CREATION’S CHRONOLOGY 4 (of 4)

“He hath determined The Times before appointed.”

The Bible teaches the unity of the human race. When the Apostle Paul stood on Mars’ Hill, before the Court of the Areopagites, he said:

“Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are somewhat religious.”
(Mar, R.V.) . . . “God that made the world” . . . “made of ONE every nation of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation: that they should seek God.”

In writing to Timothy, his son in the faith, Paul said that “Adam was first formed, then Eve.” And Moses informs us that “Adam called his wife’s name Eve” (Heb.: CHAVAH: that is, “living”) “because she was the mother of ALL living.” — Gen. 3:20. Yet some writers would have us believe that there was another race of human beings on the earth, from whom Cain was supposed to have obtained a wife. I prefer to believe the explicit statements of the Bible, that Adam was the “first man,” and of course Eve the first woman. Thus Adam was the federal head of the whole human race.

We cannot separate the Chronology of the Antediluvians from the posterity of Adam, and the creation of the world. When Adam fell into sin, and “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,” God promised a Redeemer through the Seed of the Woman. Satan, the subtle one, doubt to corrupt the woman’s seed, so as to frustrate the divine promise. And as I have been asked to explain what I referred to in my last chapter I may briefly say that before the Flood some of the angels “kept not their first estate,” but, as we are informed by Jude, “left their own habitation.” These “Sons of God”  and Angels are called “Sons of God”  (Job. 1:6; and 38:7) came down to the earth, and they went “after strange flesh,” or as Moses relates, they “saw the daughters of MEN, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Gen. 6:2. The result was an adulterous and mixed race of beings, a race of “mighty men” and “giants,” which “filled the earth with violence,” and threatened to exterminate the Adamic race! In the general declension Noah was found “perfect in HIS generations,” and these “generations” are given in the immediate context. Not that he, or they, were sinless beings; but they had kept themselves free from the general adulteration and apostacy, while “all flesh had corrupted his way.” Noah therefore was chosen by God to perpetuate the Adamic race, the pure “seed of the woman,” Eve. God determined to destroy the corrupt and wicked race; so, by a Universal deluge, he brought about the “end of all flesh.”. “ The angels that sinned,” who were spirit beings, and in the form of men, and who would not be affected by the Flood, were therefore “cast DOWN to Tartarus,” as Peter tells us, “to be reserved for future judgment.” II. Pet. 2:4. Tartarus is therefore “down,” or below us, inside the earth, where those “spirits in prison” were imprisoned. See 1. Pet. 3:19. Comp. Eph. 4:9; and Isa. 49:9; 61:1, &c., &c.

This is only a very brief exposition of a difficult subject. It is not a new exposition. It was the ancient belief at the time of the First Advent, and before, as may be seen, not only from the testimonies I have quoted (which I take in their simple and grammatical sense) but also from the apocryphal Book of Enoch (c. VII., s. II). This Book is well worth reading,  for an inspired writer thought fit to quote there from a grand prophecy of our Lord’s Second Advent. Jude, v.14, 15.

After the Flood the line of time is continued through Shem, one of the sons of Noah, as shown in my Table III. In the fourth generation after Noah, in the days of Peleg, who was born 1757 A.M., the earth was divided, or apportioned to the different families of Noah. Gen. 10:25. They had been commanded by God to replenish the earth: but, instead of scattering abroad to do so, while journeying eastward they came to a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there, Here the neglect of the above command culminated in open rebellion, and they determined to build a city, and a tower “lest they should be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Having all descended from one family they all spoke one language; but God confounded their language so that they were gradually compelled to disperse, though some remained at Babylon. According to the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, the Kingdom of Babylon commenced about 1770 A.M. Mr. Dimbleby says “the Kingdom of Babylon was established in 1772 A.M.” This would agree with Bible Chronology, for we read of Nimrod, that “he was a mighty hunter before the Lord,” and that “the BEGINNING of his kingdom was Babel (or Babylon) and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinah.” Gen. 10:10. The dispersion would therefore occur about the year 1770 A, M., or perhaps a little earlier.

Babylon thus became the centre of a subtle idolatry and of general apostacy and revolt against God. Abraham was therefore chosen by Him, and called out from amongst these idolaters to become the father of a chosen race (Israel) through whom God determined to reveal Himself and make His Name known to all the world. The Chronological Line of Time henceforward runs through the seed of Abraham and the stock of Israel. They were to be a separate people unto God. Abraham was therefore commanded by God, who revealed Himself to him, to leave Ur of the Chaldees, where he was brought up, and to go into the land of Canaan. He was seventy-five years of age when he started out, as we have already seen from Table III., and as he was born in the year 2008 A.M., the great Sojourn commenced in the year of the world 2083. This sojourn of Abraham and his descendants was to last four hundred and thirty years, as we read in Exodus 12:40, 41. This important chronological passage reads:

“Now the sojourning of the Children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”

This statement does not affirm that the Israelites lived in Egypt four hundred and thirty years; but that the SOJOURNING of these people, who for a time were in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. Neither does the passage conflict with Gen. 15:13, or Acts 7:6, which state that Abraham’s “seed” would be AFFLICTED more or less for four hundred years; for this affliction could not have commenced before the birth and “persecution” of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, See Gal. 4:29, compared with Gen. 21:9. Now if we add the 430 years of the Sojourn to the year when Abraham, aged seventy-five, in obedience to God’s command commenced the Sojourn, namely, in 2083 A.M. we shall obtain the year of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

Commencement of Sojourn 2083 A.M.

Duration – 430 years.

The YEAR of THE EXODUS – 2513 A.M.

The Exodus year is an important date, and we have obtained it from explicit statements and figures given in the Sacred Records. Having obtained this year we are enabled to give approximately the date for the Patriarchs in Egypt.