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How the Bible Shaped Your Calendar · Theology Made Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jordan.
• 0:09
  In today's episode,
• 0:10
  we're going to look at how the Bible shaped your calendar.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Check today's date.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not the day, not the month, the year.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't choose that number.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Your phone didn't invent it.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Science didn't require it.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: That number exists because of the Bible.
• 0:27
  which means you're living inside a Christian story every time
• 0:30
  you check the date,
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  SPEAKER_00: whether you believe it or not.
• 0:32
  We think of calendars as being neutral,
• 0:34
  but they're not,
• 0:35
  and they never have been.
• 0:37
  The calendar on your phone tells you what matters,
• 0:39
  where history starts,
• 0:40
  and where it's going.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: In ancient Rome, they dated time by emperors.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Egyptians dated time by dynasties.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Islam dates time from Muhammad's flight to Medina.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: The French Revolution?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it tried to erase Christianity by reinventing time itself.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Calendars are theology with numbers.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when the modern world agrees,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: almost universally,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: to organize time around one Jewish man from Nazareth,
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: that's not a happy little accident.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: For centuries, Christians used Roman dating systems.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Years of emperors, years of rulers.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then in the 500s,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: a monk named Dionysius was asked to calculate Easter,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: and while doing the math,
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: he made a quiet decision that would change our world.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: He stopped numbering years by Roman emperors,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: many of whom persecuted Christians,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: and instead dated time from the incarnation of Jesus.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: He called it Anno Domini, the year of our Lord.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a council,
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  SPEAKER_00: there was no vote,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: just a monk deciding that Jesus mattered more than Caesar.
• 1:41
  It took centuries to spread,
• 1:42
  but eventually it won,
• 1:44
  even among people who don't believe it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or how about something most people have never noticed?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: The weak.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: The seven-day week has no scientific necessity.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Days, they're solar.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Months, they're lunar.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Years, they're solar.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Weeks, that's just sola de gloria.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's pure theology.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: The seven-day rhythm, it comes directly from Genesis.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Six days of work, one day of rest.
• 2:08
  Rome tried eight days a week,
• 2:10
  the French tried ten,
• 2:11
  the Soviets tried five.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: All of them failed.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, interesting.
• 2:17
  Maybe it's because the biblical rhythm of work and rest fits
• 2:20
  human life too well.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you don't keep Sabbath, your body still feels it.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Monday doesn't feel like Sunday because scripture shaped time itself.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the year.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Your year doesn't just move forward.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: It has a contour, a shape.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's hope.
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  SPEAKER_00: arrival, death, resurrection, waiting.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that arc didn't come from capitalism or hallmark.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It came from the Christian liturgical calendar.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Advent trained the world to wait.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas-centered incarnation,
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lent taught repentance, Easter proclaimed resurrection.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pentecost marked renewal.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even secular culture still feels this rhythm.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: December, it feels reflective.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Spring feels like rebirth, spring cleaning, starting over.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Easter feels like turning a corner, and you're not imagining it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Time has been catechizing you, whether you realize it or not.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: or not.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible changed how we imagine the future.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most ancient cultures, they look backward.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: The golden age was behind them, the future meant decline, and the Bible
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: flip that.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: History in Christianity moves forward.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Creation, fall, redemption, restoration.
• 3:35
  And that's why we say things like the right side of history,
• 3:37
  progress,
• 3:38
  hope,
• 3:39
  justice is coming.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those ideas only make sense if history is going somewhere.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not enlightenment thinking.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's biblical theology lived out in calendar form.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And even secular time still borrows Christian meaning.
• 3:53
  You may live in a post-Christian world,
• 3:55
  but your calendar disagrees with that notion.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: You still rest weekly,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: celebrate holidays as sacred interruptions,
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  SPEAKER_00: reset your year around Christmas,
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  SPEAKER_00: and treat time as meaningful.
• 4:06
  Even when people drop BCAD for BCE CE,
• 4:11
  they don't move the starting point.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus still divides history.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: They just stop saying his name.
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  SPEAKER_00: And here's the beautiful truth.
• 4:19
  You're living inside a Christian understanding of time,
• 4:21
  whether you believe it or not.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every date assumes history matters.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Time has meaning.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The future holds promise.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Something happened that changed everything.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: The calendar you use every day, it's a confession hidden in plain sight.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not forced.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not preached.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's simply assumed.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 4:47
  If you found this helpful,
• 4:48
  please like and subscribe on whatever channel you're listening
• 4:51
  to.