As we look forward to AD 2000, what does the AD mean? A generation ago, there were still schoolchildren who could tell you that AD represents a Latin term, “animal dominoes” or something. Not anymore. As a result, AD is now sometimes replaced by CE (for “Christian Era”, or “Common Era”).\n\nThe term “AD” was created by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in 525 AD. Before that time, dates were calculated by an individual king’s reign (“In the fifth year of Emperor Augustus”, “In the second year of King Henry VIII”) or dated from the founding of a kingdom or an empire.\n\nDionysius noticed that kings died, and even empires vanished (the Roman Empire, after flourishing for centuries had collapsed just the century before). This created confusion, with some people following one calendar, and others another calendar. (This confusion is why Dionysius made a mistake of 4-6 years in trying to calculate the year of Jesus’ birth.) Dionysius therefore proposed establishing a calendar based on a kingdom which would never end. He began counting time from Jesus’ birth.\n\nAD literally means “In the year of the Lord”. Thus, this year, instead of being the seventh year of Jean Chretien’s prime ministership, is the 1999th year of Jesus’ reign. In establishing the “AD” calendar, Dionysius was not just finding a convenient starting point for a calendar. He was declaring that he accepted Jesus as his King and that he was a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Those who follow Jesus today, declare the same thing.\n\nby Jim Coggins