The year is 2025. Amazing that we are twenty-five years into the 21st century. But what does that date signify or mean? Our “modern” society does not label the year as we were taught back in the 20th century. We always added A.D. to the year indicating it was two thousand and twenty-five years since the “Year of Our Lord” or, in Greek, “Anno Domini”, where we get the abbreviation A.D. Of course, today, the big brains and social engineers and those sensitive to anything Christian insist that we use the term “Common Era”, or C.E., so that we do not offend those who are not of the Christian faith. What an insult to those who follow Christ!
The Jewish calendar says it is the year 5785. The Jews designate the year as five thousand seven hundred and eighty-five years since Creation. They designate it by using, again in Greek, “Anno Mundi”, meaning “from the creation of the world”, or A.M.. Interesting that the Jewish calendar gives us the actual picture of just how young the Earth really is or how long man has existed going back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve.
Now, all of this date stuff raises questions. We know historically, for instance, that Herod the Great, Idumean King of Judea, died in 4 B.C. (again, B.C. used to stand for “Before Christ”, but in today’s mumbo-jumbo, let’s-not-insult-the-heathen language, it’s “Before the Common Era” or B.C.E.). However, Herod the Great was THE king that tried to have Jesus killed just after His birth. Consequently, Jesus must have been born BEFORE 4 B.C. (I don’t care what “they” say is the proper designation for the years – I’m going to use the correct and Christian designations). We really do not know exactly when Jesus was born, but probably it was 5 or 6 B.C. – not at the beginning of Year 1 A.D (there is no year Zero). Why? Because Herod the Great did not get jealous of the “Newborn King” for long enough that Jesus was a toddler and his earthly parents were living in a house, not a cave (Matthew Chapter 2). The Magi had arrived from Chaldea, probably an entourage of maybe a dozen Magi with supply horses and camels and servants. This was a big deal riding into Jerusalem and Herod wanted to know what was going on. When Herod found out about this King that was born, the solution that came to him was to kill all male infants in Bethlehem under the age of 2 years. So, if Jesus was a toddler (proper translation of “child” in Matthew 2:11), then it had to be 5 or 4 B.C. since Herod dies in 4 B.C. after his attempt to kill Jesus.
So?, you say! Well, according to Jewish sources and the Bible, Messiah should come after 6,000 years of humanity and set up the Messianic Kingdom of 1,000 years. Why 6,000 years? God created the heavens and the earth in 6 literal days (Genesis Chapters 1 and 2; and Exodus 20:11). 2 Peter 3:8 says “a day is as a thousand years…” It is logical, rational, and biblical to assume that in God’s design for the reconciliation of man back to God, that He would use a six day work week and a seventh day of rest for us to mimic in our lives, AND that God would use the same pattern as a model for the entire existence of man to bring us all back into His very presence sinless and immortal. Six thousand years of man seeking God and one thousand years of rest and actually seeing Him reign on the Earth!
Our calendar says we are living in the 21st century in the year 2025. That’s about two thousand and thirty years since Jesus was born. Also, there is symbolism and uniformity in when God made significant decisions about mankind. For instance, Abram started the Jewish people and reconciliation back to God by faith 2,000 years (approximately) from Creation. Then, Jesus was born 2,000 years after Abraham (approximately) and established reconciliation through the blood of Christ and the Age of Grace. It has now been, again approximately, 2,000 years since the resurrection of Jesus. Since Jesus was born in 5 or 6 B.C. and His Ministry began at the age of 30 lasting 3 years, His Death and Resurrection/Ascension would have ben, approximately, in 27 A.D. making that date one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight (1998) years ago, or again approximately 2,000 years ago. Three time-spans of 2,000 years each adds up to the expected 6,000 years as the age of the Earth. The next major time span is the Millennial Kingdom, and it must be very soon!
That brings up the question of why the Jewish calendar only has 5785 and not 6,025? There seems to be about 240 years missing. What’s more, the Jews know that their calendar is wrong. We must go back in history to find out why the Jewish calendar is missing that many years. Surely there is a reason, and there is! From 132 to 135 A.D., a Jewish man by the name of Bar-Kokhbah rebelled against the Romans along with an army of 40,000 men. He turned out to be delusional, had help in his delusion from the actual father of the Jewish Mishna, and claimed incredibly that he was, indeed, the Messiah. In order to appear genuine, years and years had to be eliminated from the calendar in order for Bible prophecies to line up with Bar-Kokhbah’s life. Besides, the “learned” men responsible for the calendar error probably were trying to remove Jesus Christ from consideration as the Jews’ real Messiah. Seems a little desperate to make their calendar inaccurate, take out 240 years just to take scrutiny off of the real Messiah. But, they did it. What deceit to actually do so by taking obviously provable history, mocked it, and change it just to fit their unfaithful beliefs and promote a false Messiah.
There is a lot of detail of exactly how 240 years disappeared from Jewish history, but most of it came from just ignoring certain emperors in the Greek era of domination over Israel in the 300’s B.C. as well as arriving at the actual age of Abram when he was called on by God to start the Jewish people. All totaled, 240 years just disappeared from Jewish history and caused their calendar to be off by that much. As we see the Jewish calendar year today, we see that their changes were accomplished! Dates in the calendar tend to make Jews think that Jesus was not, indeed, their messiah because that third 2,000 time period has 240 years to go before the Millennium and not really very close.
Our calendar is not 100% correct, but it is much more accurate that the Jewish calendar. We know the real dates, how much time has gone by since Abraham and Jesus, and Jesus will be coming down to call us up very, very soon. Keep looking up. Maranatha!