July 6, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Thursday, July 6.
Would you say that Jesus Christ is at the center of the world in 2023? Perhaps you would say that that was once the case, but that culture has changed, has diversified, has grown to include many different “ways” to God. Well, perhaps. But Jesus Christ remains at the center of the most precious thing in our world. No matter where you live or what you believe, Christ is the center of . . . time.
In the 6th century a Catholic monk devised a new way of recording time. He traced it back to the moment he supposed that Christ was born. Every year before that moment was categorized as BC (before Christ), and every year after as AD (anno domini - the year of our Lord). This new concept of time was not widely accepted until the 9th century. But since then and for over a thousand years, Christ has been at the center of time.
Orthodox Jews date time from the supposed moment of Creation. Muslims start counting from the year that Muhammad fled from Mecca. But these are only religious designations, and Jews and Muslims alike, in the world of culture and commerce, use the system that finds its foundation in the little village of Bethlehem. To get around the spiritual overtones, some historians use CE (common era) and BCE (before common era), but this doesn’t change the fact that the year that they are labeling is tied to Jesus.
And so, on this day, July 6, in the year of our Lord AD 2023, we recall these words - “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
