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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 "after
death." This is only half correct. How could the year 1 B.C. have been "before Christ" and A.D. 1
been "after death"? B.C. does stand for "before Christ." A.D. actually stands for the Latin phrase
anno domini which means "in the year of our Lord." The B.C. / A.D. dating system is not taught in
the 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 of
Jesus Christ the dividing point of world history. However, when the B.C. / A.D. system was being
calculated, they actually made a mistake in pinpointing the year of Jesus' birth. Scholars later
discovered 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. It
is 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 the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
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