Before class
One box matters more than the rest this week: “Where the Cross Stands,” on p. 83. Read it twice, until you can say it in your own words without notes, and look over the genealogy on p. 84 as well, along with the rest of pp. 80–86. Print Big-Print Stretch 11; if you can, print the Adam-to-Christ Wall Strip from the same pack and hang it underneath. In your Bible, mark Galatians 4, Matthew 1, Luke 2 and Acts 15.
Opening · 5 minutes
Begin with a question everyone can answer: “What year is it today?” When they answer, ask, “Since when? Who decided where to start counting?” Let them guess for a minute. Then say: “For hundreds of years after Jesus, people did not count years from him at all. Adams tells us the count we use was worked out about five hundred years later. On his chart you can put your finger on the exact pillar where he stops counting from the creation of the world and starts counting from Christ. Let’s find it, and then let’s see what he puts right beside it.”
At the chart · 15 minutes
1Adams explains his own chart. In the middle of p. 80 sits a block of prose, and that is the first stop. Read three sentences aloud from the transcription on p. 86: the black line is the stream of time, the pillars mark each hundred years, and a conquered nation’s stream “terminates.” After each sentence, ask the class which of the six keys it describes. They have been using these keys for weeks; here they hear Adams say them himself. Page 86 lists all six with their names, so let a good reader check the answers aloud (pp. 80, 86).
2Cleopatra’s stream ends. Move right to Cleopatra in her ship. Read Adams’ note from p. 86: after Actium in 31 B.C. she took her own life, and Egypt became a Roman province in 30 B.C. Ask which key that is, and wait for Key 5 · A stream that ends in another is a conquest. Then point out the next sentence of the note: the Roman Empire “is commonly dated from Jan. 1. 30 B.C.” Ask the group how old the empire is when the count turns to Anno Domini. Less than thirty years (pp. 80–81).
3The pillar, the Magi and the cross. Next comes the column of 4004. Let them find the words 4004 A.M. Christian Era begins, then the three wise men and the star in the same column: Key 6 · Same column, same moment. Now the cross. Say it plainly, the way p. 83 does: Adams draws the cross just past the pillar of 4004, at the opening of the Christian era; the year of the death, A.D. 33, is written at the end of the line from Adam (“JESUS, 33 A.D.”). Read John 19:19–20 and let them find the title in English and Latin (pp. 80–83).
4Two fingers, one line. If you hung the Wall Strip, ask one child to put a finger on Adam and another on JESUS, 33 A.D. Otherwise use p. 84. Read the last names aloud, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, and let the class find them under the stream of time on p. 81. Then show the three rows of fourteen on p. 84 and ask someone to count the last row. When they get thirteen, explain that many readers count Jechonias twice, at the end of one row and the start of the next (pp. 81, 84).
Talk it over · 15 minutes
Paul says God sent his Son “when the fulness of the time was come.” Looking at what Adams gathers around the cross, what made that time full?
Listen for: Listen for one empire over the whole sea, Greek carried everywhere and a Greek Bible from Alexandria (p. 88), and people like Simeon waiting. If the talk stays on politics, bring them back to Galatians 4:5: the Son came “to redeem.”
Adams notes that “it is now held that Christ was born from 4 to 6 B.C.” How would you explain to a friend that Jesus was born a few years “before Christ”?
Listen for: A good answer says the count from Christ was worked out about 532 and set a few years late, while Matthew says Herod was still king at the birth. If the year of the cross comes up, give both dates the book gives: A.D. 33 on Adams’ chart, following Ussher, and A.D. 30 for some Bible students, both under Pontius Pilate.
The red circle beside the cross marks the first council of the apostles. What question did it settle, and why does that answer reach you today?
Listen for: Listen for the question of Acts 15: whether believers from the nations had to become Jews, and be circumcised, to be saved. Peter’s answer was grace (Acts 15:11). If no one sees why it matters, ask who in the room would have had to become a Jew first.
To close
“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”Luke 2:30–32 · KJV
As Simeon waited and saw you, Lord Jesus, teach us to wait for you with the same faith, and to see you at the center of all our history.
With younger children (6–10)
Almost all of this lesson can be done with fingers. Let the children find the three wise men and the star, then the word JESUS under the stream of time and the number written after it, 33. Ask them to find the red circle beside the cross and the tall lighthouse at the left edge of p. 80. If you have the Wall Strip, let the whole group walk their fingers along it from Adam to Jesus, saying a few names out loud as they go.