The year 2,000  before and beyond

There are many today who want to Christianize the world instead of looking for Christ coming back to take them to his fathers house.

In the middle of listing the men of faith who overcame the world the author of Hebrews says this "For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."(Heb 11:14-16).

Vs.26-27 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."Today many do not want to forsake this world but make it a better place  preparing it for the 2^nd coming.

The Christians attitude should be  "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."(Phil 3:20).

We long  for our heavenly home not to see the birthday of Jesus, which is not Jan.1, 2000 nor Dec.25^th 1999 to be accurate.  December 25, is unlikely the time of year that Jesus was born. The Roman church simply took the festival of Saturnalia, a licentious celebration of the winter solstice dedicated to Saturn, and Christianized it with the purpose to convert pagan Rome.

Would the world, then, be better off without Christmas? Atheists and others of opposing religions think so, and would like to remove all manger scenes and crosses from public places. The year 2000 does not represent a time lapse of the birth of Buddha or Confucius or Mohammed, Baha'u'llah, but the birth of Christ. The initials A.D. are short for anno Domini, meaning "in the year of our Lord." The turn of the millennium is associated with Jesus Christ. For those who want to separate religion and politics and take religion out of schools and of our dollar they may just want to do one better and change the dating of our years. Christ's birth determines the common dating being used all over the world, from atheistic countries or those of a non-Christian religion. Behind every date on each calendar, coin, or document is the Person Jesus Christ and the greatest event in history, God's incarnation through the virgin birth in Bethlehem.

The references of B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (the year of our Lord) are based upon the Christian dating system. Because many are aware of this there are substitute designations for the same time periods: B.C.E. (i.e., B.C.) and C.E., "common era" (i.e., A.D.).

The fact, is that we have passed the 2000th birthday at the latest in 1996 due to an error in the calendar. Christ's birth must have been in 4 or 5 B.C., inasmuch as Herod the Great, in whose days Jesus was born (Matthew 2:1), died in 4 BC. There is no special reason, however, to celebrate Christ's 2000th "birthday."what we do acknowledge is the incarnation

The Jewish calendar is based upon rabbinical calculations from Creation put together by rabbis in the second century A.D. they tried to go back to the time of creation in Genesis one. This was done well over 4,000 years after that event But they did not have all of the history and details necessary to be accurate. The rabbis believe that Creation occurred 5759 years ago. Just as the Christian calendar is off by at least six years the Jewish calendar is off by at least 250 years. Taking the chronologies of the Bible literally, and taking what we know from postbiblical history where chronology is fairly well established,   neither calendar is 100% accurate.

The Gregorian calendar was an attempt to begin the new date (A.D.) based upon the year that Jesus died. In the end, the calculation was incorrect by a number of years due to missed historical facts. It is now known that Herod the Great died in the year 4 B.C. Since he was alive when Jesus was born, that already puts Christ's birth earlier than the year 4 B.C. and not A.D. 1. Furthermore, we also know from Matt. 2 that Jesus was at least two years old at the time the wisemen and Herod met. If we put these things together, we can determine that Jesus was born between 7 and 4 B.C., which is why the Gregorian calendar is off by at least that many years.

As the end of this century came, the celebrations will commemorate not only the end of a century, but the beginning of a new millennium. It doesn't matter that officially, the third millennium will not begin until January 1, 2001. In most people's minds, it will begin on January 1, 2000. There was no year with 00.

There are many who teach we are about the enter the Millennium because of the pattern of 6 days and 6,000 years have passed (one day is as a thousand years). So the 7th   day is one of rest which would be the Millennium. but there is no Millennium without Christ being physically present so it has not begun.

Can the passing of time have true Christianity  forgotten and replaced with principles and similarities becoming a mere shadow of the substance. Christ still asks "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find [the] faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). Whether it is the year  2,000 or 2050 will Christianity be the same. It just may not be left in the hands of our leaders but you the layman to preserve and continue to give the message out.