What Year Is It?
According to the current calendar, we live in the year 1999 A.D., soon to be 2000. Is our calendar right? Let us consider what the Bible suggests.
Our Julian calendar is supposedly based on the theory that Jesus born on December 25 in the year now referred to as "1 A.D." I'm sure most everyone reading this will agree that Jesus was most likely NOT born on December 25 OR in what we call 1 A.D. (there can be no such year as 0). This makes us wonder: just what is today's date?
Modern estimations say that Jesus had to have been born somewhere between 2 and 8 B.C. (that is, BEFORE the year our current calendar says Christ was born). This is based on Biblical and other historical evidence. For example, there was an extremely bright planetary alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces visible in Judea in the spring of 7 B.C. This would account for the shining star the shepherds and wise men saw. Is it a coincidence that Christ was born at that time? No...it was God's preordained way to show them the way to the newborn King. Luke 2:1-2 says that during the reign of Caesar Augustus, an census was taken. This was while Quirinius was governor of Syria, which historians suggest was 10-7 B.C. This was during the reign of Herod the Great, which was 37-4 B.C. Based on the appearance of the "shining star," it is therefore quite possible that Jesus was born in 7 B.C. Even Chinese astronomical tables confirm the appearance of such a shining light. That would mean that our current calendar, which is based on the birth of Jesus, is 7 years ahead, making this year not 1999, but 2006! Now according to Luke's account, the shepherds saw the star and came right away to the manger in Bethlehem to see the newborn King. Matthew's account says that some wise men (magi) from the east also saw it, and so they came to Jerusalem, seeking Him. In verse 9, it says they saw the star again, and history bears out that the planet Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were in alignment at this time, which was about 2 years later. However, it is possible that the "star" they saw was in fact a comet or meteor. Whatever it was that led them, it must have taken about 2 years for them to make the journey, because when they arrived, they asked where He was, and Herod told them that when they found Him, he wanted to come worship. But his real plan was to kill the child of prophecy. When the magi didn't return to him, Herod instead ordered all the male children in Bethlehem that were 2 years old and younger to be killed, verifying that by this time (probably 5 BC) Jesus could very well have been about 2 years old, thus making His birth year probably 7 BC, which again proves our current calendar 7 years ahead!
But wait...in the 1700's we repeated a year in order to make some kind of calendar correction. Grave markers from that period sometimes are marked as to which system of time - before or after the repeat - the marker was using. So now we must add ANOTHER year to make our calendar accurate to the birth of Jesus. We are now living in the year 2007, and 2008 is upon us.
For those who believe the world will come to an end with the beginning of the year 2000, we must say that time has already come and gone several years ago.
-David F. Sims-
(This info based on several books, including Alfred Edersheim's "The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah", the "New Bible Dictionary" and
"Barnes' Notes" on Matthew.)
written by David F. Sims, doing my part to "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6)
All quotes taken from the New American Standard Bible.
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