Don, quit reading this thread. Go chip.

Bob, you keep talking about measuring, and you are correct. Measuring starts with zero. But you obviously never took out your ruler and drew a line with Gene and me. I'm going to try this one more time. Put your ruler away and get out a yard stick. Put your pencil precisely, exactly at the zero mark. How long is your line? YOU DON'T HAVE ONE! You haven't started drawing it yet. Your line is NEW! Now drag your pencil down to the half inch mark. Stop. Count how many complete inches you've drawn. ZERO. ZIP. NADDA. NONE. But you have started your first inch. Your first foot. Your first mile. You're on your way! Now continue on to the 1 mark. HOORAY!!! Your line is now one inch long!!! It's time for celebration! Just like a baby being one year old at the END of his first year. Not count how many inches you've drawn. ONE! Baby Jesus was not one day old until a day had passed. On our calendar, that day was numbered. It wasn't day zero. It was day 1. January 1. He wasn't one year old until a year had passed. That first year had to have a number. SIXTH CENTURY MONKS WOULD NOT HAVE NUMBERED IT ZERO. FIRST YEAR. YEAR ONE.

Back to your yardstick. How many more inches must you draw before your line is one foot long? A foot is 12 inches. Your line must go to the END of the twelfth inch to be a foot long. The second foot starts with the beginning of inch #13, not inch #12. A millennium is 1000 years, not 999. The first millennium is not complete until 1000 years have passed. The second millennium began at the start of the 1001st year does not end until 2000 years have passed. Next year is the 2000th year. The last year of the second millennium. The OLD millennium is NOT COMPLETE until our time line is drawn to the END of the 2000th year. The NEW millennium doesn't start until the .0000001th second of the 2001st year. It's not subject to "perspective." Mathematics is a science.

The time line of our calendar starts at zero. Zero is a point. Not a day. Not a year. The first year was a whole year. Year one. The second year was not NEW until the first year was PAST. Think about it.