B.C. does, in fact, stand for Before Christ. A.D. stands for "Anno Domini" which translates as "the year of our Lord." Most of you have probably heard people say that A.D. stands for "after death", but if you think about that logically if the year 0 denotes Christ's birth, then 1 AD can't stand for the year Christ died. There is also some argument as to when Christ was actually born. When the BC/AD system was calulated, it was believed Christ birth was 0 A.D. However, other scholars believe Christ was actually born between 6-4 B.C.
The AD label was not introduced until about the 800s (AD) and the BC label was not brought into the picture until the 1400s. The most interesting thing to consider about the AD/BC labels is-- while there is no clearly defined "beginning" (Scholars are all over the map about when our earth was created. People will argue the earth is 4.6 BILLION years old to only 6,000 years old or younger.)-- there is one clearly defined point-- the birth of Christ. Regardless if Christ was born 6 BC or 0 AD, We know that the earth is approximately 2,008 years old since the point of the birth of our Messiah and that has been the center of all dates/time keeping since.
Why does any of this matter? JP Moreland argues that we have lost the intellectual aspect of our Christian faith, and it is VITAL to your personal faith and the Christian faith as a whole, that we understand the intellectual components of Christianity. Understanding basic concepts (like BC/AD) helps you to understand and communicate what you believe more effectively.
After all, we're commanded to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and MIND, right?
(Check out bible.org, crosswalk.com, and gotquestions.org for more info on the BC/AD and other topics!)
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