How the modern calendar proclaims the uniqueness of Jesus Christ
by Mark Milioni
President, Baptist Bible College
(Adapted from a Christmas sermon)
Our calendar is not something that is divinely inspired or scriptural. It was developed, and by the way, redeveloped and redeveloped and redeveloped, by man. So, how in the world did we get our calendars? First of all, let’s talk about how we arrived at the months that we use to measure time. You see, ancient man knew that there were two heavenly bodies that regulated or at least were used to measure time.
One was the moon, so they developed lunar calendars, and the other was the sun, so the other calendar was a solar calendar.
For instance, the Jewish people developed and still use a lunar calendar. But you do know a lunar calendar determined by the cycles or the phases of the moon, from a new moon to a full moon, does not coincide with a solar calendar. For instance, the moon completes its phases every 29• days. And so if you follow a lunar year exclusively, you have only 354 days, and that is 11 days short of a solar year of 365 days.
To further complicate the measurement of time, we’re spinning around the sun in orbit at a tremendous velocity. And in addition to spinning around the sun, this planet is also rotating one complete revolution every 24 hours. Are you dizzy yet? In addition to that, our planet’s axis is not perpendicular, and by leaning some that creates the seasons of the year.
Even ancient man, as far back as the ancient Egyptians, could determine, by counting the amount of daylight and the amount of dark, that there were these four points during the year when you could establish time. The two equinoxes, one in the fall, one in the spring, when the time of light and darkness were the same. Then there was the winter solstice, when the dark is longer and the daylight is short, and the summer solstice, just the opposite — long daylight, short night. They could determine those were things that happened regularly every year.
Now the problem was getting the lunar or moon cycles that developed months to coincide with this solar year. There were several attempts through the years.
For instance, the Romans were the first ones to establish a monthly calendar. They had ten months. The first month was the month March. The second month was April, then May and June. The fifth month was called Quintilis, the sixth month was called Sextilis, then Septemberus, Octoberus, the eighth month — that’s where we get our September and October — November, the ninth month, and Decimbris (December for decimal) the tenth month. The problem was this year did not coincide with the months.
Julius Caesar attempted to establish a worldwide calendar. He didn’t invent the idea; he just made it a proclamation. The idea was based on the teaching of the Roman astronomer Sosigenes who influenced Julius Caesar. And in the year 46 B.C., Julius Caesar said, “We need to add two more months.” And so he added Januarius and Februarius. Twelve months. But then he said, “We need to reckon this idea of how a year is 365 days and approximately six hours.” And to make up for that extra six hours per year, the Romans added a leap year.
And then Romans honored Julius Caesar by renaming the month Quintilis after him, and that’s why we have the month July, named after Julius Caesar.
But the Romans made a mistake. Instead of counting a leap year every fourth year, they started counting it every third year, and so the calendar got out of sync again. And so when Caesar Augustus came along — remember him from the Christmas story — he said, “We need to go back to what Julius did,” and so for 16 years they didn’t have any leap years and they got back on track.
And to honor Augustus, they re-named the month “Sextilis” after Caesar Augustus, and that’s why you and I have the months of July and August in the summer. Everything went along pretty good for a while; except that a solar year is not exactly 365 days and six hours? It is exactly 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes, and 42 seconds. And though 11 minutes does not seem to be a large number, the problem comes when you stretch it out over about 15 centuries, and then it does make a difference. The calendar was out of sync again.
Every year, the date of the vernal equinox in the spring became earlier and earlier on the calendar. Strangely enough, because the date of Easter is set based on the first full moon after the vernal equinox, as the date of the vernal equinox kept getting pushed back earlier it came in March, and then in February, and so on. Soon someone realized that Easter was going to be celebrated at Christmastime, and even before that.
The fix came in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII established the new style calendar with that 11-minute difference. And he instituted the calendar we use today, which is called the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory. It was quite a feat of analysis. The first thing he did was to take 10 days off the year 1582. They just dropped them. And then he instituted what’s called the “Century Law” for leap years: in the century years that end in “00” only those century years divisible by 400 are a leap year. That’s the law he instituted. So 1600 was a leap year, but not 1700, 1800, or 1900, but 2000 was a leap year. And that’s how Gregory got the calendar back in sync with the vernal equinox, setting the date of Easter.
But, because the pope was Catholic, only those predominately Catholic countries, like Spain, Italy, and France, adopted that new style calendar. All the others stuck with the old style calendar. That made determining dates in the 16th and 17th centuries sometimes very difficult. England and the American colonies did not accept the new calendar until 1752, just a few years before the American Revolution.
