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What is the meaning of BC and AD (B.C.and A.D.)?

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Question: "What is the meaning of BC and AD (B.C. and A.D.)?"

Answer: It is commonly thought that B.C. stands for "before Christ" and A.D. stands for "afterdeath." This is only half correct. How could the year 1 B.C. have been "before Christ" and A.D. 1been "after death"? B.C. does stand for "before Christ." A.D. actually stands for the Latin phraseanno domini which means "in the year of our Lord." The B.C. / A.D. dating system is not taught inthe Bible. It actually was not fully implemented and accepted until several centuries after Jesus'death.

It is interesting to note that the purpose of the B.C. / A.D. dating system was to make the birth ofJesus Christ the dividing point of world history. However, when the B.C. / A.D. system was beingcalculated, they actually made a mistake in pinpointing the year of Jesus' birth. Scholars laterdiscovered that Jesus was actually born around 4-6 B.C., not A.D. 1. That is not the crucial issue.The birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Christ are the "turning points" in world history. Itis fitting, therefore, that Jesus Christ is the separation of "old" and "new." B.C. was "before Christ,"and since His birth, we have been living "in the year of our Lord." Philippians 2:10-11, "That at thename of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and everytongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

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