God's Perfect Timing

By Dr. Melvin Woodard

We are creatures of time. It affects every moment of our lives. Yet when we study the Bible, our focus tends to be on principles and personalities rather than on how the events of redemptive history were perfectly timed by God. Since my own study of the Bible's timeline opened my eyes to some of God's biggest truths, my goal is to introduce as m

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rushmore Press LLC
• Release date: Aug 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953223975

Dr. Melvin Woodard

Dr. Melvin Woodard III is the pastor and founder of New Salem Baptist Church of Indianapolis, Indiana. He is also a high school biology and chemistry teacher in an urban school setting in the city. Dr. Woodard studied health sciences as an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University before going on to earn an EdD in Organizational Leadership, MBA-Health Care Administration, and MA in Advanced Leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University; Doctor of Ministry, MDiv, and MA from Ashland Theological Seminary; a Doctor of Divinity (H.C.) from International University of Ministry and Education; and a MA in Teaching from Marian University. Dr. Woodard has 25 years of working experience as a certified anesthesiologist assistant in hospitals around Cleveland, Ohio; 35 years of pastoral ministry experience; and five years of formal teaching experience. Dr. Woodard is married to Beverly C. Woodard and they reside in Zionsville, Indiana. The couple has four children and four grandchildren.

Book preview

Truth in the Word

I have done many things in my sixty years of life, including the practice of anesthesia for twenty-five years, pastoral ministry for over twenty-five years, and now—in my waning years of working in public life—teaching high school biology and science at Charles A. Tindley Accelerated (High) School in Indianapolis.

Right now, I am teaching a unit on ecology to my biology classes. We are studying population growth in ecosystems and using the population growth formula P = P0 x erT, where P = total population after time T, P0 = starting population, r = % rate of growth, T = time in hours or years, and e = Euler number = 2.71828….

As I was teaching this unit, it dawned on me to try something: What would the world population be if the flood occurred in 2688 BC and eight people survived to repopulate the earth?

The flood occurred in 2688 BC, and Noah and his family of seven emerged from the ark to start a new world order in 2687 BC, one year later. Since then, the world population has grown from eight people to 7.7 billion people as of September 2019. Assuming a mere 0.484% growth rate on average throughout the 4,706 years since Noah and his family emerged from the flood, the Bible can be trusted to support the math and the current world population.

The equation looks like this:

P = P0 x erT → 7,700,000,000 = 8 x 2.71828⁰.⁰⁰⁴⁸⁴ x ⁴⁷⁰⁶

P = 7,700,000,000

P0 = 8

e = 2.71828

r = 0.00484 (0.484%)

T = 4,706 years (time from 2687 BC to AD 2019).

Check the math for yourself. If you’re careful to put the right numbers in the correct places, you will find that the Bible is its own witness. Our current world population is exacted by the biblical witness of the flood.

I love the Lord, and I love to read His Word. God cannot lie and will not lie. His Word is filled with truth if we would mine it. Too often, we skim over truth and merely keep repeating phrases we have heard all our lives.

Thank you for continuing to read and discover more truth in God’s Word along with me!

—Dr. Mel Woodard

Introduction

God’s Timetable

We are creatures of time. It affects every moment of our lives. Yet when we study the Bible, our focus tends to be on principles and personalities rather than on how the events of redemptive history were perfectly timed by God. Since my own study of the Bible’s timeline opened my eyes to some of God’s big truths, my goal is to introduce as many people as possible to the rich experience of studying Scripture with a focus on God’s timing.

Second Peter 3:8 states, But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (NKJV). Whether the time frame is accurate or not, this passage suggests that a day of time is much different for God from how it is for us, His creation. It is hard for me to comprehend how a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day, but that is how it appears to God.

The Almighty stands outside of time. He created time and operates within it when He chooses. God can move in and out of time as He desires. Wayne Grudem rightfully states, It is evident throughout Scripture that God acts within time and acts differently at different points in time.¹

Genesis 1:26 tells us that man was created in the image and likeness of God. Despite having been created in God’s image, mankind was predestined to spend a finite amount of time on earth, as we learn from Genesis 6:3: And the LORD said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’ (NKJV). According to this scripture, God limits the lifespan of men to fewer than 120 years due to the presence of sin in the world. We spend a lot of this time waiting for God to act!

God Almighty uses time in different ways. Sometimes He uses it to discipline His children. As He did with the Israelites on many occasions, God will put us in time-out situations to discipline us, to slow us down, and to make adjustments in our lives.

