Does anybody really know what time it is?
Chorus overlap: “I don’t care…”
Does anybody really care?
Time in Perpetuity
I asked you in the first ADVENT post of this calendar year: ‘Have you considered that in the time of Noah and Before Christ GOD cleansed the earth of all but eight?’
Then we looked at the concept of ADVENT as a time of preparation for celebrating the coming of GOD as a man, even as a child born before the witnesses of the A.D. first century.
Before Christ, Prophesy
We considered prophesy as a type of advent with certain prediction of that which was to come.
When at certain times God speaks to men such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah and others, the LORD warns of times ahead, as well as the consequences of rejection of His Law, commandments and His grace.
A visible advent of our disobedience to God is documented in Scripture and warns of God’s wrath against sin in more times ahead.
What must we do?
Take for instance the LORD’s negotiation with Abraham about Sodom. AND considering the destroyed city ponder this 21st century dilemma:
- HOW are we so different than those who perished in Sodom for their sin?
- Should the Lord spare US for only breaking our marriage covenants with impugnity?
- Are we less sinless than those who created gods of stone from hearts of stone, proclaiming our own self as the god we worship?
Does this Common Era world not appropriate signs of the LORD’s covenant with mankind for sins offensive to God and creation?
And YES, do some so-called churches culturally encourage an all-inclusive sin of Sodom?
Have some churches missed an advent of the judgement to come by fire?
- Are our sins of selfishness any less offensive to the LORD than those of ALL HE destroyed from the earth by the flood?
A righteous man such as Noah or Job would appeal to the LORD for mercy.
Do YOU and do I?
‘Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?
The righteous example of Job
Even Before Christ, Job foresaw the advent of the savior of mankind, the Very Person of God Who IS before all and after all time.
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
Job 19:25
And at the last He will rise up over the dust H6083 of this world.
A Savior in a manger,
Jesus a child –
a son of man: son of Mary and Son of God – a redeemer for the sins of mankind.
Perpetuity after Time
perpetuity, n.
The quality or state of being perpetual; an instance of this, an endless or indefinite duration or existence; permanence, endlessness.Oxford English Dictionary
A line, even a timeline representing lifetimes of days and centuries of history extends beyond our sight before its beginning and from its END into measureless eternity.
“Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall behold God, Whom I myself shall behold..
“If you say,
‘How shall we persecute him?’ ‘And the root of the matter is found in him?’ “Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know there is judgment.”
Calculating Calendars within the bounds of the observable
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
תְהִלִּים (Psalm) 19:1b ESV
But HOW does mortal man MEASURE the expanse of the Eternal?
by Calendars (and with timepieces we call ‘clocks’)
a brief look at ancient & current calendars
All calendars began with people recording time by using natural cycles: days, lunar cycles (months), and solar cycles (years).
Source linked above.
Let’s try to take this chronologically from the beginning:
Have you ever considered that Adam had no need for a calendar or timeclock?
Calendars Before Christ
- Noah – 360 day calendar
- Moses * 365 day Egyptian calendar
- The astronomical day had begun at noon ever since Ptolemy chose to begin the days in his astronomical periods at noon.
- The Julian calendar began in 45 BC (709 AUC) as a reform of the 10 month Roman calendar by Julius Caesar.
- Source: linked above
Hebrew Calendar
The history of the Jewish calendar may be divided into three periods—the Biblical, the Talmudic, and the post-Talmudic. Jewish Encyclopedia.com
Take a look at the link above for a more complete understanding of changes in the Jewish Calendar during the centuries Before the Messiah of Israel.
Bible TimeLine
Timelines, like calendars and cultural customs must have a point of reference. The intersection of measured history and timeless truth becomes central to conflicting narratives of a fallen created peoples of the world.
At the ever-present center of time history records the birth of Jesus Christ.
Calendars of the Common Era
Lines in the shifting sands of time:
B.C. OR BCE?
A.D. OR CE?
Let's start from the present and find our center of history and timelines by looking back.
Anno Domini
noun a Latin phrase meaning
“in the year of the Lord”, the full form of the abbreviation AD, which is used when referring to a year after Jesus Christ was born
- B.C. is short for “Before Christ”
- B.C. and A.D. references in the Bible.
- The B.C./A.D. calendar system was not established until around 500 A.D., well after the books of the Bible were written.
- BCE and CE.
- CE stands for “Common Era” BCE is “Before Common Era”
- CE and BCE dates are identical with A.D. and B.C. dates
- (for example, 2000 CE is the same as 2000 A.D.). This is a thinly veiled attempt by atheists and religious people other than Christians to remove Christian religious references from our culture.
MORE READING about the years of our Lord and our Common Era
NEXT: ADVENT 4
We will look at that moment in history and the Messiah in a manger in Bethlehem of Judea..
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