A target number of people

But God had no control over how large that group would be. In that process God could control only how many human beings would ever be born, but whether they would become a part of His family depended on how they would choose to use their minds.

The new focus set a target number of people. God determined that He would use phase one (the first period of 6,000 years) to achieve a target of exactly 144,000 individuals.

Under the old plan the time allowed had been the priority, and the numbers achieved were secondary. Under the new plan the exact number to be achieved in phase one became the top priority, and the time allocated took second place.

Numbers vs. time

In the revised plan it became more important to God that the exact number He had set would be achieved. Whether it was achieved in exactly 6,000 years was not important. The goal to be achieved became more important to God than the time frame that God had allocated for the achievement of that goal.

The reason the time frame became somewhat flexible is that God still had to make allowance for free will.

I want to make this point very clear, because it has major ramifications for the date when Jesus Christ will return.

Two options

In dealing with totally independent free minds, which are faced with the challenge to develop holy, righteous, godly character, God had (at least) two options:

• Either God establishes a fixed rigid time frame within which human beings will be given the opportunity to develop this character. In that case God has no control over the exact number of people who will respond correctly and become a part of His family. In this case God will simply accept all who meet His character requirements.
• Or God establishes a fixed, precise number of individuals who will develop this godly character. In that case God has no advance control over the exact number of days it will take to achieve that precise number of individuals with godly character.

In this regard please also keep in mind our track record with God, that collectively we human beings have consistently disappointed God and we have consistently fallen short of God's expectations.

For God to fully test the character of 144,000 individuals may take slightly longer than God had intended for the process.

Taking slightly longer than planned is not a major concern to God; He has unlimited time at His disposal.

First crop of 144,000

But with the changes in His plan, God predicted not just a return of 144,000 overall. No, God predicted a first crop of 144,000, to be followed by a vastly greater crop later. Satan might well have viewed the first 1,600 years as God playing a losing game. The changes God introduced after the flood changed all that.

• With the introduction of the second resurrection into the picture, God no longer needed to give man such a long life span.

God reduced man's life expectancy in stages. After the flood God cut man's life span in half. Then at the Tower of Babel God again cut man's life span in half, to just under 250 years. Thereafter, in stages, man's life span was fine-tuned to around 80 years.

The drastic shortening of the human life span is proof that God had made a change in His plans for mankind.

Animals as food

• Another change that God introduced immediately after the flood was the introduction of meat into the human diet (Genesis 9:3).
• Another change God introduced immediately after the flood was that the relationship between human beings and animals would change. From after the flood onwards, animals would fear man, something that had not been the case before the flood. That is explained in Genesis 9:2.
• Another change God introduced immediately after the flood was the introduction of the death penalty. This is made clear in Genesis 9:5-6.

This is in stark contrast to the way God had deliberately protected the life of the murderer Cain.

With the introduction of the second resurrection, it was no longer important that murderers have the opportunity to live a long life after having committed murder. They will have an opportunity to repent when they come up in the second resurrection.

Earlier but not later

Consider the fact that God was willing to add a 100-year period (Isaiah 65:20) to the end of the 7,000 years in order to reap a far greater harvest than would be possible if God held to the original 7,000-year limitation.

This is proof that God is far more concerned with the results than with sticking to specific time frames.

After all, if God is willing to expand the originally intended 7,000 years into 7,100 years, why would He not be equally willing to expand the originally intended 6,000 years into 6,020 or 6,050 or even 6,100 years, thus affecting the time of the occurrence of the second coming of Jesus Christ?

That God has not limited Himself to exactly 7,000 years proves to me that God will also not limit Himself to exactly 6,000 years, if certain goals have not yet been achieved.

If God were really concerned about sticking to exactly 6,000 years, then He would not, approximately 2,700 years ago, have lengthened the solar year (during the times of Joshua and Hezekiah) as recorded in Joshua 10:12-14 and 2 Kings 20:8-11).

That lengthening of the solar year has added more than 14,000 days to the plan for testing human beings. This is part of the flexibility God has built into the time frame He has set for testing human beings.

