In Genesis 2:2-3 we find where God first established His pattern of 6 days of labor and the 7th for completion and rest.

Then in Psalm 90:4 we find where God views a thousand years as just a day in His sight.

Respected Bible scholars agree that except for some minor discrepancies, all considerations indicate that mankind has been on the earth 6,000 years since creation and that 2,000 years have, or are about to, elapse since Jesus Christ was born and crucified.

In Mark 9:2-4 the Lord Jesus gave a demonstration of what it will be like in the day of His final coming in glory with His saints. "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves, and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses and they were talking with Jesus."

It is interesting to note that the Scriptures make special mention of this tremendous event having taken place "after 6 days."

Exodus 20:9-10 reminds us that mankind is appointed to work 6 days and that the seventh is to be devoted to the Lord. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."

Turning to Hebrews 4:1-10 believers can find the blessed promise from God that they too will partake in the 7th day rest of God.

With the conclusion of 6,000 years of man's labor and the dawning of the start of the 7 thousandth we as believers, are strongly encouraged in II Peter 3:8-9 to "not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years."

Why are Christians not to forget this particular point? The Holy Spirit did not have Peter record this instruction over a vague generalization. It is a direct instruction for believers to recognize that God is counting the passing of each thousand years as we count a day.

Our revelation thus far is that after 6,000 years of man's labor upon the earth, the redeemed will be permitted to enter into the 1,000 year Sabbath day of rest reserved for the Lord.

Going back through the Bible we now look at the biblical clues referring to the 3rd day and what these revelations portend. In Scriptures such as Luke 18:33 we can read of the prophecies that Christ would rise again on the 3rd day.

Jesus came and shed His blood for the sins of the world almost 2,000 years ago (or just 2 days from God's perspective). For 2 days He remained hidden in the grave, but then on the third day He was resurrected and revealed Himself in victory and glory.

The Scriptures repeatedly make reference to the return of Christ in the context of a wedding. As can be confirmed by Revelation 19:7, a wedding takes place at the time of Christ's coming.

Jesus once attended a wedding according to the biblical record where He blessed the event with a miraculous provision of wine, which is a symbol of His own blood that he would one day give for His bride.

What is of special interest is that the Scripture found in the Gospel of John 2:1 makes specific mention that Jesus attended this wedding on the 3rd day.

Now turning to Hosea 5:15 & 6:3 we are told that the Lord would be offended by the Jews at some time and would then return to His place. To return to His place would mean that He first had to leave Heaven.

We also are shown that His coming to this earth would be in two outpourings like an early and late rainfall.

Reading verses 1-2 of Ch. 6 concerning this powerful prophecy we find overwhelming evidence to support that the Lord's 2nd coming will be after the end of 2,000 years as God considers a day and during the start of the third.

The prophet Hosea is found speaking prophetically for the house of Israel. He declares that the time has come for them to return to the Lord. He describes 2 days wherein they have been afflicted after offending the Lord, just as has happened during the 2,000 years since Christ's first coming. He prophesies that after these 2 days, during the morning of the 3rd day, God would revive them (their soon to happen spiritual awakening), raise them up (the dead to be resurrected) and they will then live in His sight (the Millennial Reign of Christ).

Israel receives her spiritual outpouring during the first 3 ½ years of the tribulation after Russia and its confederates are defeated according to Ezekiel 39:29.

This, in our opinion, provides convincing evidence that the Lord's coming back to the earth will take place after the end of 2,000 years of absence and at the beginning of the 3rd thousand.

When considering the fact that many Bible scholars believe Israel's grand Jubilee of Jubilee years will take place within the first decade of this 3rd millennium since Christ returned to Heaven, then the time of the catching up of the Church to glory must be near at hand. As exciting as this thought might be, it must be balanced with the realization that this observation is only speculation.

According to God's promise to the Church found in I Corinthians 15:50-55 & I Thessalonians 4:15-18, the day is coming when every true believer living on the earth will suddenly be transformed into glorious, immortal beings who will be caught up into the heavens to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds.

Inquisitive speculators utilizing the following formula and "conjecture" can find fascinating, theoretical grounds for considering how close we "may" be to this unfathomable event.

In Ezek. 3:24-4:17 it was prophesied that Israel would be besieged for 390 years and that Judah would likewise suffer for an additional 40 years. There is no clear period in history where this 430-year duration was fulfilled.

Arthur E. Bloomfield in his book "The End of the Days" puts forth the proposition that the prophetic countdown began with the Babylonian siege of 586 BC. The captivity lasted for 70 years just as was prophesied in Jeremiah 25:11 & 29:10.

The prophecies of Jeremiah do not state that the siege would end at that time, but only that the Jews would be allowed to return to their land. The siege was to continue until the completion of the 430 years. Israel therefore had 360 years remaining as long as they obeyed God's command and returned to their land.

They didn't (Less than 50,000 returned) and God was therefore bound by His words in Leviticus 26:17-18 where He declared, "If also after these things, you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins."

According to Arthur Bloomfield, Israel's remaining 360 years of siege was to be multiplied by 7. The remaining siege would therefore have been increased to 2,520 years.

The finishing of the rebuilt Temple in "apx." 516 BC, give or take a year, adding 2,520 years would indicate that the Jewish Jubilee expected to occur sometime between 2005 and 2010, could possibly be the time that Jesus Christ will begin to deliver Israel from her continual occupation by Gentiles.

The prophesied siege is to reach its full intensity during the final 7 years of this age (Luke 21:24).

Jesus begins to deliver Israel at the start of His reign apx. 3 years or so into the final 7 year time of tribulation according to Rev. 11:15-17.

Counting backward in time 3 or so years from the end of 2007, or 7 years from 2010, would theoretically place the pre-tribulation Rapture in the vicinity of 2003.

In verses 14 & 15 of the lone chapter of Jude, it is plainly demonstrated that the saints return with the Lord to the earth on the Day of Judgment.

Revelation 5:9-10 reveals that these redeemed saints of God are in Heaven with the Lord before the judgment of the earth begins in Rev. 6:1. In Rev. 19:7-14 we are once more shown that the saints will be already residing in Heaven before Christ returns to the earth to execute His final judgment.

Just as in the days of Moses, recorded for us in Ex. 19:10-11, when God told the Jewish people to be prepared to meet Him on the 3rd day, so too does this passage have implications for this last generation.

The Rapture, by our studies of the revelation of Scripture, will take place at least 7 years before the Second Coming of Christ.

At the close of the final 7 years, in like manner of Ex. 19:10-11, when Israel and all remaining tribulation saints have been sanctified by Christ, then the Lord will come down from Heaven in the sight of all the people as God has promised in Matthew 24:29-30.
There are more patterns of the 3rd day and 7th day which could be cited, but what needs to be kept foremost in question is "why did God continually present these obviously illustrative patterns?" He has done this for His people.

One fine day, in a twinkling of an eye the true believers in Jesus Christ will be soaring through God's glorious heavens and so shall they forever be with their Lord (I Thess. 4:15-18).

If you would like to have the blessed confidence that when the Lord removes His Church from this wicked world you will not be left behind to face the horrible final years of Satan's rulership upon this earth, then come to Jesus Christ right this very moment with faith, trusting in His atoning blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

If your faith is sincere then rejoice and lift up your voice in joyous praise because your Redeemer lives and is most certainly returning soon to escort you to your eternal home.
The 7 thousandth and 3rd thousandth year are converging and let us "not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years" (II Pet. 3:8-9).