaration, deny the very BASIS of the
Jubilee as a multiple of the sabbatical cycle of seven
years- THE BIBLE SABBATH of the seventh day. The Sabbath
of years is patterned after the Sabbath of days as being
the foundation of the concept of the Sabbath of
millennia. Isn't it wonderful that we have all of these
examples of sevens by which we can show the
meaning and significance of the Sabbath in the plan of
God?
TSS
November - December 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel
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