In Star Wars the return of the Jedi, there is a line I love. “The Emperor has made a critical error and the time for our attack has come.”  As Christians we should be on the offensive, not to destroy anyone, but to save them so they can live forever in heaven. An opportunity has arisen!

The devil has made critical error, and we need to take advantage of this. The error is in how we now date things. The world is changing from BC and AD to BCE and CE. This is especially happening at the college level and is not trickling down increasingly to the high school level.

Most people know BC means before Christ. Most do not really know what AD means. AD represents the Latin words Anno Domini meaning “in the year of our Lord.”  Many scholars want to get rid of AD because they do not believe in Jesus in the first place, and they are concerned about offending what others believe among other things.

Now they want to use BCE and CE. BCE means before the common era, and CE means the common era. By using these abbreviations, they attempt to take Jesus out of time. To make Jesus’ life and ministry less important. However, they have done the opposite.

Those in college and in High School are asking lots of questions. They question everything. They do want to know the truth. With BC and AD, they did not ask questions, because well that was the way it always was, but the change to BCE and CE gives rise to a critical question. Every time there is a change, people will wonder why. We can exploit this with one amazing question that will bring Jesus into the conversation.

What is that question that is a game changer? What started the common era? This is amazing question.  Something had to. There is no astrological event, or natural event, or political event where suddenly there was a change from before the common era to the common era. The only significant event that changed the world’s thinking was the birth and life of Jesus Christ.

This then leads to other obvious questions. Why did everything change because of Jesus. Is that important? Is there something more to Jesus than they previous thought? Most scholars do their best to undermine Jesus, yet Jesus’ life is the fulcrum where time changes and now they have inadvertently highlighted it like never before.

This is now a legitimate question, what started the common era, which can even be posed in schools. What a way to get Jesus into the classroom where the devil has tried hard to remove Him. There is no other answer than Jesus to this question. No matter who the teacher is, the answer that must be given is Jesus. They can make fun of that answer and try to belittle Jesus answering it, but still all time revolves around Jesus is something this will make young minds think.

As Christians when we heart BCE and CE being used, we need to pay attention and take full advantage and use this question to introduce Jesus into our conversations without being pushy. This is amazing game changer. A huge one, that is easy to exploit. When people talk about it, ask what makes this the common era. And there is only one answer. When Jesus is the only answer, you are not pushing your faith into the conversation, just answering the question. Then allow that to sink into people and see what happens.

We live in extremely exciting times. The Emperor has made a critical error and the time for our attack has come.”  As BCE and CE becomes more and more common, which is academia’s goal, it should open the door for a simple question that allows Jesus to be in the conversation.

Let us find ways to allow Jesus to be in our conversations in unique ways so all the world can hear!

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!