Saturday, April 16, 2016

What happened on that date?

                             Why BC and AD Timeline?

                                                         By Pastor Mike Dana


While watching a program my wife and I heard one of the speakers refer to a date as being from the year such and such “BCE”. Never hearing of the term “BCE” I turned to a google search and learned that a common theme now is to refer to our dated timeline as either being BCE or “Before Common Era” and CE or “Common Era”. I also saw an article by a man titled “Why Christians Should Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”.

Being somewhat of a relic now, I had no idea that the “BC and AD system “Before Christ and After Death system” was even being challenged. It is easy for us to just assume something will stay the same once it is as much as a standard like a timeline system. I do not hear of Greenwich Mean Time changing, or the unit of an hour or minute or even a second being changed. Of course if someone in the Greenwich Village made a worldwide commotion about the way people have fallen away from their creator, and it offended them, then they may try to change the name of that standard as well, rather than their way of life. It would sure be easier.

Now I suppose as with many things in history the story gets changed. We have all heard of certain words that have changed over time, pronounced differently and so on. A couple of terms created that come to mind and reflect on the ability to squirm around an uncomfortable situation are “politically correct” and “cautiously optimistic”.

I am sure a large target is on the “Christians” back as they are the trouble makers, questioning authenticity of carbon dating, and the “standards” used in modern day science, defending absolute truth and that sort of thing. There was a time when science proved things by reproducing the exact occurrence in a laboratory. But there would be only a few acclaims or notoriety given away to scientists if they had to recreate what The Creator has done. It is easier to change standards and convince people over time that theories you studied in school should be accepted as a law. 

There is a high standard in keeping the word of our Creator from changing over time. Quite a bit of time has passed since the events written in scripture. Early transcripts found have verified scriptures accuracy. There is a reason Christians don’t like to have standards change that reflect on their Creator. Watered down versions of any story loose integrity when you aren’t able to believe in it. You might say there are a large group of folks who still don’t believe in it, but I would say there are a large group of folks who choose not to believe in it. There is a difference.

I debated about writing this article, after all God needs no one to defend Him. Yet as I contemplated it I realized God does use people to speak for Him. It was no coincidence that my daily reading of scripture that was on a preprinted reading plan had Deuteronomy chapters 5-8 for the day and the day after I heard this speaker refer to “BCE”. Moses was one that God used to speak for Him because the nation of Israel was afraid to get close to God it tells us in Deuteronomy 5:5. Deuteronomy 8:11 warns us not to forget the Lord and for the rest of the chapter we are told why. So one of my Google search results brought up the title of “Why Christians Should Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”. I believe we should be thinking “Why Christians Should Not Adopt the BCE/CE Dating System”.

We are warned to not forget the Lord. But you say that having a world dating system that refers to Jesus Christ, his virgin birth and resurrection from the dead is offensive to other religions and belief systems, i.e. not politically correct. Other religions worship man made philosophies, creation itself, tombs that still have bones in them, manmade images, and self. Ask yourself why one might want to drift away from truth.

We know that Gods’ grace for His creation has gone on much longer than we deserve. As the world works at putting shades of grey around the history that is well documented, in not only scripture, but history books as well. We as Christians should not roll over and let history be rewritten because we are afraid of offending someone.

If a relative of yours was put to rest and an “era” was engraved in place of their birth and death I think you might struggle with that for your offspring and their offspring. More importantly should we refer to such a historical timeline as a Creator God coming to earth to walk in our shoes, suffer and die in our place and offer eternal life with God as an era?
Why did the dates in history change and start going a different direction?
What marked this “era” change?
Let’s call it as it is.

Maybe you were reading this and for some reason you realized you are not where you should be in relationship with Christ. The Meeting Place is here to help! You can be in right relationship with God!

Romans 10:9-13 (NKJV) 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."

That sums it up pretty well. If that’s you and you feel like “I am not able to be right”, let alone with a Holy God, (you couldn’t be further from the truth) the price has been paid for you with a once and for all- eternal- Holy- sacrifice- -Jesus- - on the cross. Just simply talk to God right now, he already knows your heart, let Him know that you know you are a sinner, ask Him to apply Jesus’s sacrifice to your sin and to forgive you. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and be your Lord and your Savior.

If you’ve done this, give us a call at The Meeting Place and profess Jesus is your Lord with your mouth. We would like to help you get to know Him better.
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The Meeting Place 406-544-9179