As we look back in time at the very beginning of our third millennium it’s fun to reflect back at all the fanfare that greeted the coming of year 2000. Many other famous years have become permanently placed in your memory, such as 1492 (Columbus discovered America), 1776 (America became an independent nation) and the year you were born.
Just who is responsible for setting up the yearly dating scheme that has become almost universally adopted today? The monk Dionysius Exiguus, in the sixth century after Christ, established what is commonly referred to as the Christian era. He placed Jesus’ birth on December 25 in the year 753 of Rome and decided 754 should be the first year of the Christian era, i.e., A.D. 1.1 The initials B.C. mark the years before the beginning of the Christian era and stand for “Before Christ.” A.D. represents Anno Domini – “in the year of our Lord.”
Imagine one man’s birth is responsible for the beginning of our modern era and how we measure all of our great historical dates. Jesus Christ, the central person of the New Testament, can be viewed as the great timepiece, standing at the crossroads between our ancient and modern eras. During the year A.D. 2000 we had to acknowledge His birth and the fact that we were living in the 2000th year of our Lord.” His influence cannot be ignored.
1 Memorable Dates, The World Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., 1978), p. 713.