While some may argue about the year of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ--or while people may debate a specific date in Old Testament times--there is no way that the creation of Adam and Eve could possibly have been later than 4000 B.C.

Earlier, yes, but not later.

Too many years

So some historians (Ussher, etc.) have focused on the year 4004 B.C. as the creation year, while others may propose dates like 4026 B.C.

But nobody (apart from the Seder Olam, which is a deliberately distorted record) would propose a date like 3990 B.C. or 3980 B.C.

There are simply too many years recorded to fit into any date later than 4000 BC.

We are in the year A.D. 2006. This means that by now definitely more than 6,000 years have passed since God created Adam and Eve.

It makes no difference whether that is 6,004 years or 6,010 years or 6,020 years. The point is that it is more than 6,000 years.

Therefore the conclusion is inescapable that the second coming of Jesus Christ is definitely more than 6,000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve.

Since every single prediction of Jesus Christ's return is based on the assumption that the second coming of Jesus Christ must take place within a 6,000-year framework, starting with the creation of Adam and Eve, then every single prediction regarding when Christ will return has been wrong.

Since God has not limited Himself to the 6,000-year period we have tried to impose on Him, even right now there is no way that anybody could possibly predict when the second coming of Jesus Christ will take place.

Let's continue with a look at God's plan for mankind.

Changes when necessary

In Hebrews 13:8 Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday and today and forever." This is a reference to Jesus Christ's character and commitment to God the Father and His will.

Jesus Christ is consistent, and the things He will approve of and those things He will not approve of are predictable. This verse has nothing to do with God making changes to the details of how His plan will be worked out.

In Malachi 3:6 Jesus Christ is recorded as saying: "For I am the Eternal, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed."

Again, it is Jesus Christ, the person, the character, who does not change. The context is one of human beings (here the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob) once again having let God down.

It is because of God's character, of His commitment to His word, that He determined not to destroy Israel. This statement also has nothing to do with how God would bring His plan to pass and whether He would make some changes along the way.

It seems to me that God constantly refined His plan, as things developed. Throughout the Bible God is shown responding to man's actions, much like a chess player responding to his opponent's previous moves.

Each subsequent move that God makes is really a response to the preceding move made by man.

The very concepts of firstfruits and of the second resurrection were a response to how badly man was doing with the plan that had been in effect before.

When will Jesus return?

Now let's take another look at the question of the return of Jesus Christ.

Most people in God's church have wondered about this question. I have speculated about the answer to this question, as have others.

And we've all been wrong.

Every prophecy chart that has ever been drawn up to determine the time for Christ's second coming has been wrong.

Why have all these efforts been wrong?

Because God the Father Himself has not yet made the decision when to send Jesus Christ back to this earth!

If God the Father Himself has not yet made this decision, then it is foolish for us to attempt to work it out, as if any number of calculations could somehow reveal to us when God the Father simply must make a specific decision.

'Neither the Son'

Jesus Christ's own disciples asked Him about the signs that would identify His return (Mark 13:32).

After describing various indicators, Jesus Christ then said plainly:

"But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

Was Christ speaking about a secret that God the Father was keeping from all the angels and even from Jesus Christ? No!

God the Father does not keep any secrets from Jesus Christ. Why would He, or why should He? (John 16:15).

The reason Jesus Christ at that time did not know when God the Father would send Him back to this earth is that God the Father had not yet made that decision!

Therefore there is absolutely no way that the second coming of Jesus Christ can possibly be predicted by any chart of any kind.

If there were any way that certain events could be charted that would predict the second coming of Jesus Christ, then Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32 would simply not have been true.

Preschool toddlers

So far as mathematical understanding is concerned, compared to Jesus Christ and the holy angels in heaven people like Albert Einstein are preschool toddlers. If there were any way to calculate Christ's return in advance, then the angels would know that date!

There is a reason God the Father had not made that decision back around A.D. 30 and why in all likelihood He has not even made that decision right now, in A.D. 2006. Do you know what that reason is?

You are that reason, and I am that reason!

