Blast From the Past

Secular scholarship places Christ's real birth at about 3 or 4 B.C. The Christian church has never been very quick to acknowledge poor scholarship--it took the church nearly four centuries to get the heliocentric model of the universe right. Nonetheless, four years ago the church could have made up for some lost ground in the past if it had recognized the 2,000th birthday of Christ in 1997 or 1998 (adjusting for calendar irregularities). We are fortunate that no terrorists managed to set any bombs off this millennium, but how much time, money and effort could have been saved by the superstitious hoards of doomsday watchers if the church had recognized the millennium in 1997!

Israeli police surrounded the field outside Jerusalem where the battle of Armageddon is foretold to take place in order to keep the peace at the New Year. Nearly 20 Christian fanatics were escorted out of Israel in the weeks leading up to 2000.

Perhaps it is better to take the money out of the hands of the fanatical and put them in the hands of airlines, hotels and restaurants, but a lot of needless worry and government expenditure could have been diverted if the church had just recognized the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of its Savior on time.

—Benjamin D. Grizzle