Epochal Events

We live in a decimal world. Human commentators measure change in terms of years, decades and centuries. Newspapers nominate a “man of the year”. At the beginning of a decade, they prognosticate about shape of the next decade. At then end of century, they try and draw out the themes of the century and guess if the next one will be different. At the turn of a new millennium, they really get carried away. Many Christians think the same way.

God does not operate in a decimal system. He does not see history in decades and centuries. God is eternal, but he sees human history in “time and seasons”. Paul told the Thessalonians that they already understood about times and seasons, as they already understood them.

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you (1 Thes 5:1).

To see history as God sees it, we must understand the times and in which we are living.

The word "epoch" is derived from a Greek word, which means pause. It is used to describe the breaks between the acts of a play. In God’s plan each new season is started by an epochal event which marks the end of the old season and the beginning of the new one. God breaks in and changes the "state of the play" and starts a new stage of history.

The key epochal events in the Old Testament were the flood, the tower of Babel, the Exodus and the Exile. The incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus was the ultimate epochal event that marked the transition into the new covenant.

The New Testament age has six seasons and the transition from each season to the next is generally marked by an epochal event. We are currently at an epochal point in history, when the world passes into a new season. A season called the Times of the Gentiles is coming to an end. The short season called the Time of Distress is about to begin. The epochal events that mark the end of the times of the Gentiles are described in the four horseman of Revelation 6.

The first two horsemen have already been released.

• The first horseman is the Islamic Revolution that began in Iran 1978.
• The second horseman is the Tribal Conflict that began about the same time.

I have been watching the world for a sign that another next horseman has been released.