How About a Date?

It amuses me that people who reject the significance of Jesus Christ are faced every day with reminders of His time on earth with us, the date. Every time someone writes a check, or sends a letter or an email, they are affirming the greatest earthly event of all time; the incarnational work of Christ. He so monumentally changes history that His birth is the standard by which we measure time. Most civilized cultures across the globe use the Jillian or Gregorian calendars which consider Christ as the central figure of history.

And it’s not just from the time of Christ forward that time is measured; events are recorded retroactively from the point of Christ. Events are recorded as B.C. or “Before Christ.” Christ has such an impact on the face of history, that all across the world when people use this dating system, they are attesting that our lives are being lived A.D. or Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord.” Hence, the dating system that has been embraced for over a thousand years is the BC/AD system.

Undoubtedly, this system bugs many people as the move is on to “rewrite” dating by using the terms, B.C.E, Before Common Era, and C.E., or Common Era. They are trying to write Christ out of history. Nice try, but what does Common Era even mean? It just so happens that their “Before Common Era,” and their “Common Era” coincide exactly with the incarnation of Christ. A big question needs to be answered; what separates the Common Era from the Before Common Era? Was the “Before Common Era” considered the “Uncommon Era?” What was so uncommon about it? Anyway, why is this era we live in today considered “Common?”

It is true the “common” word was introduced by a monk to replace the regnal system of dating, a system which referenced the reign of royalty as a reference to time, i.e. “in the third year of the king…” Though the word “common” was introduced by a monk, Dionysius, he was intending to do away with the measurement of time by a ruler named Diocletian, a persecutor of Christians.  In today’s usage, however, those who insist on the BCE/CE system are those who seek to hijack it in order to question the historicity of Christ. I am doubtful they would even be able to give an intelligible response to what the “common” means in reference to “common era.” But, that is not their concern; their intent is the erosion of Christ, the One who forever changed the face of history by giving man the opportunity to be reconciled to a Holy God through His blood.

Isaiah 32:6 says,
“For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity,
to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.”

 Yep, it’s what they are doing!

Next time you write a check, write a letter, or send an email, or look at the morning paper, anything with a date on it, I would encourage you to offer up a little prayer under your breath, “Thank you Lord Jesus for changing the face of history.”

Have a great day, Anno Domini!