Accurate timeline

[joyful1]

I want to "see" using a time line....perhaps my "eyes" are looking in the wrong place; perhaps I am "blind" to this concept altogether!

TIME is a curious subject.

On the one hand, this verse comes to mind often:

Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days,That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

And then on the other hand, this one comes up:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NASB)
He has made everything appropriate in its time He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

Has anyone here understanding to decipher this verse? Just curious...I know that there are some major conflicts in translations...but if you have a take on it...I'd like to hear it. Hopefully this is not too far off subject, Paul?
Joyce :)

[Amie]

WhiteWings,

Your reason for the salvation of Noah is interesting.  I know that God found grace upon him and called him righteous, but I hadn't thought about maybe God knowing that Noah would believe what he was telling him.  Did you see "Evan Almighty"?  To make the movie believable almost, "God" had to do a bit of nagging.  (I'm not being sarcastic btw)

We can know via 1 Peter 3:20, 21, that the first fruits would be saved in like manner.  One thing rarely considered is the family of Noah who were not believers nor named as righteous.  They were saved through Noah's belief.  I think that it's no coincidence that the biblical body of Christ was named "first fruits" with Jesus as the first fruits offering (often a sheaf/bundle) in the old testament was to the purpose of the blessing and acceptance of the entire harvest. 

I did not mean to imply that you are jumping to conclusions and apologize if I did.  I don't start at literal or symbolic, I start at inquiry and allow the story to unfold.  If the story unfolds in the same way, it might not really matter how we start, I'm just sharing how I approach it.  As an advocate of fulfilled eschatology, my nose is often "exploring" Revelation.  The key, in my experience, is understanding the old testament as well.  For example, Solomon received the weight of gold in the amount of "666" (1 Kings 10:14) for his wages.  There were those like him, and the temple porch was also called "Solomon's porch".  If I dug around more, I might find more revealing things.

However, I like to start with the obvious before I jump into the numbers.  For example:

Luk 21:20  And when you see Jerusalem being encircled by armies, then recognize that its destruction has come near.

and

Rev 20:9  And they went up over the breadth of the land and encircled the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. And fire from God came down out of Heaven and burned them down.

Good thing that as the passage in Luke goes on to record, the "saints" were warned to flee into the mountains AND that they believed.   Things unfolded just like Jesus said they would - the temple was beseiged, yadda yadda.

Or here's another easy one:

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman being drunk from the blood of the saints, and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And I marveled, seeing her, with a great marveling.

and

1Th 2:14  For, brothers, you became imitators of the assemblies of God being in Judea in Christ Jesus, because you also suffered these things by your own fellow countrymen, as they did also by the Jews,
1Th 2:15  who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, also having driven us out, and not pleasing God, and being contrary to all men,

and

Luk 13:34  Jerusalem! Jerusalem! The one killing the prophets, and stoning those having been sent to her, how often I desired to gather your children in the way a hen gathers her brood under the wings, and you did not desire it.

and even with considering the surrounding of the holy city:

Rev 19:2  For true and righteous are His judgments, because He judged the great harlot who defiled the earth with her fornication. And He avenged the blood of His slaves out of her hand.

If we can date when this happened (about 70AD),  we'll have a date for a timeline.

Amie

[Amie]

Joyce,

In the original language, God set "olam" in their heart.  Ancient Hebrews did not see time as linear but in cycles.  "Olam" would literally mean "beyond the horizon".  They watched the sun gather the light to it at sundown (that was their belief), and release the light again at sunrise.  That which was beyond their field of vision, they believed, was representative of a new cycle.  Yet from the "beginning to the end" of the one in which they were in, they would be blinded.

In Romans 11:25 Paul points out that "blindness in part happened to Israel".  The Greek word translated "part" is "meros" and it means "section", "piece" or "portion".  Israel as a whole were blinded.  They lived within the shadow of a coming reality (Col 2:16, 17).  The law was a tool in revealing God to the world.

As they were transitioning into a new world, things began to become a bit more clear.  They were still not perfectly clear on things and deferred to Jesus to lead them. 

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a mirror in dimness, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will fully know even as I also was fully known.

The end of their world, of "time" as they understood it, would be marked by the fall of the temple.  Matthew 24 begins with Jesus telling his disciples of that fall.  They, understanding what that meant, asked when the time of the end would be and he goes on to give them signs leading up to the fall.

Since they viewed time in cycles, it could also be understood (and more accurately representing their culture and so what they are trying to convey) as "season".  All things would come in due season, though they could not see where God was leading them, they held fast to his staff in leading them into the new world.  In the meanwhile David would sing:

Psa 90:15  Make us glad according to the days of our affliction, the years in which we have seen evil.
Psa 90:16  Let Your work be seen in Your servants, and Your majesty to their sons.
Psa 90:17  And let the delight of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish the works of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish it!

Amie

[joyful1]

 :icon_flower: Thanks, Amie! Very interesting! btw, I clicked on the link to the "time line" that you suggested earlier in this thread and although it was incredibly simplistic (*I don't know what I was expecting) it was refreshing to think of time "in cycles" emanating from the cross/creation. Thanks again!
Joyce :)