My very good friend, whom I have never met, but correspond with regularly, Yvonne Stubbs, loaned me her book, The Seventh Circle in Bible Prophecy, by Wayne L. Atchison. I had never heard of this book or of counting in circles before. Unexpectedly, it has opened another door for me.
I draw some different conclusions than Wayne does, but I thank God that he started me thinking along these lines.
I now understand why God works in sevens, also why seven means completion and perfection. The seventh circle makes the circle clock pattern complete--perfect. It is six circles arranged in a ring with the seventh circle filling the center.
God does seem to use circle clocks. Our circular orbit measures our year. The circular Zodiac has 12 divisions. Even our circular clocks measure the day and have 12 divisions.
In Ecclesiastes 8:5, "a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment." I think that both "time" and "judgment" are two circle clocks.
God's Clock Measuring "Time"
God's Clock Measuring the Tribulation "Judgment"
Time seems to be measured by a circle clock that measures seven 1,000-year days. God told us how to set this clock. One day = 1,000 years. (This is one thing Wayne missed, how to set this clock.) Second Peter 3:8 says, "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." Psalm 90:4 says, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past." The six outer circles are the three 2,000-year ages, and the inner seventh circle is the millennial Day of the Lord. No wonder it is called a day. Psalm 89:26,29 says, "He shall cry to Me, Thou art my father...I will make him my firstborn...His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and HIS THRONE AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN." This millennial day is called a "sabbatismos" in Hebrews 4:9.
A similar circular clock seems to have represented the six days when God refreshed the Earth and placed Adam upon it. The seventh inner circle stood for the seventh day, when God rested, and that creation was complete. That Sabbath was a prototype of the millennial "sabbatismos", day of rest, or Day of the Lord, on the clock measuring the 1000-year days. The Day of the Lord also completes the pattern. The first Sabbath was on Tishri 1. The Day of the Lord also begins on Tishri 1. That is the first day of the Millennium.
Parallels. Man was created on the sixth day. This is why six is the number of man. We are now living near the normal end of the sixth 1000-year day. In Adam's time, the next day was the day of God's rest. In our times, the next 1000-year day is also the day of rest.
Since Adam was created in 4044/43 B.C. (283 BJE, before Jewish era), it would be easy to think that the 1000-year day clock also started to tick in 4044/43 B.C. However, it doesn't seem to start then. Adam was different than we are. Until he sinned, was judged, and cast out of the Garden of Eden, he could have lived eternally. At first, he did not know both good and evil. The 1000-year day clock of "time" probably did not start until 4004/03 B.C. (243 BJE), when Adam was cast out of the garden after a forty-year time of testing and probation. Therefore, man's time of testing as being mortal and knowing both good and evil would have started in 4004/03 B.C. Therefore, the 6000th year of the mortality of man would be 1997/98 A.D. (5758 C.E., common era, on the Jewish calendar). If the Rapture (when the Bride of Christ is taken out of the Body of Christ) would have taken place in the 6000th year, it would have made sense, because Eve, the bride of Adam was taken out of his body on the 6th day.
It seems that the 4000th year was 4/3 B.C (3758 C.E.), the year the wise men brought gifts fit for a king to the King of the Jews when he was about two years old.
The Ages.Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed (katertisthai tous aionas, THE AGES were planned) by the word of God" (Heb. 11:3), "and the Word was with God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:1,14).
I call the first 2000-year age the Age of the Gentiles. God dealt with all mankind during that time. I call the second 2000-year age the Age of the Jews. God dealt mainly with the Israelites during that time. I call the third 2000-year age the Age of the Church. We are near the end of His dealing mainly with the Church. The seventh 1000-year day is the Day of the Lord.
We are now living in the last complete age in time, the very same age in which Jesus was crucified. Hebrews 9:26 says that once "in the end of the world (sunteleia ton aionon, full end of the ages) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
Judgment seems to be measured by a circle clock that measures seven years. Daniel 9:24-27 indicates how we are to set this clock. It is a week (shabua) of years.
At first, it seems possible that the seven seals are be removed one each year. Then when you get to the sixth seal, it no longed seems to hold true. The first five seem reasonable. This would be the scenario. In the first year, the first seal is opened and the Beast rides forth on a white horse as a prince of peace (Rev. 6:1,2). In the second year, peace is taken from the earth (Rev. 6:3,4). In the third year, there is famine (Rev. 6:5,6) because it does not rain for 3 1/2 years (Rev. 11:6). Half way through the third year, the False Prophet takes over leadership of the world church and the world government. In the fourth year, the False Prophet brings death to one fourth of the Earth.
In the fifth year, the martyrs under the altar say, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" They are told, "rest yet for a little season until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" (Rev. 6:9-11).
This seems to signal a delay before the sixth seal is opened. Rev. 10:6,7 says, "that there should be time no longer." It may mean that there is no longer to be any more time of delay. (The NIV says, "There will be no more delay!") "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets" Thus, the sixth and seventh seals both seem to be opened in the seventh year of the Tribulation.
When you get to the sixth seal, there is "a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Men hide in the rocks of the mountains and say for the rocks to fall on them and hide them "from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6:12-17 The seventh seal is opened on the Day of God's Wrath, the same day the trumpet judgments sound, so these last two seals are opened close together, the sixth probably on the eve of the Millennium and the seventh on Tishri 1, the first day of the millennial Day of the Lord.
The ring in the middle of the outer six circles is the seventh year. Within that seventh year circle is another circle clock of the seven trumpets. Within the middle seventh trumpet is another circle clock of the seven plagues that fill up the Wrath of God.
In other words, the biggest circle clock represents the years, the next inner clock represents the trumpets, and the next inner one represents the plagues.
No wonder the plagues come out of the seventh trumpet, the trumpets come out of the seventh seal, and the seventh seal comes out of the seventh year.
These circle clocks all fit within the 70th week of years of Daniel 9:27, so the outermost circle representing Revelation represents the 70th Week of Daniel/The Tribulation. This 7-years is the trial that is to come upon the whole world in Rev. 3:10 and the 5th cycle of discipline for Israel. In Lev. 26:27,28, the Lord said, "if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven TIMES for your sins." A TIME is a year (Rev. 12:6,14), so this is the 7-year Tribulation.
The 70 sevens of Dan. 9:24f can make up a circle clock. Each circle representing 70 years. Seven circles equal 490 years.
The 70 years of captivity can be a circle clock. Each circle would represent 10 years. All 7 circles equal 70 years. God does work in sevens. Now I understand why better than ever before.
The Difference Between the Day of Christ and the Day of the Lord