And when they did, 11 days were just dropped out of the calendar. In 1752, September 3 was followed by September 14. Someone wanting to do an interesting term paper could write “All the Historical Events that Occurred in the U.S. Colonies from September 4, 1752, to September 13, 1752,” then turn in a blank sheet of paper. Those dates do not exist, seriously, in American history, because we adopted this new calendar.
So that is a little explanation about how we got our calendar and the month system. Now let’s talk about years.
In the year 532, a monk named Dionysius calculated what became known as Anno Domini, or “the year of our Lord,” abbreviated A.D. He calculated what he believed to be the birth year of Jesus. Dionysius worked hard, but he made two mistakes. First, he did not account for a “zero year.” There was no zero in the Roman numeral system. So what he said was, the day Jesus was born was year 1 A.D., and so when Jesus was one year old, that was 2 A.D. The second mistake had to do with the death of Herod the Great. Using Dionysius’s calculations, Herod would have been dead for four or five years before Jesus was born, and we know that is not so both from the Bible and secular history. Jesus was probably born 4 or 5 B.C., but no one had calculated the B.C. part. That would come in about 731 when the Venerable Bede introduced the concept.
So, there you go, that’s how we got our calendar. It is just the process of man attempting to match months and years, the moon and the sun. But there is much more to the story. Man developed the calendar, and in the center of that calendar, dividing history, is Jesus Christ. When mankind looked for an event to determine our historical dating, the one event that stands is this: the coming of Jesus Christ to planet Earth.
There have been other attempts at setting a different starting date. The Greeks, when they had the first Olympiad, said, “We’re always going to measure time according to the Greek Olympiad.” That didn’t last very long. The Romans said, “We’re always going to measure time from the date of the founding of the city of Rome.” That didn’t last very long. Even in the French Revolution in the late 1700s, the French said, “We’re going to have a new world dating system based from the beginning of the French Revolution.” That didn’t even last two or three years in France.
But still to this day, 2,000 some odd years later, every time you write a check and put a date down, and every time you look at a calendar, and every time you register any date, you are acknowledging that something happened more than 2,000 years ago that was the most significant event in history.
Some historians prefer to use the terms Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) rather than A.D. and B.C., but whatever letters you put at the end of the date, the numbers of our system of dating in the modern world is still based upon the coming of Jesus Christ, and you can’t escape from it. And I do believe that when Jesus Christ came to planet Earth, it was the only event worthy to divide the history of mankind. Let me tell you why, three reasons:
1. Jesus Christ — the most significant individual of history
He’s the most significant man, the most significant individual of history. Matthew 1:21, “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save his people from their sins.”
When Jesus Christ came into the world, he was the most significant individual to ever walk on the face of this planet. He was given a special name. I’m so glad the angel gave Jesus such a beautiful, simple name. You know, there are some hard names in the Bible. One of the sons of Isaiah was named Maher-shalal-hash-baz. The grandson of Saul in the Old Testament was named Mephibosheth. Aren’t you glad the angel didn’t say, “Call his name Mephibosheth.” He said, “Call his name Jesus.” You know why? The name Jesus is so simple; it’s so beautiful. It sounds beautiful when it’s coming from the lips of a three-year-old child singing, “Yes, Jesus loves me.” And it sounds beautiful coming from the lips of dying saints on their deathbed, just before they enter into His arms as they call out his name, “Jesus.” What a beautiful name it is.
Jesus! What a beautiful name. The angel said to call his name Jesus because his coming into the world is the most significant event in all of history.
And look what the Bible says about the unique character of Jesus in 1 Timothy 2:5. It says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
This verse tells us that there is a God who is holy, sinless. And then there are the rest of us. We’re all fallen, sinful human beings. And we cannot relate to God. You know why? Because he is holy and we are sinful. And so the solution was God sent into this world the God-man — Jesus Christ who was all God and He was all man.
When we say we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, that is not some incidental doctrine. It is an essential doctrine to what we believe about the character of Christ, because the father of Jesus was not Joseph or someone else. The father of Jesus was God and God alone. And because of that, he could reach up and take the hand of His Holy Father, and because he was man, he could reach down and take the hand of all of us who are sinful creatures, and He could bring us together, and he could reconcile us to God.
And he’s the only one who could do that, because there had never been another God-man. The Bible says “… one God and one mediator between God and man. The man Jesus Christ.” And that’s what Jesus came to do, and that’s what makes him different. The second thing I want you to notice is
2. Jesus Christ — the most significant mission of history
In other words, what he came to do was the most significant mission of anyone else. And throughout the years, people have done significant things, but none more important than what Jesus did.
