When was the church established?
Question:
Hello,
I have a question about what year the church was established. Some are saying AD 30 but when I was converted into the church what I was taught is that the church started in Jerusalem in AD 33.
Were we wrong as a church on the AD 33 date? And if we’re not wrong what makes the difference? Should both dates be accepted?
Please help me.
Answer:
The difficulty we have is that there wasn't a universal calendar in use during biblical times. Events were dated in relation to other major events, such as when a king started his rule or when a volcano erupted. These relative dates make it difficult to translate events to an absolute calendar.
The church was established 50 days after Jesus' death on the cross. Jesus started his ministry when he was 30 years old (Luke 3:23). We count three Passovers during Jesus' ministry, so we know he was about 33 years old when he died.
A monk named Usher tried to set the calendar's starting year to the year Jesus was born. Most people believe Usher made a mistake but there are debates about how far off Usher was to the correct date. See When was Jesus born? The information we have puts Jesus' birth within a year of 2 B.C.
Therefore, some people state that the church started in 33 A.D. by citing Usher's work and ignoring that he was probably off. Others lean toward the adjusted date and will say 30 A.D. knowing it might be off by a year or two.
