Written by: Got Questions
Article source: JOY! Magazine
It is commonly thought that BC stands for “before Christ” and AD stands for “after death”. This is only half correct. BC does stand for “before Christ”, but AD is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Anno Domini, which means “in the year of our Lord”. The BC/AD dating system is not taught in the Bible. It was, in fact, not fully implemented and accepted until several centuries after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.
Dividing human history
Interestingly, the purpose of the BC/AD dating system was to make the birth of Jesus Christ the dividing point of world history. However, when the BC/AD system was being calculated, a mistake was made in pinpointing the year of Jesus’ birth. Later scholars determined that Jesus was born 6-4 BC, not AD 1. But the precise date is a minor issue. The main point is that the life of Christ is the turning point in world history. He truly changed the world.
Every knee shall bow
It is fitting that the life of Jesus Christ is the separation of “old” and “new”. With the appearance of the Son of God incarnate, the light shined in darkness (John 1:5), the Shepherd began gathering His lambs, and the Victor commenced His conquest (1 John 3:8). The “BC” world was quite different. Since Jesus’ coming, we have truly been living “in the year of our Lord”. Jesus impacted world history in profound ways, and He reigns supreme as the Lord of creation. One day all created beings will recognise His Lordship: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).
A push to remove Christ
In recent times, there has been a push to replace the BC and AD labels with BCE and CE, meaning “before common era” and “common era”, respectively. The change is simply one of semantics – that is, AD 100 is the same as 100 CE; all that changes is the label. The advocates of the switch from BC/AD to BCE/CE say that the newer designations are better in that they are devoid of religious connotations and thus avoid offending other cultures and religions who may not see Jesus as “Lord”. The irony, of course, is that what distinguishes BCE from CE is still the life and times of Jesus Christ. He is still the turning point.
We’ve all experienced a BC era
We see the principle of BC/AD at work on the micro level in the personal stories of individual believers. The dividing line in every believer’s life is his or her faith response to Jesus Christ. Before a person is saved, he lives in his own particular “BC” era, as it were. Paul describes our condition before faith in Christ: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins … You followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, … gratifying the cravings of your flesh and following its desires and thoughts, … by nature deserving of wrath” (Eph 2:1-3). But after a person is saved, everything changes. The grace of God transforms us. In the “AD” part of our lives, Jesus is Lord. “The new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17).
This article is featured in the October issue of JOY! Magazine. Read a digital version of this magazine here: joygifts.co.za
Click here to KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE weekly newsletter.
> Please support Christian media and journalism in South Africa. Help us to spread the Word of God and take a stand for the truth by making a donation to our ministry. We appreciate your support. Click here to take hands with JOY! Magazine.
Date published: 19/10/2025
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only.
DISCLAIMER
JOY! News is a Christian news portal that shares pre-published articles by writers around the world. Each article is sourced and linked to the origin, and each article is credited with the author’s name. Although we do publish many articles that have been written in-house by JOY! journalists, we do not exclusively create our own content. Any views or opinions presented on this website are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
