Major World Events

Beginning to 1 BCE. * 1-999 AD/CE * 1000-1499 AD/CE. *. 1500 AD/CE - Present

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Introduction

There is a spectrum of belief among Christians of WHEN God created the universe [cosmology]: somewhere between 10,000 (young earth of 7 literal day creation) to 13.5 billion years (old earth dating including gap theory and theistic evolution theory). There are many good Christ-followers on many different points of that spectrum. Could God have created the universe in 7 literal 24 hour periods as is listed in Genesis 1. Of course, he could have. We believe in Jesus rising from the dead—a huge miracle. I have been on all points of the spectrum of 7-day creation to gap theory or theistic evolution (that the Creator God spoke the big bang into existence with “Let there be light (energy)” and there would have been a big bang.

One thing is true for us Christians: We know the WHO. We just don’t know the WHEN or the HOW.

For the purpose of this timeline, I am including the old earth/universe dates that includes the Theistic Evolution (or evolutionary creationism), which is the view that God used evolution or some version of it. However, there is a gap theory within the cosmological spectrum that says between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, there is a gap of billions of years, in the same line as theistic evolution. We don't know when God created the universe; we just "KNOW" (by faith) that a Creator exploded this beautiful universe into existence. With God saying, "Let there be light," there would be evidence of a big bang, a cosmic starting point. And that "beginning" show up in observational date, much gathered from the from Hubble Telescope. The launching of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2020 has hopes to see even more, to just after the big bang. I believe in Jesus, so I believe in miracles. So I can accept that God could have created the world 10,000 years ago, but it seems like he would have to do a lot of trickery to make it all work (i.e. we have stars that are 2.5 million LIGHT YEARS away). When I get to heaven and ask God, "How long did it take you to make the universe and how did you do it?" If he said 13.8 years and evolution, I wouldn't be, "Really God? I'm out of here then!!!" If he said, "10,000 years just like it literally says in Genesis." I won't say, "Really God? I'm out of here."  It's not about the when and the how for me (we have to keep an open mind as we learn). It's about who. And that who is a Creator. 

It takes more faith to believe that all of this wonder, love, beauty, majestic sounds and that we are able to experience it, discuss it, and comprehend it all... just happened by accident.  I don't have that much faith. We don't know how... exactly. Theories have been developed seeking to understand how it all came together. We know that God speaks in biology, chemistry, and physics. But we also know that God speaks in more than just the physical. 

Hebrews 1:1-3 - "In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. "

May we be forever curious learners using the brains we have to discover and learn and worship. 
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With this old earth mindset, check out this before you begin your fly over of the World History Dates. ​

Check out this video that is a worship song if God did use evolution. God still gets the glory whether he did it in 7 days or billions of years.

THE BEGINNING AND THE EARLY UNIVERSE

• 13.5 billion years ago - The Big Bang and the start of the universe as indicated by an old-earth position (In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth with, "Let there be light" - Genesis 1:1-3)

  • Many NATURALIST evolution (as opposed to THEISTIC evolutionists, those who believe God created the world) state that in the beginning there was a primordial soup, and with the combination of energy, life as we know it began to come into being. But Naturalists have real no response to “what was going on before the primordial soup or where did the primordial soup and the energy come from). Both Theists and Naturalists must rely on faith at this point.

• 4.5 b. y. a. - Formation of planet Earth

• 3.8 b. y. a. - Beginning of biology, the language of God; he also speaks in chemistry and physics. John 1:3 says, "Through him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made."

• 2.5 million y. a. - Evolution of the Homo genus in Africa - First stone tools.  Hunter/gatherers. 

  • at some point, some comet must have struck the sands of Africa to create a crude form of cloudy glass (that wouldn’t be fully developed until the 14th century CE)

• 500,000 y. a. - Neanderthals evolve in Europe and the Middle East

• 300,000 y. a. - Daily use of fire (to first discover that would have been lit!)

• 200,000 y. a. - Homo Sapiens evolve in East Africa 

• 70,000 y. a. - Basic language

• 30,000 y. a. - Neanderthals die out

• 16,000 y. a. - Homo Sapiens settle America

• 12,000 y. a. - Agriculture Revolution

• 9000 - Gobekli Tepe, in modern Turkey (southeastern), may be the oldest discovered religious site. It may be 6000 years older than Stonehenge. First discovered in the 1960s and later uncovered by Schmit in 1994.

• 8000 - the rough date for when a young eath position states that the universe began in seven, 24 hours days.

4000-3000 BCE

• 3200-2400 Early Bronze Age

BRONZE AGE - 2600 TO 700 BCE

3000-2000

• ?? Book of Job

• 3000 - Stonehenge prehistoric monument erected in the late Neolithic period. Construction is estimated to have started around 3000 BCE.

• 2000 - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (2150-2000)

2000-1000

• 1792 - Hammurabi, King of Babylon, begins 43 yr reign.

• 1730 - Glass making technology in India - crude

• 1500 - Moses

  • Traditional writing dates for Genesis - Deuteronomy

• 1410-450 Books of the Bible: Psalms, Joshua, Judges, Ruth

• 1332-1323 King Tut ruled in Egypt (b. 1341. Lived 18 yrs)

• 1200-1070 - Ramses

• 1200 Iron Age

• 1000 David reigns

• 1000 Assyrians are conquering

999-900

• 979-911 Babylon East-West control

• 971-686 Books of the Bible: Song of Songs, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, I and 2 Samuel, I and 2 Chronicles

• 926-922 Solomon

• 900 ca - Kingdom split

899-800

• 850-800 Books of the Bible: Obadiah, Joel

IRON AGE 800 BCE TO 43 BCE

799-700

• 776 - The first recorded Olympics were held in Olympia but many believe that they may have happened for nearly 500 yrs before. The ancient Olympics were held every four years celebrating the Greek god Zeus during a religious festival.

