There Is No Faith Pill

When you go to the doctor, what do you want his response to be?

• You must change your diet? No.
• You must eat less and exercise more? No.
• You must slow down and rest? No.

Our society often expects immediate relief, a quick solution. All too often, we expect a pill to heal. And yet, most often the quick remedy is no remedy at all but an aid so the body can heal itself.

This kind of quick-fix thinking has bled over into Christianity. For many churches salvation is by faith alone, but a faith that is little more than mental assent to the deity of Jesus. Just ask Jesus into your heart, embrace him as your Savior, say a prayer and you’re saved.

That characterization will sound critical to some. And yet, Jesus did not call upon people for mental acceptance; He asked for more.

Yes, the gospel proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God. That, you must accept and believe!

Yes, the gospel proclaims that Jesus is the Savior of the world. That, you must accept and believe!

And yet, the gospel proclaims that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. He is King!

It is a startling realization for some that the cross of Christ was not the end, but the beginning. “It is finished” were the words of Jesus as He completed God’s will as a willing sacrifice for the sins of mankind. However, before ascending to heaven Jesus continued to teach His disciples. And what did He teach??

To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 

— Acts 1:3

Jesus kept telling His disciples about the kingdom of God. His death on the cross was indeed for cleansing, but it was also to inaugurate a new covenant. The coming of the new covenant marked the coming of the kingdom of God on the earth.

At the end of Mark’s gospel Jesus…“was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (16:19) Peter, in the first declaration of the gospel after the death of Jesus, declared Him to be both Lord and Christ. All these describe One who was enthroned as King!

There is no faith pill that magically makes you a disciple. The King of Kings demands allegiance!

Faith in Jesus demands a radical change of allegiance from all the things of this life to Jesus. Loyalties no longer lie with possessions, family, career, or country. Allegiance to Christ demands loyalty to the King, and only to the King. Allegiance demands loyalty in good times and bad, when life is easy and when life is difficult.

Allegiance to Jesus is first a call to bow in awe and submission, and then to rise up to action. Action may be the discipline of prayer; action may be that of restraining one’s desires; action may be the display of a godly frame of mind in demanding circumstances; action may come with enjoyable service; and action may come with costly and difficult sacrifice.

The cross marked the beginning of a new covenant. Your embrace of salvation at the cross of Christ marks your new beginning in the kingdom. You die to self promising allegiance to Jesus and it will not be easy. His death and your death mark new beginnings. You have died to yourself. Rise to allegiance to Christ where the promise is life everlasting.


Mark Stinnett

September 29, 2024

Is A.D. Here to Stay?

When were you born, full date?

You probably did not remember to use the abbreviation A.D. (Duh! Not necessary.) Yet, if you were writing the birth date of Alexander T. Great of Ancient Greece, you might want to use B.C.

So, just where did those abbreviations come from and what do they mean?

The easy part first...

(And a really cool conclusion at the end...where conclusions belong.)

You might remember their meanings from school days: 

     B.C. = Before Christ and 

     A.D. = [I almost put 'After Death' (of Christ)]

Tempting, but incorrect. If A.D. meant 'After Death' there would be no way to account for the years between the birth of Christ and his death. So, think Latin...

     A.D. = Anno Domini (meaning: in the year of the Lord.)

Obviously, folks in Ancient Rome could not use B.C. Christ had not yet been born, so they could not know how many years it was 'before Christ.' (Not only that, they were not really interested in Christ.) Yet, they had a calendar, in fact, several calendars. In fact, civilizations have been counting days and years as long as there have been days and years. In fact, there have been many calendars in many countries through the ages. In fact, that is one reason why it is so difficult to figure out the specific dates for ancient events and the dates when ancient people lived.

OK. OK. Enough of that.

So, when did the B.C. and A.D. get started?

It's complicated...REALLY complicated.

So, here's the short answer, oversimplified.

We know that A.D. means 'in the year of our Lord' and that it is a reference to Jesus Christ. However, the early Christians were not the ones to start counting years this way. It would not be until 525 A.D. that an Italian monk named Dionysius Exiguus invented a calendar system that began counting days based on the birth of Christ. Even then, his calendar was not widely accepted, not until the 11th century.

And if you didn't know, his calendar was off track from the beginning. Though the Bible tells us that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, 'Dion the monk' started his calendar after Herod's death. OOPS! Nevertheless, it did finally catch on. (That's why most scholars agree that Jesus was actually born between 8 B.C. and 4 B.C.)

The calendar we use today is an adjusted version of the Dionysius calendar, adjusted to account for not using leap years for centuries. Our calendar replaced the Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, and is called the Gregorian calendar, named for Pope Gregory XIII who ordained the calendar in 1582 A.D.

In recent years some scholarly folks started using B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) to replace B.C. and A.D. I've always thought it amusing that the 'Common Era' is still based on the birth of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, it is clearly distasteful for some folks to say or write anything that references Christ.

But wait...

Do you see why some people would find the use of B.C. and A.D. so offensive?

Read on...

Really Cool Conclusion:

In ancient times special events were often dated according to the sitting king. Since ancient Israel and Judah did not have a nifty Julian calendar hanging on the palace wall things were dated by the king's reign. Other nations did the same thing. Here are a couple of examples...

At the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured. (2 Kings 18:10)

Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. (2 Kings 18:13)

Our current calendar year is A.D. 2018. Do you know why?
Our King lives.

You may have never thought about it, but A.D. 2018 is literally "in the 2,018th year of our Lord." I don't know how long this calendar will last, but my King is going to reign forever. Our calendar kind of reminds us of that...