I remember the time, as a boy, when I first came to realise that I was living in what we call the 20th century after the birth of Christ. I remember asking my dad how old I would be when the new century arrived. 1 would be 40! I couldn't imagine what it would like to be 40! I still can't sometimes. The 21" century seemed like a way off science-fiction world of inter-planetary travel and strange aliens. For short periods I bought comics with titles such as TV21 and 21" Century that reinforced this idea.
As for the fact we would be entering a new millennium I can't remember giving any thought to that. Somehow that thought has also crept into my consciousness as well as yours and now few an be unaware of it. Most of us can even spell it correctly now.
For much of this time I have been keen to line up with the pedants who point out either that Jesus was actually born a few years before our calendars suggest or those who point out that the new millennium does not actually dawn until 1 January 2001. However, with every man and his dog geared up to mark the date when midnight strikes on the 31st of this month, there seems little point in endeavouring to be alternative.
My one lingering ambition - to be fast asleep in a warm bed when the hour strikes - is all I have left to cling to. One part of me also toys with the idea of finding a well paid job for that evening. The pleas of my eldest son that he be allowed to stay up to mark the occasion, however, mean it is likely that I'll not get my way. I have visions of us ending up in Trafalgar Square or Greenwich or somewhere or, even worse, watching Big Ben on the television. Please don't cancel your subscription, but I've never been a fan of watchnight services.
The 'Millennium' has turned into a gigantic roller-coaster with all the features of the usual season magnified by a hundred. Like Christmas and New Year, this is a basically pagan celebration with, at best, a veneer of religion on top. By the grace of God some will be prepared to consider Christ on this flimsy basis and we pray that books like Why Y2K? by John Blanchard and the FIEC's AD publications will be used to win many to the Saviour. Meanwhile we do need to make some sort of sober assessment about the past and about the future.
Significant Events
As we look back over 2000 years or so, it would seem to me that the four most significant events have been
1. The conversion (if it was a conversion) of the Emperor Constantine about 190 ears before the midpoint of the first millennium.
2. That of Martin Luther, about 20 years after the midpoint of the second millennium. Nick Needham has called Constantine's conversion the most important in history, after Paul's. If that is true, then Luther's must come third.
3. Alongside those two dates we should place two others. On Christmas Day AD 800, Charlemagne was crowned 'Holy Roman Emperor' by Pope Leo III.
4. In 1792 William Carey published his Enquiry, preached his famous 'Expect great things ... attempt great things ...' sermon and saw the founding of the first modem missionary society. I single out these events because all of them have been significant in the 'Christianisation' of the world and more significantly in the genuine conversion of many souls to Christ. In the case of Constantine and Charlemagne, no doubt, Christianisation stands out. However, in both cases many true conversions followed in the wake of their rather worldly attempts to promote the gospel. With the Reformation and the birth of the modern missionary movement we see a more spiritual approach for the most part but the 'Christianisation' element in these two movements is also significant.
The third millennium
These events from the first two millennia give cause to hope that we will see similar and greater things happening in the third. We look to God, in particular, to see Reformation in South America and Africa. What a colossal impact such things would have. Oh that God would raise up a Luther, a Zwingli and a Calvin in those places. 'Christianisation' is a difficult subject but how wonderful if we also saw an increasing Christianisation of the Middle East, Central Asia and the Far East. Some of the things we hear from China and South Korea give hope that this may have already begun. As for Europe - how wonderful if Eastern and Southern Europe should know revival and reformation that would lead to the re-evangelisation of the west.
As to what we can do about all this, I merely note that one of the key elements in both the Reformation and, to a lesser extent, the modem missionary movement was the rediscovery of faithful Christian teaching from the past. Much of what Calvin and others rediscovered in the second millennium they gained via Augustine and others from the first millennium. Without doubt one of the keys to progress in the third millennium is a rediscovery of Calvin and other Reformed writers.
I'm not sure if I am an old man dreaming dreams or a young man with visions but we need to look confidently to God. The amazing things he has done in these last two millennia give us great hope for the future, provided we look to him in everything. Let us give ourselves to serving him now and always.
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine in December 1999
