490 Year Cycles?

I have heard people mention that there are cycles of 490 years in the Bible and that at the beginning of each cycle something significant happens, and that the new cycle falls in 2007. Can you shed some Biblical light and perspective on this?

Q. I have heard people mention that there are cycles of 490 years in the Bible and that at the beginning of each cycle something significant happens, and that the new cycle falls in 2007. Can you shed some Biblical light and perspective on this? Thank you so much, as always.

A. The only legitimate groupings of 490 year periods that I’m aware of in Scripture are the four 490 year periods of the Old Testament that chronicle the History of Israel. They began with God’s promise to Abraham and continued until the most famous one from Daniel 9:24-27 that stopped 7 years short of fulfillment with the death of the Messiah.

Even those are not Biblical in the strictest sense since, with the exception of Daniel 9, they’re really a commentator’s observations on Scripture rather than Scripture itself. Anything that carries us into 2007 and beyond would obviously have to be of a similar nature.