The Hidden Weaknesses of the Gregorian Calendar
(These post really need to be read in order – you can get to part 1 by clicking here)
In the previous post, we examined Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.
We saw that Daniel predicted the coming of Messiah, the death of Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem centuries before those events occurred.
That prophecy is remarkable.
But before we begin discussing dates, calculations, and timelines, we need to address something that many people simply assume without ever examining.
Our calendar.
Most of us live our entire lives trusting the calendar hanging on our wall, the one displayed on our phone, or the one embedded in our computer.
And for everyday life, that’s perfectly reasonable.
The problem comes when we begin applying that calendar to events that occurred thousands of years before it existed.
The Calendar Daniel Never Saw
Daniel never used the Gregorian calendar.
Nehemiah never used the Gregorian calendar.
Jesus never used the Gregorian calendar.
The apostles never used the Gregorian calendar.
In fact, the Gregorian calendar would not be introduced until 1582.
That means the calendar we use today was created more than fifteen hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Think about that for a moment.
The dates we commonly use when discussing biblical events are being expressed within a calendar system that did not yet exist.
That doesn’t mean those dates are useless.
It simply means we should understand where they came from.
The Problem With BC and AD
Most people are familiar with the terms BC and AD.
BC means “Before Christ.”
AD comes from the Latin phrase Anno Domini, meaning “In the Year of Our Lord.”
What many people don’t realize is that neither system existed during biblical times.
When Jesus was born, nobody said:
“This is AD 1.”
When Herod died, nobody recorded:
“This happened in 4 BC.”
Those designations were created centuries later.
The dating system itself was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus around AD 525.
In other words, the events came first.
The dating system came later.
Dating History Backward
This creates an important challenge.
Most ancient events were not originally recorded using BC and AD dates.
Instead, they were recorded according to:
- The reign of kings.
- The reign of emperors.
- Significant historical events.
- Local calendaring systems.
For example, an ancient writer might say:
“In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar.”
Or:
“In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes.”
Historians must then take those references and work backward to determine how they correspond to our modern dating system.
That process is reliable.
But it is still a reconstruction.
The Missing Year
There is another detail that often surprises people.
There is no year zero.
Our dating system moves directly from:
1 BC
to
AD 1
The year zero simply does not exist.
That may sound like a minor issue.
But when calculating large spans of time, it becomes significant.
One missing year can affect calculations involving centuries of chronology.
Again, this does not make the system unusable.
It simply reminds us that the system has limitations.
An Illustration
Imagine two thousand years from now historians are trying to reconstruct events from our lifetime.
Suppose they know:
- Who the President was.
- What major events occurred.
- What wars were fought.
Now imagine that the calendar system they are using was invented fifteen hundred years after we lived.
Would they be able to reconstruct history?
Certainly.
Would every date be beyond question?
Probably not.
That is the challenge historians face when dealing with ancient chronology.
The Strength of the System
At this point, I want to be careful.
I am not arguing that the Gregorian calendar is unreliable.
In fact, for organizing modern history it is incredibly useful.
The Gregorian calendar is one of the most accurate solar calendars ever developed.
It serves us well.
The issue is not the calendar itself.
The issue is the confidence with which we sometimes project that calendar backward into antiquity.
The farther back we go, the more reconstruction is required.
Why This Matters
Suppose someone tells you that a prophecy began on a specific date in 445 BC and ended on a specific date in AD 32.
That sounds incredibly precise.
And perhaps it is.
But before accepting the conclusion, we should ask a few questions.
How was the starting date determined?
How was the ending date determined?
How were ancient calendars converted into modern dates?
How much reconstruction was involved?
Those are fair questions.
And they are questions every student of prophecy should be willing to ask.
Looking Ahead
In the next post, we will examine one of the most common assumptions made in modern prophecy studies.
A prophecy is converted into years.
The years are converted into days.
The days are counted forward.
And an exact date is produced.
The math is often impressive.
The question is whether the assumptions behind the math are equally impressive.
That is where our discussion goes next.
phillipbrande.com 