Christ's Obedience. Three Important Things in Scripture. Seven and One Thousand Years. by the Rev. Walter Snyder A very merry (ninth day of) Christmas and a happy New Year to the readers. Yesterday marked not only the beginning of the year 2002; being the eighth day of the Nativity, it also remembered the Circumcision and Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Q: If man learns obedience through sin and correction, how did Christ learn obedience if he didn't sin? A: We know that Jesus was sinless (and, thus, had a sinless nature) because of the testimony of the Gospels as well as much of Hebrews and many places in the Pauline Epistles. Christ was the completely "unblemished" sacrificial Lamb (Exodus 12:5, Deuteronomy 15:21, 1 Peter 1:9, et al.). As the Bible says, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)" In other words, although Jesus was completely sin- free, he carried both the guilt that was ours and the punishment that we deserved. Jesus "learned" obedience by being obedient, not by sinning and being corrected. As the eternal Son of God, He was, is, and always will be obedient to the will of His Father. Q: From Genesis through Revelation, what are the three most important things? A: God made everything. Man sinned and messed up the entire creation. Jesus Christ came, suffered, died, and rose to forgive our sins and reconcile us with the Father. Of course, my thoughts might change, but not too much. Q: I keep hearing about a seven year period where people will have to believe in God and Jesus and when the 7 years are up God will come and take those people that accepted Him to heaven. I don't see in the Bible where it says anything about 7 years on Earth. If this isn't in the Bible, then why do people believe so much in this seven year period? I've also heard about a 1000 year period. A: Literal seven and thousand year periods are misinterpretations of the Scriptures. Revelation is full of figurative language, yet many people want to attach literal meaning to the periods of time. In John's time, especially among those steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures, a thousand years would stand for a long but definite time. It makes much more sense of the entire book if we understand this as being the time from Christ's ascension until the end of time. Thus, we've been living in the "millennium" ever since 30-something AD. The thousand years is, in other words, the life-span of the New Testament Church. Some of it is now history, some yet to happen. Similarly, seven is often used as a number of completion, especially of God's complete interaction with His creation. This most likely stems from the seven days of creation. It also appears to be a combination of symbolic Hebrew numbers: Three was a number representing God (even before He fully revealed Himself as Triune); four was the number of man, or of the world or the full physical creation. Also, periods of time in prophetic or apocalyptic writing might not be the same as in historical Scriptures. As example, consider Daniel 9, where the weeks are actually weeks of years, or approximately 490 years between Daniel and the coming of Christ. If we get too carried up in literalism while reading visionary literature, we do Scripture as much injustice as we would interpreting literal, historic writing as figurative. Even most of those who struggle to define and promote a literal millennium or a literal seven years don't also insist upon a literal 144,000 in chapters 7 or 14 of Revelation. Nor do they demand that a literal harlot or an actual dragon appear as part of the fulfillment of these prophecies. Yet for some reason, they cannot shake free of literal numbers of years. To Ask the Pastor, please write Ask the Pastor, PO Box 12, Emma, MO, 65327 or send email to . Walter Snyder is the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, Missouri and coauthor of the book "What Do Lutherans Believe." Ask the Pastor, © 2001 by Walter P. Snyder. It may be reproduced in totality, including this disclaimer, by anyone, provided that no profit is generated by said republication and redistribution. Translations into other languages should similarly note the United States and any appropriate international copyrights, as well as God's Scriptural injunctions concerning the property of others.