This is an Impact 360 Institute video.
What good is Christianity? Have the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth made the world a better place, or is Christianity “positively harmful,”1 “a menace to civilization,”2 “a threat to human survival,”3 and “the principal enemy of moral progress in the world”4?
What does the historical record tell us?
The world that Jesus was born into considered women socially and intellectually inferior. They were not permitted the same rights, privileges, and freedoms that men enjoyed. And in Jewish culture, women were not permitted to speak in public, especially in the presence of a man—which also meant she couldn’t testify in court of law. But the way Jesus treated women was revolutionary. Not only did He stand against the anti-female culture of his day, He also set a new standard of kindness, compassion, and respect. As a result, the early church included women, honored women, supported widows, and gave women a freedom and dignity previously unknown in any culture.
In India, where widows were burned on their husband’s funeral pyres, it was the Christians who are largely responsible for getting this practice banned. In China, young girls were intentionally crippled by binding their feet. Again, it was the influence of the Christians that led the Chinese government to outlaw this practice. It’s no exaggeration to say,
“The birth of Jesus was the turning point in the history of woman.”5
In the ancient Greek and Roman world, children were property. Babies, especially little girls, were often killed immediately after birth or abandoned to die of exposure. And what we call child abuse today was considered normal back then. Then Jesus appeared, and children became people. Christians opposed all forms of child abuse. [They] rescued babies who have been left out to die, often adopting them into their own families. They taught the world to value and care for the youngest members of society.
Christians were the first people in history to systematically fight against slavery. Slavery in the West was abolished largely because of the efforts of Christians like William Wilberforce in England and the abolitionists in America, most of whom were Christian ministers. These followers of Jesus reasoned that since we are all created equal in the eyes of God, no one has the right to rule another without their consent.
Christianity provides the moral foundation not only of anti-slavery, but also of democracy. The freedom and opportunity enjoyed in the US and other democracies is built on ideas furnished by the Judeo-Christian worldview. The belief in free will opposes tyranny and leads to a representative government. The understanding that man is sinful underscores the need for checks and balances and three branches of government. The idea of being governed by the rule of law than the authority of man flows from the Ten Commandments. Other Christian Concepts like the dignity of labor, the existence of moral absolutes, fair trials with witnesses, and the importance of civil liberty are also crucial to our form of government and so easily taken for granted.
Jesus was a teacher and instructed His followers to teach, so Christians developed schools, and later, monasteries, laying the groundwork for modern education. Christians founded 106 of the first 108 universities in the US. Ideas like tax supported public schools, kindergarten, grade levels, secondary schools, modern colleges and universities, education for the deaf and the blind, literacy for the masses, and universal education that reaches beyond class, gender, and ethnicity, all have one thing in common. They are all products of Christianity.
It’s hard to imagine life without the technological advances of modern science. Science, as we know it today, emerged hundreds of years ago during a period of unprecedented advances in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry. The vast majority of these brilliant scientists—nearly every single one of them—were Christians. They believed that since the universe was created by a rational Creator using rational rules, it ought to yield its secrets to rational creatures using reason and observation. As a result, these early scientists searched for natural laws, confident that they existed, and they found them.
Jesus’ concern for all who suffered went above and beyond the social order His day. In 252 AD, the Christians of Corinth saved the city from a plague, risking their lives to help those who have been dragged out into the street and abandoned to die. Christian compassion for the poor and the sick led to institutions for lepers, and later, monasteries dedicated of the care of the sick. These were the beginning of our modern hospitals. Christians were the driving force behind the creation of orphanages, care for the elderly, prison reform, labor reform, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the YMCA. And charitable giving was a uniquely Christian innovation, giving rise to countless contemporary philanthropic organizations.
Our modern-day conceptions of human rights and equality derive exclusively from the biblical idea found in Genesis that all people are created in the image of God. Expanding on this affirmation of human equality, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male and female, but all are one in Christ Jesus.”6
But what about the dark stains in the history books? The Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch hunts? Christians clearly affirm that all people are flawed, so it’s no surprise that Christianity’s track record, like everyone else’s, is less than perfect. But notice: Those who committed these acts were acting in direct contradiction to the teaching and life of Jesus. So clearly, the blame cannot be placed on Jesus, but on those whose actions oppose His teachings and way of life.
So much of what is good in our lives came about because two thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth turned the world upside down. The historical record is unmistakably clear. No other cultural influence, no other social movement, no other teaching, philosophy, or religion has done more to promote the well-being of more people than Christianity.
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
—Jesus of Nazareth in John 10:10
Notes:
1,2,3Christopher Hitchens
4Bertrand Russell
5L. F. Cervantes
6Galatians 3:28