The Reverse Timeline Theory

Several months ago I watched the program Breakthrough with pastor Rod Parsley. In this particular program, he had a guest speaker, a Dr. Perry Stone who spoke about “hidden messages” in the Bible. No, this was not one of those episodes about the skip sequence “messages” in the Old Testament collectively called the Bible Code. Stone’s conjecture on this program is that events in Genesis 1-11 foreshadow end time events in reverse order. The strongest point that Dr. Stone makes is that he can prove using this reverse timeline that rapture of the church will take place before the tribulation. The basis of his idea, he says, is Ecclesiastes 1:9 which says, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

First of all, the context of the passage in Ecclesiastes 1:9 is that the same things happen over and over again—it is not (at least directly) speaking of a foreshadowing of future events by things that symbolize those events. However, I agree that there are many, many things in the Old and New Testaments which foreshadow future events. One example is the lamb’s blood being put on the doorposts being a foreshadowing of the crucifixion of Christ. So I would concede that point without benefit of Ecclesiastes 1:9. However, there is certainly nothing about a series of events occurring in reverse order in this verse. The verse could (if it really were talking about “hidden messages”) just as easily be talking about events in the same order rather than in reverse. This is what one would naturally think. This verse certainly does not declare when in Biblical history one should start looking for the first (or last as it were) event which foreshadows the first end time event. Nevertheless, for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that Mr. Stone’s general idea is right.

According to Stone, the tower of Babel incident is a type of the September 11th attacks. He states that both events divided the world. He mentions the connection between the war in Iraq and Babel/Babylon (which is located in modern day Iraq). The Bible does not mention that the tower of Babel was destroyed by terrorists or that it caused a war. He mentions the connection between Babylon and the government of the Beast. If the twin towers (there are two and not one as in the biblical story) are symbolic of Tower of Babel which was located in Babylon, then this would make United States of America the kingdom of the antichrist. There are people who believe this who protest at funerals for soldiers who died in Iraq. You are welcome to their opinion if you wish, but I’ll pass on that. There have been many issues which have divided the world throughout history. The tower of Babel incident could just as easily be a foreshadowing of something else. The day of Pentecost is a reverse of the tower of Babel. That is, languages were “unconfused” and cultural traditions which divided people were soon made obsolete in the church. I don’t see the connection between confusion of languages and the terrorist attacks. I don’t believe that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with it either.

Mr. Stone mentions the connection between the story of how Ham looked upon Noah’s drunken nakedness and modern day issues of homosexuality and drunkenness. As a result, of Ham’s sin, it was not Ham, but his son Canaan that was cursed. I don’t know what this means as far as types of the future, but I just thought I’d call attention to that detail as food for thought. I’ll concede the connection between Canaan and homosexuality, but this has always been an issue. Ditto on the drunkenness (or what he said that it symbolized). Ditto on the connection between abortion and man’s blood being shed (Genesis 9:5). Go back and read Ecclesiastes 1:9 again, Dr. Stone. It says, “There is nothing new under sun.”

Dr. Stone mentions that the dove that Noah sent out during the Flood is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. He mentions that the prophet Joel (2:28-32) prophesied that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit. I would assume that Mr. Stone believes in the Pentecostal movement and supernatural spiritual gifts. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Azusa Street revival is touted by TBN as being the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy. This out of order in Mr. Stone’s chronology as this happened nearly a century before the September 11th attacks.

Dr. Stone cites the Great Flood as being a type of the Tsunami, and other modern day disasters. Many liberal scholars and unbelievers say that the Biblical Flood was local, Bible clearly states that Great Flood was world wide. With the exception of those living on the ark, God “wipe(d) from the face of the earth every living creature (He had) made.” (Genesis 7:4) No event such as this yet happened, but Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man.” (Matthew 24:37) The pattern of prophetic parallelisms in the Bible is that small things foreshadow big things. There were likely millions of people who perished in Flood and everyone in the whole world was immediately affected. There are two climactic events of the book of Revelation where essentially everyone alive is judged.

The first is in Revelation 19:11-21. Jesus Christ himself strikes down the nations (verse 15) and birds gorge themselves on “the flesh all people” (verse 18). There are many references to this event in the Old Testament, especially Isaiah. It says that there will be so much blood, that the mountains will melt (34:3). In many places it speaks of a time when there will be very few people left alive on the earth. The flood clearly foreshadows this point in history.

The other climactic event is the White Throne Judgment. This is when everyone who is dead is resurrected to be judged. Instead of being drowned in water, people are brought forth out the sea (Revelation 20:13). Like the Great Flood, this is a judgment in which whole world is judged and relatively few are saved.

The striking down of the nations, I would say, would fit the Flood better than the White Throne Judgment. Neither of these interpretations fit with Mr. Stone’s pre-tribulationist eschatology (as you will see in the next paragraph). Nowhere in Dr. Stone’s chronology does he mention these great climaxes in biblical prophecy. They just don’t fit with anything else in Genesis 1-11.

