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BEHELD till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)
I have been queried more than once on my use of the phrase ‘Anno Domini’ on all my devotions and sermon notes. For most who were born in the forties, no explanation is necessary for it is the first thing we learned concerning the calendar in elementary school. I am not surprised that the modern educators would shun its being taught under a Godless curriculum in the modern school today.
"Anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi" is a Latin term meaning “In the Year of our Lord.” It was once included on every formal legal document of the past and is the most prevalent designation of time on the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Newspapers from Beijing to Jerusalem, Moscow to Paris, and Japan to America, all use that term for designating the year; so, it must be very important. Anno Domini (or AD) designates the number of years after the Advent of Christ. Before Christ, or BC, a designation I have seldom used on dating my sermons, means the number of years before Christ as dates of reference. It is the Ancient Landmark of time. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 by Dionysius Exiquus – a Sythian monk. Up until that day, the calendar years were based on the birth of Roman Emperors who were tyrants. It was right and proper that the method was abandoned in preference to the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The designation of Anno Domini (AD) creates no little stress for those who reject Christ as very God and very Man, so, sometime in the 1800s, the Jehovah Witnesses began to use the designation of BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE for Common Era to downgrade the importance of the birth of the Son of God. It was not very long until the world covens of those who hated to mention His Name began to use the designation of the Jehovah Witnesses in Science journals and in educational establishments. But, still, they could not avoid the question of WHY they used the same calendar years as those who used Anno Domini. It has become quite an embarrassment to them.
Because of its general use around the world, and its widely published testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His birth, I prefer to use it always to remind those who are aware of the meaning of its significance. I may, too, be guilty of desiring to poke the so-called atheists in the eye with the reminder.
The devil never sleeps! After more than 1500 years of accurate time-keeping, there has arisen a mischief afoot to amend our calendars to omit any reference to the year after Christ and base them upon a calendar using the center of the solar system as a basis to calculate coordinates in time and space.
In a recent news article, the South China Morning Post reports “that scientists in China have proposed a new universal way of telling the time that they say will make more sense for a spacefaring civilization.
“Time and date systems are central components for modern civilization. Many of us are familiar with the Gregorian calendar which is the most widely accepted civil calendar in the world. It is a solar calendar based on a 365-day year, and makes a distinction between BC and AD, with the birth of Jesus Christ.”
This contrived plan to take our Lord Jesus out of the equation of time is not surprising coming from the geniuses who gave us Covid 19 and whose national symbol remains a Great Red Dragon. (see Revelations 12:3)
I do not intend to forsake our calendar dating system which places our Lord at the center of our time scale since He is the Creator of time itself.
I urge all who read this devotion to vigorously oppose this movement by a nation whose national religion is Godless Communism. Please consider using Anno Domini, or AD on every date you record. Of course, after His second Coming, we will need no such calendar designation since Eternity has no beginning, middle, or end.