God also uses time to display His mighty power. For instance, in troubled times we experience the grace and mercy of God, reminding us that trouble doesn’t last forever. Times of difficulty can teach us about God’s sovereignty. Whether for our good or God’s ultimate glory, time is a tool in the hand of God.

Walking through life necessitates time and waiting on the Lord. Waiting for God to act is an inescapable part of life. It’s even a spiritual imperative. Hosea 12:6 says to maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always. What the Bible doesn’t tell us is how long we’ll be waiting. Time should be seen from God’s perspective, not ours.

The Bible records what God has done in the past and what He plans to do in the future to bring us to salvation. If we study Scripture well, we will discover a number of important things about how God operates. From the very beginning of human history, there was a need for a Savior (see Genesis 3:15). Although Jesus came nearly 2,000 years ago, we are waiting for Him to return and finish what He started.

The church needs to be awake when Jesus Christ returns. We don’t want to be like the disciples who fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane, failing to pray and keep watch with Jesus (Matthew 26:36–46). If we’re spiritually asleep when Jesus returns, we will miss one of the greatest moments in the history of the world.

This is why it’s crucial for us to pay attention to the Bible’s timeline. The purpose of this book is to give you important keys to help you better understand God’s plan and His character through studying the time frame of Scripture. At the end of each chapter, a workbook section will give you the tools to explore how God’s perfect timing throughout history is relevant to your life today.

God is marching methodically through His Word. The book of Revelation tells us that God’s Word has not come to an end yet, but the end is approaching. We must use the precious time we have to reach the lost—those who have yet to receive Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior of the world.

I was a doctoral student when I first began to dive into the literal timing of the Bible. I was so fascinated by it that I often ignored my studies to focus on understanding God’s timeline throughout His Word.

I’ve put years of study into this, and I firmly believe in it. You might not agree with my reasoning for dating things as I have, but keep in mind that the Bible isn’t a history textbook in any conventional sense. There are details that aren’t explained as fully and neatly as we would like.

The more I’ve studied, the more I’ve learned about how God works throughout time, which has taught me to be patient and endure difficult circumstances with a sense of hope and expectancy. Through my study of God’s timing, I have become a different person—a person who knows and trusts that God will act when He is ready according to His timetable, not mine.

I hope this book will do the same for you. May God open your eyes to the wonders of His perfect timing as you read on.

Chapter One

Time Matters

Numbers are an important part of understanding the Bible. They enhance the story and provide a level of factual information and accuracy that words alone do not provide. Let’s take the six days of creation as an example.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

—Exodus 20:11

I remember reading the first chapter of Genesis as a child and thinking, God did all that work in six days? Really? I didn’t realize then that questions surrounding the creative activity of God would plague my spirit and start me on a lifelong theological journey. What is an accurate way to look at the creation story? Did God actually make the world in six, 24-hour days? If He did, how does science match up with the Bible’s account?

Science suggests that the earth is much older than we are truly able to understand. Scientific discussions tend to create a division between people who are scientifically minded and those who are biblically minded. The scientifically minded think that the Bible’s version of creation cannot be totally believed and accepted. Creationists, people who embrace the Bible’s version of creation, claim that it is impossible to accept what science teaches about how the world was made.

I look at things in a different way. While we certainly have a great and powerful God who can bring about whatever He desires when He desires it, He may not have created the world in six, 24-hour days. He could have purposefully created the world gradually, adding man to the world at the end of His great, methodical creative process. This said, the age of the earth does not have to coexist with the presence of mankind. In other words, the length of human history does not have to equal the age of the earth.

It would be helpful to look at the book of Jude to understand my point. Jude consists of only one chapter and is divided into two neat parts, with verses 4–16 focusing on the dangers of false teachers and verses 17–25 focusing on the duty to defend God’s truth. Verses 14–15 are pivotal because they shrink the dating process for the length of human history in a way that is very important to understand:

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

—Jude 1:14–15

Why are these verses important? Because they offer us numbers that we can work with to unlock the Scriptures. Enoch is the seventh from Adam (Jude 1:14; Genesis 5:3–21). Based on the system of calculations I’ve drawn from Scripture, Enoch lived from 3722–3357 BC. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, wrote his epistle in AD 65, less than 3,500 years after Enoch lived. In historical terms, this really is a small amount of time.

Given that a first-century follower of Jesus Christ, Jude, was writing about an Old Testament patriarch, Enoch, born in 3722 BC—about 3,400 years before him—we know that the story must have been passed down orally. Had Enoch lived 30,000 years before Jude, it’s highly likely that the story would have been lost. A gap of 3,000 years is historically meaningful.

From these verses in Jude, I naturally went back to Genesis 5