• 775-710 Books of the Bible: Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah

• 771 The Great Wall of China construction begins

• 753 - Rome founded by Romulus and Remus, twin offspring of the god Mars

• 722 - Assyrian sack/siege of Jerusalem

• c. 700 - SHIFT from commodities to money as a measure of wealth (from land, grain, or livestock to coins)

• c. 7th-8th century BCE - Homer wrote the Odyssey
  

699-600

• 700-680 Books of the Bible: Isaiah

• 640 Glass making manual

• 640-605 Books of the Bible: Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk

• 605-562 Nebuchadnezzar's reign

599-500

• 590–538 Books of the Bible: Ezekiel, Lamentations, Jeremiah, I and 2 Kings

• 586 - Israel's southern kingdom seized, the temple destroyed, and captives to Babylon, including Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (their Babylonian names were:  Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego).

  • SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD OF THE JEWS 580 BCE - 70 CE

• Pythagoras (c 570-495 BCE) believed that the Earth was round and Aristarchus suggested that the earth and planets revolved around the sun. That didn’t take hold until Copernicus. The church adopted more of a Ptolemic geocentric view of the solar system until 1543 when Copernicus offered the heliocentric view and Galileo (1609) confirmed it with a telescope instead of human senses.

• 538 - Babylon fell to the Persians while the Israelites were in captivity

• 536-520 Books of the Bible: Daniel, Haggai, Baruch

• 520-ish - Daniel in lion's den - Daniel was an old man

• 516 - The Israelite exiles return to Jerusalem

• 570 – 495 Pythagoras first to teach the earth was round and it circled the sun

499-400

• 480-430 Books of the Bible: Zechariah, Ezra, I and 2 Chronicles, Esther (to 331), Malachi, Nehemiah

• 470 Socrates born

• 460 Democritus born (d.370) Along with his mentor Leucippus, viewed matter as a collection of atoms. "Father of science”. Plato hated him so much he wished his books burned. Aristotle’s view of matter won the day, albeit wrong.

  • Hippocrates birth - Greek Physician and founder of the first university. Father of medicine.

• 447-438 Parthenon built in Athens (celebrating Athens’ Victory)

• 437 Plato born

• 400 - Juice from willow tree bark used to relieve pain but caused mouth and stomach problems - till 1899 AD.

399-300

• 399 - Socrates died (470-399)

• 395 - The Midrash, an ancient commentary on the Torah, begins to take shape

• 384 - Aristotle born (384-322)

• 355 - Alexander the Great born

• 347 - Plato died

• 338 - Philip of Macedon defeats Athenian and Theban forces at the battle of Chaeronea, uniting all of Greece. 

• 336 - Alexander the Great reigns, conquering Persia, Phoenicia, Egypt, Babylon, etc.  

• 323 - Alexander claims to be the son of Zeus. Dies in this same year. 

  • HELLENISTIC PERIOD 323 - 31 BCE

• 322 - ?? Masoretic text translated

  • Aristotle died

  • Ptolemy captures Jerusalem

• 300-200 - LXX

299-200



199-100

• 175 - Antiochus IV Epiphanes becomes king of Syria 

• 169 - Antiochus Epiphanes captures Jerusalem

• 167 - Antiochus persecutes the Jews. The Jewish Temple is dedicated to Zeus. 

• 166 - Judah Maccabees led a revolt to free Israel from foreign rule. Many thought Judah was the promised Messiah sent by God to restore Israel to the glory days: Make Israel Great Again!!!  Establishment of the Pharisees as a branch of Judaism till 70 AD, the destruction of the temple.

• 165 - The Jewish Temple is restored

• 141 - Judea becomes independent

• 135 - the failure of the Bar-Kochba revolt

• 133 - Rome expands reign to the east

• 130 - Galen birth - Roman Physician, most influential in medicine since Hippocrates (460)

  • ​The influence of the Pharisees sect rises

• 125 - Confucian teachings become official

• 100 - Glass blowing in Rome

99-0

• 87/86 Athens defeated by General Sulla of Rome

  • ROMAN AGE 63BCE TO 410 CE

• 63 Pompey annexed Palestine I to the Roman territory

• 61 - Julius Caesar wins first major victory 

• 45 - Caesar introduces the Julian calendar, which was divided into 12 months, each with the same number of days equalling 365. In addition, he added the innovative idea of a leap year, where an additional day was added every four years. This was the most common calendar until 1582 with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII.

• 44 - Caesar becomes dictator of Rome for life

  • Cassius and Brutus assassinate Julius

• ​40 - Herod the Great becomes king of Judea until 4 BCE

• 30 - Cleopatra and Antony commit suicide

  • ​Shammai and Hillel become schools of thought

  • Philo of Alexandria

• 20 - Herod the Great rebuilds the Jerusalem Temple

• 4 - Death of Herod the Great his kingdom is split between his three sons

  • Jesus’ birth - It was later calculated that Jesus of Nazareth was actually born 4 years before the 0 BC traditional dating.

Beginning to 1 BCE. * 0-999 AD/CE * 1000-1499 AD/CE. *. 1500 AD/CE - Present