Would you look and see why Jesus said, in his own words, he came to this planet? Matthew 20:28, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus said, “I came to give my life, a ransom for many.”
You know what a ransom is, don’t you? Sometimes someone may be kidnapped and because that person who is kidnapped is important to certain people, the kidnappers will send a ransom note saying, “If you will pay a certain price, this individual who is important to you will be returned to you.” You can buy them back if you have enough money to pay the ransom. And isn’t it interesting that Jesus, in his own words, said, “That’s why I came, to pay a ransom for your soul.”
Jesus didn’t come just to teach. Although he taught, that wasn’t the purpose of his coming. If he had come to teach, he would have established a university and lived to a ripe old age. He didn’t come just to heal, although he healed many people. Had Jesus come primarily to heal, he would have established a hospital and lived to be a ripe old age. Jesus didn’t come to set up some new ethical moral system. If he had, he would have put on the robes of a judge and established a supreme court and lived to be a ripe old age. But He came to die.
A.W. Tozer wrote this about Jesus:
“Jesus is the only man who lived his life backwards. Your life runs from birth to death. But Jesus’ lifeline runs from his death to his birth. The only reason there was a Bethlehem is that there might be a Calvary. At Bethlehem, he was surrounded by beasts so at Calvary he might be surrounded by beastly men. At Bethlehem, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, at Calvary, he was wrapped in his own blood. He was laid in a wooden manger so that one day he would be laid on a wooden cross. He is the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.”
Jesus came down, the Bible says, and he put on human flesh, and He humbled himself, and the Bible says He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And by his death, he was paying our ransom
3. Jesus Christ — the most significant message of history
Jesus Christ delivered a unique message that was revolutionary in the world, and you can find it there in John 3:14-16. We are all familiar with the last verse, but maybe you’ve never tied these first two verses with it. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” now that’s a good story in itself, “even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” That means on a cross, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” And here’s the next verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I believe there’s never been a more important message than this one. Jesus was saying, “There is a God. And this God loves you and you can have a personal relationship with this God. And the only way you can come to know this God is through his Son Jesus Christ. And the only way you can come through his Son Jesus Christ is through his death on the cross.” And that’s the great message that Jesus shares.
The late teacher and preacher Gene Getz, in one of his books, tells the story of Max Walsh. Years ago, Max Walsh was staying in a lodge in the Austrian Alps. And on a beautiful winter day with the sky blue, he told the owner of the lodge he was going out for a walk by himself. And the owner told him to be careful. Max Walsh walked out, and he was about a mile and a half from the lodge, when suddenly, the weather changed, as it often does in mountainous areas. A tremendous snowstorm descended on that area. He was blinded by the snow and was getting colder by the moment. He stumbled and fell and was lost. He couldn’t get his bearings, and he was stranded in the snow.
The owner of the lodge saw the blizzard descend, and he sent one of his rescue dogs out into the snow. These dogs had been trained to find people who were lost in the snow. And so the owner of the lodge took one of the garments from Max Walsh’s room and let the dog smell it, and then the dog took off into that blinding snowstorm. And using its keen senses of smell and hearing, he found Max Walsh’s body in the snow.
And as the dog had been trained, the dog latched on to Max Walsh’s jacket with his teeth and began to shake him and pull him through the snow. Max Walsh, who was semi-conscious, awakened, and he saw that big dog pulling on him and he panicked, and out of fear he thought it was a wolf. And Max Walsh quickly pulled out his knife and thrust that knife at the dog, giving him a terrible wound. The dog let go and went back to the lodge, where he fell dead at his master’s feet. The owner of the lodge, realizing what probably had happened, followed that trail of blood through the snow until he found Max Walsh, and they took him back to safety.
And years later when Max Walsh became a Christian, he always told that story when he shared his testimony, because he said, “When I realized that I was lost and headed for hell, I realized the only way that I could find life was to follow the trail of blood back to the cross of Jesus, where I found the One who died for me.”
The reason we have B.C. and A.D. is because there has never been another individual who was worthy to divide history. Jesus Christ is the One and Only.
One Solitary Life
“HERE IS A MAN who was born in an obscure village, the Child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of His Divine manhood. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while he was dying — and that His Coat. When He was dead He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Such was His human life — He rises from the dead. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today He is the Centerpiece of the human race and the Leader of the column of progress. I am within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that One Solitary Life.” — James Allan Francis