At the First Advent of Christ.
THE age of the world at the first advent of Christ, according to our authorized version of the Bible, is commonly thought to have been about four thousand years; while the Septuagint makes it to be about five thousand five hundred. Now as to the former, while I have so spoken of it in my paper on the cycle of seventy weeks, I strongly suspect that actually and historically it is not correct, but that what has been affirmed by some is quite true; namely, that the Jewish elders, after the crucifixion of Christ, corrupted the chronology of the earlier ages of the world, hoping by thus shortening the time to prove that their Messiah, who was expected by all at the very period He came, had not appeared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth: and as to THE LATTER, I suspect, that while it approaches nearer to the fact it still falls short of the truth, and that the real age of the world is greater than it is Commonly believed to be. My belief, in a word, to come to the point, is, that it was SIX THOUSAND YEARS OLD at the first coming of Christ. My reasons for this are as follows. The seventh day and the seventh year, in Old Testament scripture, pointed, we know, to the millennial rest of the kingdom, which all agree in expecting in the seven thousandth year of the world. Now at the first advent of Christ He came with an offer of deliverance and rest to His people, the Jews: He came presenting the Sabbath to man, were lie only willing to accept of the blessing. Now this being so, does it, I ask, appear to be according to the usual way of the Lord thus to depart from His own established original order? Does it seem likely that He would have thus come at the crisis between the fourth and fifth, instead of that between the sixth and seventh age of the world? To me, judging of the whole bearing of scripture on this point, it appears as if it must of necessity have been that six thousand years of failure and sorrow had passed over the children of men; and that then, at the end of that time, on the eve of the sabbatic age of the world, the Deliverer, the Redeemer, the Lord of the Sabbath, was sent with an offer of mercy to man: and not only so, but, the grace of God being despised by His people, the consequence was, that as to time they found themselves put where they were at the outset, while as yet in the loins of their forefather Abraham. Certain it is that the time of Israel's blessing was delayed for a season, it being decreed that two thousand years of alienation and blindness should pass over this people before they should discover that the rejected crucified Jesus of Nazareth after all was their expected Messiah. This is, I believe, the secret of the current notion as to the age of the world at the period in question. The Jews, it is said, corrupted their scriptures: they themselves in their folly shortened the time, let us say from six thousand to four thousand years. If this be the case, it is a delusion on their part: but, I ask, does not the Lord allow the delusion?
Does He not leave their corrupt view of chronology to pass current awhile in the world, because, morally speaking, they have, by their rejection of Christ, thrown themselves back two thousand years short of the period of blessing? Supposing, then, this to be the truth, it most expressively marks the displeasure of God on the one hand, and on the other hand it allows of a sufficient period of time wherein the Lord can show mercy to the world at large, to bring in the Gentiles; and not only so but by means of the present space between the first and second coming of Christ, He is enabled to supply the place of Israel's lost ages, and so to fill up His own pre-ordained period—THE GREAT WEEK OF TIME. And as to this period, let me say, in conclusion, that if we consider this subject in reference to ISRAEL in one point of view, regarding the Jewish ages as canceled; or in reference to ISRAEL AGAIN IN ANOTHER ASPECT, and also to the CHURCH OF GOD upon earth, treating the present time as no period at all, but an interruption in time; in both cases God's original thought of "THE WEEK" is preserved—the world's age altogether is just SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS.
The annexed diagram is given, in order to illustrate this subject, presenting the week in the three distinct aspects above named-first as seen in God's purpose (see figure 1), and then again as marred and interrupted through the failure of man (see figures 2 and 3).
The above observations, the reader will see, are altogether confined to the moral view of the question. The chronology of the earlier ages of the world I have not here considered; but it seems allowed on all hands that in our commonly received version of the Bible there are difficulties that are not found in the Septuagint. Hales, in his Chronology, has fully entered into the subject, showing how, according to what I have said, the Jews falsified their chronology in order to discredit the mission of Jesus.