ON THIS PAGE
Emphasis Mine In All Bible Verses
Typology
The Book of Enoch
Peter's Prophecy
The Epistle Of Barnabas
The Interludes
Typology and The Sabbath Millennium
In the Bible, a 'type' is an actual historical event or ritual which was a glimpse of one or more actual events yet to come. In many cases someone in the Old Testament typified or foreshadowed the Messiah in some way.
While the mere resemblance between two persons or events does not automatically make a type, a Biblical event or person that served as a pattern for another person or event does. a repeating and escalating pattern of events is very often seen in the Scriptures. For More Detail See Typology
The Sabbath was no exception. In Exodus 20:8 God commanded the nation to keep the Sabbath day holy... Just as He 'rested' on the seventh day the nation was to abstain from all work on the seventh day.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11 NASB)
That was not the end of the pattern which will eventually culminate in six thousand years of labor followed by the Sabbath millenium - the 1000 years when humanity and God will both rest.
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6 NASB)
This Sabbath Millennium was foretold in a number of biblical and non-canonical books - Enoch, 2 Peter, and the Epistle of Barnabas.
The Book of Enoch
Found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Enoch is believed to be a pseudoepigraphal work, which means it was attributed to but not necessarily written by a Biblical author. Some believe that Enoch was written by a Jew just before the time of Christ. We will never really know for sure whether the author was Enoch or someone else.
For reasons I have never investigated the book of Enoch was not included in either the Hebrew or Christian canons, but is only recognized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It is my understanding that at least part of the reason for the exclusion from the canon is because there are at least three versions that have significant discrepancies between them.
Nevertheless, Enoch has the distinction of being the only non-biblical book quoted word-for-word by Jude, the Lord's brother, when he wrote..
But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (Jude 1:9 NASB)
However, this usage does not necessarily mean that Enoch was inspired or authoritative. Paul quoted pagans more than once. For example, in the verse below, he was referring to Epimenides a pagan author of religious and poetical writings...
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." (Titus 1:12 NASB)
And, as Apologetics Press points out,
While lecturing a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Acts 17:22-34, Paul, in verse 28, quoted from Epimenides' Cretica ("For in him we live and move and have our being") and Aratus' Phaenomena ("For we are also his offspring"), using these two pagan poets to make a point. In 1 Corinthians 15:33, Paul quoted from Menander's comedy Thais ("Evil company corrupts good habits"). [01]
Enoch's Prophecy
However, Enoch (who ever he might have been) made an extremely intriguing prophecy concerning the timeline of the Earth from creation through the millennium. In the following verses, God was speaking to Adam.... (Emphasis Added)
I said to him: Earth you are, and into the earth whence I took you you shalt go, and I will not ruin you, but send you whence I took you. Then I can again receive you at My second presence... And I blessed the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, on which he rested from all his works... And I appointed the eighth day also, that the eighth day should be the first-created after my work, and that (the first seven) revolve in the form of the seventh thousand, and that at the beginning of the eighth thousand there should be a time of not-counting, endless, with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours. (Secrets of Enoch 32:1, 2, 4; 33:1)
God's words indicate that the seven days of creation are a 'type' of the 7,000 years of history as we know it. That is, the period between Adam and the permanent establishment of God's kingdom will be seven thousand years. Six thousand of these years will be business as usual but the seventh thousandth will be a long-awaited period of peace and rest when Christ will rule from Jerusalem. Anyone who is part of the first resurrection will be blessed inasmuch as they will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Additionally, the words "then I can again receive you at My second presence" indicate that the seventh millennium, will come at the same time as Christ's second advent when believers will be resurrected.
See That Earth Shaking Seventh Trumpet
Enoch then mentioned an eighth day in which humanity will enter a timeless existence that he called "a time of not-counting with neither years nor months nor weeks nor days nor hours”. This quite obviously is when God establishes a "new heaven and a new earth" for all eternity (Revelation 21).
The word "revolve" is extremely interesting seeming to suggest that each day of the creation period symbolizes a thousand of the earth revolutions around the sun... a scientific fact that was would not be known until thousands of years later.
Peter's Prophecy
In his second letter, Peter very clearly told us that "in the last days mockers will come" (2 Peter 3:3) who, based on how much time will have passed with no evidence of Christ ever returning, will conclude that He isn't going to ever do so. In other words, the promise of His coming was a lie.
For when they (scoffers) maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2 Peter 3:5-8 NASB)
He reminded them that the same "word of God" that the heavens and the earth is being reserved for fire, kept until the day of judgment when ungodly men will be destroyed.
In this context, Peter's words... "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years" simply means that the seven days of creation symbolize the seven thousand years of human history... from the days of Adam to the end of this era.
See The End of The Age
Peter was simply telling the mockers exactly when Christ would return... six thousand years after creation.
The Epistle Of Barnabas
We do not know if the Epistle of Barnabas (90-100 AD) was authored by Paul's companion mentioned almost 30 times in the New Testament. What we do know it that this letter that bears his name was a very early, post-apostolic writing which was very highly thought of in the early church.
The twenty-one chapters, preserved in their entirety, were attached to the end of the New Testament in the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus.
While it does not claim to be inspired, the Epistle of Barnabas says exactly what Enoch and Peter did. In chapter 15, 'Barnabus' wrote (Emphasis Added)
(15:3) Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; and God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.
(15:4) Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.
(15:5) And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.
Barnabas tells his readers to pay attention to the fact that the six days of creation means that "in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years" then goes on to say that when Christ returns and abolishes Satan's time (The lawless one) and judges the ungodly, then He would rest on the "seventh day"... which Enoch called the "seventh thousand", and John called the "millennium".
Please note: The Epistle of Barnabas is not to be confused with the Gospel of Barnabas which not only contradicts the New Testament but conforms to the Islamic view that much of the Christian Bible has been corrupted and Muhammad's revelations were given to correct the errors that had crept in. The only two known manuscripts of the Gospel of Barnabas were written in the 16th century in Italian and Spanish and can be summarily dismissed without a second thought. DETAILS (scroll down)
The Interludes - (Thinking Aloud)
One last clue is found in the fact that there are two major interludes in the sequence of events in Revelation. One occurs between the Sixth and Seventh Seals, the other between the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets.
The interlude between the Sixth and Seventh Seals in Revelation 7 describes the sealing of the 144,000, John's vision of a great multitude which no one could count standing before the Lamb, and the "silence in heaven for about half an hour".
In the interlude between the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets Revelation 10 talks about the Strong Angel, the Seven Thunders and the Little Book, which John is commanded to eat. Chapter 11 refers to the measuring of the temple, and the Two Witnesses, including the earthquake that takes place when they are brought to life by the breath of God, then taken up into heaven in a cloud).
Since nothing in the Bible is random, one has to wonder if these interruptions after the sixth event were a 'type', intended to prefigure an interruption in human history after the first six thousand years of its history.
Endnotes
[01] Epimenides' Paradox: A Logical Discrepancy in Titus 1:12? by A.P. Staff.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=809
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