The Mark of the Beast Explained

God's Clocks of Sevens

Seven-day Clock

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. About 6,000 years ago on earth’s very first day God created time, starting with the day. He said, “the evening and the morning were the first day”. Genesis 1:5.

For six days God did His work of creating the heavens and the earth. Then God did something completely different. On the seventh day He stopped creating and rested. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the week and He called it the Sabbath.

“On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Genesis 2:2. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work.” Exodus 20:10.

The rotation of the earth defines the 24-hour day. But the seven-day week is specified by God’s word alone. The movement of the sun, moon, and earth do not define the weekly cycle. It exists in the mind and actions of God and His people. Each week the seventh day is set aside for rest.

Every week follows the pattern of six days for work followed by one day for rest.

Seven-day Clock
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
What you do Work Work Work Work Work Work Rest
Name of day Sabbath

Seven-year Clock

God applied the same pattern to a week of seven years. He told the children of Israel to plant and to harvest their land for six years and then let the land rest the seventh year. He called the seventh year a sabbath. It is also called a sabbatical.

“Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.” Leviticus 25:3,4.

The seven-year clock did not start at creation. The seven-year clock started in 1416 BC when God brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. (See: When did the children of Israel enter Canaan?).

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.’” Leviticus 25:2.

This seven-year pattern has been repeating for over 3,000 years. Six years of working the land are always followed by one year of letting the land rest. After teachers have taught for six years in a row they are sometimes offered a one-year sabbatical for rest.

Seven-year Clock
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Activity Work Work Work Work Work Work Rest
Name of the year Sabbath

Seven-thousand-year Clock

A third time scale for the weekly pattern is 7,000 years. For almost 6,000 years people have been corrupting the earth by their sins. In 2016 the 6,000 years will be completed and people will be removed from the earth. Then the earth will have a sabbath rest for 1,000 years.

The seven-thousand-year clock started a few years after creation when Adam and Eve first sinned.

Seven-thousand-year Clock
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Activity Work Work Work Work Work Work Rest
Name of the 1,000 years Sabbath

Seven-sabbaticals Clock -- The Jubilee Cycle

Seven sabbaticals brought God’s people to the Jubilee, which is another one-year sabbath. The Jubilee cycle is a 49-year repeating pattern. It consists of seven sabbatical cycles, followed by a 50th year called the Jubilee. During the Jubilee year the land rests, debts are cancelled, and land is returned to its original owner.

“You shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you.” Leviticus 25:8-11.

Every seventh sabbatical, on the Day of Atonement, the trumpet announced the start of the Jubilee.

The 50th year Jubilee is also the 1st year of the next Jubilee cycle. In the following chart:

Jubilee cycle
1 - 1, 50 Jubilee sabbath 2 - 2 3 - 3 4 - 4 5 - 5 6 - 6 7 sabbath - 7
1 - 8 2 - 9 3 - 10 4 - 11 5 - 12 6 - 13 7 sabbath - 14
1 - 15 2 - 16 3 - 17 4 - 18 5 - 19 6 - 20 7 sabbath - 21
1 - 22 2 - 23 3 - 24 4 - 25 5 - 26 6 - 27 7 sabbath - 28
1 - 29 2 - 30 3 - 31 4 - 32 5 - 33 6 - 34 7 sabbath - 35
1 - 36 2 - 37 3 - 38 4 - 39 5 - 40 6 - 41 7 sabbath - 42
1 - 43 2 - 44 3 - 45 4 - 46 5 - 47 6 - 48 7 sabbath - 49
Jubilee cycle
1 - 1, 50 Jubilee sabbath 2 - 2 3 - 3 4 - 4 5 - 5 6 - 6 7 sabbath - 7

Notice that every 49-year Jubilee cycle has eight sabbaths in it. The land rests during these eight holy years. They are numbered: 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49.

The Jubilee clock and the sabbatical clock both began when the children of Israel entered Canaan in 1416 BC (See: When did the children of Israel enter Canaan?). The 49-year Jubilee cycles have been repeating without interruption for over 3,000 years. The 70th and last Jubilee began in the fall of 2015 and will continue until the fall of 2016.

Read on to find out about 70 Sabbaths without Rest.

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