Strange language? Perhaps it is if you are not acquainted with the Latin language, yet I am sure that the well known abbreviation A.D. rings a bell in your mind. Whatever the case may he, the meaning is by far the most important, and to see the true meaning and understand the significance of this phrase for our lives is oar purpose at this time.
A.D. 1959 is upon us. Before us lies the vast span of one more year, To the youth it seems a long time, to the aged but a moment. 1958 has forever passed into eternity. The battle has been fought, the race has been run for the year 1958. Never can we return and correct or erase what we have done. The deeds have been recorded in the Book of Life by the Heavenly Scribe. There the record is permanent and will once again be revealed in the day of days.
Anno Domini 1959, what a joy and assurance to our weary souls to know that1959 is a year of our Lord. Without that truth we would tremble as the whole world is doing today. Look about you and what do you see? Wars threaten, peoples can’t live together without hatred, economic distress prevails, corrupt governments rule, and social evils stir the hearts of men. Oh, we need not go so far from ourselves. Look at that terrible sinful nature we have. How we love to sin against the holy, living God. Doesn’t that cause you to fear? Can you face 1959 in your own strength? Do you have the ability to please the just God in 1959?
No, we say, a hundred times no, for 1959 is Anno Domini, a year of our Lord. The year is in the control and power of our Lord. Who is that Lord? Listen, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,” Phil. 2:9‑11. Jesus Christ is Lord, Lord also of 1959. He it is that was sent of the Father to die for “all that the Father hath given to me,” and in dying He also arose from the dead unto eternal glory to rule as the bridegroom, as head, as the firstborn of many brethren in that final kingdom of glory, and that to the glory of the triune God.
All time, including 1959, is a year closer to The Anno Domini, when Jesus Christ shall return. Thus every year brings us closer to that time, and for that reason it is a year of our Lord. This has great significance for the Church of Jesus Christ. Nearer to the end means nearer to the time of the great persecution, the anti-christ, and the mark of the beast. We are constantly nearer to the day that, “except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,” Matt. 24:22. Young people, are you ready for that day? 1959 may be the final year of your pilgrimage through “the valley of the shadow of death.” Do you fear evil? Do you think you will be able to fight the wiles of the devil?
He that thinketh he standeth beware lest he fall. Rather let us with united voice declare, 1959 is the year of our Lord. He is our strength. What power have we frail creatures of the dust compared to all the ingenuity of Satan? We have none, for we by nature are in league with him. We don’t even care to fight him. It is much easier for us, and far more advantageous to our earthly existence to be friends with the devil as he comes to us through our friends, our associates, our pleasures, even our religious life. Our strength can never overcome him, but our Lord’s can. Our Lord is exalted and in that position He sees us here below. He doesn’t leave us, no, but contrariwise, he dwells in us with His Spirit. Thus is He Lord also of our life. He is Lord in us by power, for what power can be compared to the power of Pentecost? Hence our strength is our Lord who rules in us. In that strength we can say no to the devil when he tempts us and tries to allure us into the pleasure of the world, in the power of our Lord we shall endure till the end. We shall stand even if it means to be carried away and cast into prison, to be beaten, to fight in battle, be killed for Christ’s sake, to go hungry because we refuse to recognize the mark of the beast, or to flee for our life in the caves of the earth.
Anno Dornjnj 1959. That is our comfort. Even if 1959 brings all the gates of hell on earth to destroy the church, the Lord is our strength, we shall persevere in Him. Through trial and persecution He shall lead us, as our exalted head, on our earthly sojourn and in the life hereafter join us with Himself to live in the house of many mansions.