Consider Acts 3:19-21: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

Marriage of the Lamb

One condition for Christ's second coming is spelled out in Revelation 19:7: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready."

"His wife" is a reference to the 144,000 people who will make up the first resurrection, and it is the wife herself who has to do this. God can't do this for her.

We need to understand that real repentance and the development of real, godly character are simply not something that can be commanded to occur on a schedule.

What happened "on schedule" during the first 1,600 years after Adam's creation was an enormous disappointment for God. If God could command real repentance and a total, unconditional commitment to His ways to take place "on schedule," then that fact would obviously remove free moral agency from the people involved in that process.

I mentioned in the beginning that, in deciding to create a Family this way, God the Father and Jesus Christ were taking a risk.

Enormously risky

Jesus Christ took an enormous risk to become our Savior. Father and Son were willing to take the risk because God is positive by disposition, always hoping for the best, always willing to bless in good faith.

Within the context of the risks God was willing to take in order to offer us human beings an opportunity to live with Him for all future eternity, the matter of whether God allows only exactly 6,000 years for this phase of His plan, or whether God leaves some flexibility in the time He allows for this phase, is really insignificant.

So where are we in the context of when Jesus Christ will return?

Don't get the idea that everything is somehow up in the air and out of control. God the Father is the one who personally does the calling of every single individual who ends up in the first resurrection. I believe we have passed the stage where God does indeed now have those 144,000 names in His Book of Life (Philippians 4:3).

God is positive

However, God's positive nature comes into this again. God adds our names to the Book of Life when we first respond positively to Him.

The admonition in Revelation 3:5 makes this clear. If we overcome, then Jesus Christ will "not blot out" our names from the Book of Life.

Our names are already in there, but they could still be blotted out if we were to fail the testing God will expose us to.

In fact, I suspect most of those names are already at the stage where they can no longer be blotted out, because the people involved have completed and passed their testing (Abraham, Isaac, David, Paul, etc.).

But some of the 144,000 names in that book (including, I suspect, yours and mine) are at the stage where their testing is not yet complete. Testing takes time.

Potential replacements

If some of those God has selected do indeed fail the testing, then God also has available a potential manpower pool from which to draw replacements to fill those spots.

We must hold fast so that the crown intended for us is not given to someone else (Revelation 3:11). Those potential replacements do not at this stage have God's Spirit, but neither have they "bowed the knee to Baal" (1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4). They are people God could easily consider calling for an opportunity for the first resurrection if any of us drop out.

In Revelation we see that when the seventh seal is opened seven successive trumpets are blown.

In chapter 9 trumpets No. 5 and No. 6 are blown. Then we have an account about "a little book" and the "two witnesses" inserted into the story.

In the middle of the discussion about this little book, we have an interesting statement. Revelation 10:6 says this mighty angel swore that "there should be time no longer."

No more delay

This translation is not a true reflection of the intent of this statement, since "time" obviously continues. This statement really means that there will be "no more delay" (see the wording in the ASV, NAS, NIV, NKJV, RSV, Darby, Rotherham and other translations).

Even up to the time allocated to "the sixth trumpet," there could be some "delays." That's what Revelation 10:6 implies. It is only from the time of the blowing of the seventh trumpet, referred to in the next verse, that the time frame becomes rigid and inflexible.

This statement, that from that point onward there will be no more delays, indicates the flexibility God has allowed Himself in the fulfillment of His plans for the events preceding that point in time.

I don't believe that God is tied to any fixed schedule before the start of the last approximately three and one-half years before Christ's return. Even in that final period God has left Himself some wiggle room (i.e., if one trumpet is given a little longer, then another will end up a little shorter, etc.), right down to when the seventh and final trumpet is blown.

Thy Kingdom come

So when will Jesus Christ return?

I suspect that at this stage, in A.D. 2006, God the Father has not yet made that decision.

Apart from my confidence that it will not be before A.D. 2010, I really have no way of knowing and, I might add, no desire to try to second-guess what God the Father will decide in this regard.

The only thing I really have is a desire, even more than a duty, to pray (Matthew 6:10): Father, please send Your Kingdom soon.