Maybe you did or didn't know that there is such a thing as the "Christian Calendar". This widely accepted calendar helps Christians around the world celebrate certain obviously significant spiritual events like Christmas, Easter, the Advent Season. This calendar also marks the celebration of some less than obvious, but none the less, significant events such as Reformation Day, Feast of Baptism, My Birthday (just kidding), and Creation Day.

Did you know that we know the exact day God created the world?! Okay we don't, but a guy named Bishop James Ussher (1581 - 1656) did not have the opportunity to watch Seinfeld reruns so he decided to try and pinpoint the day of creation. Here is how he did this...

"Calculation of the date of the flood based on literal interpretation of the old testament has been a scholarly activity for two millennia. The seventeenth century estimate of the Irish Bishop James Ussher has been accepted among many of the devout. The calculation is undertaken by adding the genealogies beginning in Genesis 11:10. This is the account of Shem: Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became father of Arphaxad. Arphaxad is then designated father to Shelah, Shelah to Eber, Eber to Pelg, and so on until Abram and his successors which eventually brings one to the division of the kingdom at the death of Solomon. In this way, Bishop Ussher computed that the earth had been created in 4004 BC and that the flood occurred in 2350 BC"

Is this the date? To be honest I don't know and I lean towards probably not. Why? Mostly because the genealogies in the Bible were not necessarily written with the type of precision needed to make this claim. Just check out Matthew's genealogy and you will see what I mean.

There has been a bunch written about the creation of the world in recent days. How about you take this day to reread the creation account in Genesis 1 and write your own guess as to when God rolled up His sleeves and got His hands dirty making mankind!

Happy Creation Day,

Joe

ps. I don't think Seinfeld reruns are more important than Ussher's work... but if he had them he might have liked them :)