A World without Christianity

 

As Christians, we're called to change the world! Believers have been changing the world for 2,000 years and will continue to do so.”

Have you ever put this together? Why is it that refugees usually flee to “Christian” countries? They flee to nations with a Christian heritage, nations whose government and worldview still have some foundation of a Christian worldview that greatly influences them.

  Frequently, Christianity is denounced as being violent, hateful, and hostile to human flourishing. Christ-followers are accused of being part of the religion of the oppressor class. We are told to shut up and “check our privilege” and “do the work” to repudiate Christianity’s toxic legacy. Yet, what would our world be like without Christianity?

  Our world would be crueler. Prior to Christianity care and compassion to the needy was regarded as foolish. At a time when many in the Greco-Roman world suffered misery and brutality, early Christians and churches offered care. Orphans were given refuge and education. Widows found aid. The destitute were given food. By the 4^th century, after Constantine became emperor, the church became the first organized institution of public welfare. The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) ordered that a hospital should be built in every town where there was a Christian cathedral. Christians pioneered the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, leprosariums, and hospices for the dying.
  Christ-followers were responsible for a wide range of social advances, including prison reform, care of the mentally ill, factory reform, rescuing women and children from sexual abuse.
  The missionary movement of the 19^th century affected healthcare and philanthropy globally. Missionaries opened the first hospitals, clinics and pioneered medical education in primitive cultures. Those endeavors resulted in longer life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates. In the poorest areas of the world where help is most desperately needed, today you’ll find missionary doctors and church-sponsored volunteers. Many of those missionaries will stay for life.
  If there is a huge famine, natural disaster or reports of genocide, most people in other cultures are unconcerned. As a Chinese proverb says, “the tears of strangers are only water.” Countries with a Christian foundation rush in to help. They do this because of the influence of Christianity.
  Injustice would be even more prevalent. The Bible teaches that God places a conscience in the heart of every human being and His moral law applies to both governors and the governed. These biblical truths have been the foundation for the “rule of law” and the regard for human dignity and freedom. They’ve inspired resistance to tyranny. They’re a defense against the excessive totalitarian claims of an all-powerful state. Throughout history you’ll find that it was Christians who were willing to challenge abuse and do the hard work for reform. Individual freedom and rights are most prevalent where Christianity has had the greatest impact.
  The world would be less free. Those of us in the West often take freedom for granted. The idea that every human is of equal dignity and should be afforded liberty isn’t part of most cultures.
  Greco-Roman society had no concept that every human life has intrinsic value and dignity. The Roman Empire was made up of around seventy million people—ten million of whom were slaves. Most societies through history have been built on slavery. Christianity is the only major religion to mount a comprehensive attack on the institution of slavery.
  The conviction that every human is made in God’s image stood in stark contradiction to the culture of the ancient world. The Bible’s teaching that “in Christ we are all one, whether slave or free” (Galatians 3:28) was revolutionary. For free people and slaves to share the Lord’s Supper as fellow church members was scandalous.
  Chrysostom (c. 347–407), who served as a pastor in Constantinople told the wealthy to buy slaves, teach them a trade, and set them free, telling them that when Christ came, He annulled slavery. Gregory of Nyssa (335–395) wrote the first comprehensive critique of slavery, attacking it for its violation of the free nature of those made in God’s image. The conviction that every human is Imago Dei was antithetical in the ancient world. By the 11^th century slavery in Christendom had, effectively, ended.
  But because of greed the transatlantic slave trade brought back the horror of slavery on a more terrible scale. It was Bible-believing Christians like William Wilberforce and so many others who worked tirelessly for its abolition. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in 1833.
  Yet as the world loses more and more Christian influence, there are more slaves in the world than ever before. An estimated 27.6 million are victims of sex trafficking and forced labor. Yet, again, it is Christians who lead the way in opposing slavery and human trafficking internationally. The areas of the world where slavery is still condoned by the state also are areas opposed to Christianity. It still exists in some Islamic countries. Nearly two million Uighurs are incarcerated by the Chinese Communist party and subject to slave labor. Ongoing abuses associated with the caste system in India are one of the greatest human rights violations in history.
  Our world would be less educated. From the beginning of Christianity, education has been a priority. Christ-followers believe all human beings should learn of God’s works and ways. That means that they must be literate and should be able to read the Bible in their own languages.
  The earliest colleges and universities were founded by Christians. Harvard, Princeton and Yale all owe their origins to the gospel. It was Christians who pioneered female education in many nations. When you look at the scars of female oppression—whether child-marriage, prostitution, sex trafficking, domestic violence, genital cutting, or so-called honor killing—all are more likely when girls are denied education. Living standards are raised when people are given an education. Across the centuries and across the world, Christ-followers have devoted themselves to their neighbors’ good.
  Christianity’s various endeavors—in healthcare, philanthropy, education, and everyday work—have been driven by the biblical conviction that humans, created in God’s image, should all have opportunity to flourish.
  Does the world really want the vacating of Christianity? The outcome may be a monster that can’t be put back in the box.

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