The pivotal claim that Dr. Stone makes in this piece that the translation of Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24 is a type of the rapture in that famous passage in I Thessalonians 4. This claim does make some sense, but it is also connected with the ascension of Christ (which also foreshadows the rapture). But, if Dr. Stone’s theory is correct, we should expect some major cataclysmic event (foreshadowed by the Flood) to happen before the rapture. What else could this be but the striking down of the nations, which happens at the end of the Great Tribulation?

We creationists tend to think that God created everything perfect in the beginning, but because of Adam’s sin, things get worse and worse as time goes along. We tend to believe that millennial reign of Christ will restore the physical state of the earth back to the way it was before the Flood. In particular, the average life expectancy in these two dispensations is similar. Note that in Isaiah 65:17-25 people live longer than now, but they do eventually die. But the millennial reign of Christ is to be a dispensation of peace and the world was full violence in the years just before the Flood. The earth would likely have been more peaceful before Enoch was translated, which was roughly 987 years from the creation of Adam (check my calculations from Genesis 5:3-24 and make sure I’m right). We don’t know the exact number because these numbers are rounded. The 1000 years of the millennial reign of Christ could also be rounded figure.

Now let’s look at what Dr. Stone claims will happen after the rapture. He says that Cain killing Abel is a type of the Great Tribulation. This, he says, is the persecution of the church (which is supposed to be gone). OK, I get it. Another church is formed by new Christian converts after the rapture. I guess that makes sense if you only pick out certain passages instead taking what the Bible as a whole. Anyway, Stone tries to make a connection between the mark put on Cain and the mark of the Beast. The word for “mark” in Greek that is used in Revelation in the phrase “the mark of the Beast” means a sharpening or incision. Eschatologists have speculated that this could mean that this “mark” could be some kind of microchip implanted through an incision in the hand or forehead. The Hebrew word for mark is not that specific. The NAS does not even use this word “mark” in the instance of Cain’s punishment, but rather the word “sign”. This is how that Hebrew word is most frequently translated in the Old Testament in most versions.

Dr. Stone also tries to make some connection between the statements of the murderer Lamech (the descendent of Cain) and the Great Tribulation. The passage reads: “If Cain be avenged seven times, then Lamech shall be avenged 70 times seven times.” It is true that the judgments in Revelation (which occur during the tribulation and not after) occur in sevens. The way I read this is that Lamech is saying that he wants vengeance against God for the punishment he received. This is not saying that Cain received a sevenfold punishment. The figure 490 was the number years declared for the Jews and the “holy city for the finishing of transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.” (Daniel 9:24) This 490 year period began with the giving of the order to rebuild the city. Jesus Christ was baptized and began his ministry exactly 483 years after this order just as verse 25 says. There is much speculation about whether the last seven or the last half of the last seven is suspended until the Tribulation. Even if this is true, most of the 490 year period has nothing to do with the Tribulation. It only could end during or at the end of it. I certainly wouldn’t build a whole doctrine around one interpretation or another. 490 was also the number of times Jesus said that you should forgive someone who sins against you. How does that have anything to do with the tribulation? Dr. Stone really grasps at straws when he goes outside the written word for evidence that Cain split Abel’s head with a scythe or something like that which hadn’t been invented yet (Genesis 4:22 gives the impression that Lamech’s son Tubal-Cain invented metal working). This is not the same thing as a beheading (Revelation 20:4).

Lamech was probably born after Enoch was translated (we don’t know for sure because no chronology is given for Cain’s line). Dr. Stone seems to base his chronology upon the order that things appear in the text and not chronological order.

If Abel’s murder is not a type of the Tribulation, then what could it be? Most scholars say that Abel was a type of Christ. Jesus declared that generation (or the race) of his day was guilty of Abel’s murder. The crying out from the ground of Abel’s blood is sometimes paralleled to the blood of Christ crying out on behalf of sinners. This is out of order with Stone’s chronology. I will point out the Stone, as well as most other pre-tribulationists rarely speak of the passage in Revelation 20:7-10 which is what happens immediately after the millennium. I can’t quite see how this fits with the story of Cain and Abel, but it’s no worse than Stone’s interpretation.

Clearly, the conditions on the earth before Adam sinned were totally perfect. This period taken as whole, therefore, more closely represents eternity in heaven and not the millennium. The millennium-Sabbath theory is whole other ballgame. This is beyond the scope of what I want to write about in this article.

In conclusion, even if the reverse timeline theory is correct, it definitely does not prove that the rapture will take place before the tribulation. If anything, it shows the opposite, but this theory is very shaky in the first place. Why waste valuable TV time preaching about “hidden messages” in the Bible, when there are so many people who need hear the message which is not hidden. They need to be convicted in their hearts that they are sinners and they need to see the need for God’s grace.