The Christian View of the Family has made Western Culture Possible



In this video I conclude my examination of the values that built Western culture. I have listed twelve in previous videos which are linked below. Now for the final four.

First, Christianity teaches and demands the sanctity of marriage and the family. Our doctrine of the family comes straight out of Genesis 2:24: A man should leave his father and cleave to his wife. This is an important verse for what it says and what it denies. Children are not to be raised in extended families or tribes. It does not take a village to raise a child; it takes parents. For many years I pastored a church that had large families. I never worried that after church was over a number of these kids would be left behind. Somehow parents always knew who their own kids were and gathered them up and took them home. The people most committed to a kids’ life are his parents. God ordained it that way, Christian faith and practice demands the family function this way, and it has been a major factor in the health and success of Western culture. The online publication, the Federalist, recently argued that the decline of marriage will destroy our democracy.

Second, Christianity introduced to the world the idea of Progress. Forty years ago when I was a graduate student I was assigned a secular text entitled, The Super Historians. It chronicled the lives of the most influential historians who ever lived. At the top of the list was Augustine, the North African Christian who I have argued is the most important figure in history after Jesus Christ. This text argued that Augustine’s most influential idea was that of Progress. The ancient world believed history moved in cycles. Birth, progress, decline, and death. It was an inescapable cycle a culture could not escape. So there was no ultimate hope in the future. Decline was inevitable. Augustine changed all that. In his magisterial work, The City of God, he argued that the city of man did indeed move cyclically. But alongside the city of man was The City of God. It was linear. It moved in a straight, upward line. That city was always progressing toward an ultimate glorious end. Mankind was progressing, individuals could progress, your choices made a difference. That idea transformed the culture of the West. It believed that human advancement was possible. We can make things better. And it is one of the most powerful ideas of all time.

Third, Christianity argues that Utopia is not achievable in this life but lies after life in the glorious realm of God’s heaven. This idea taught Western men not to expect or aim for a heaven on earth. The passion for an earthly utopia has been one of the single most destructive beliefs of the Marxist Progressives. They do not believe in God or in an afterlife but they still believe in a heaven. They set out to create it on earth and instead have created one horrific nightmare after another that has killed tens of millions. Christianity teaches men to be realistic about life on earth and what politics can achieve. The belief that a political system can create heaven on earth is destructive. It means that Progressives are always unhappy with the world no matter how blessed it is. They constantly try to destroy the present order to replace it with a perfect world. And in the process they destroy everything good. The Christian view of government has been realistic and therefore effective. 

Fourth, the nations of Western culture have consistently given gratitude and worship to God. We need to be reminded that Paul says in Romans 1:21 that a lack of gratitude toward God is the beginning of a downward spiral to moral and social destruction. In 1789 America’s first president, George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving: “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God.”

America began by giving thanks to God and we have been blessed beyond all measure. Continued thanksgiving to God is a necessary condition for blessing in the future.

Western culture was created by Christianity. It is part of the heritage of Jesus Christ that David talks about in Psalms 2. If Jesus Christ had not walked the earth Western culture would no more exist than you would exist if your mother did not. I give praise to our God for revealing His truth and the immeasurable blessing He has produced in our lives. 

More: Why Christianity Change the World: the Power of the Individual; The values of the West, part 3; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaHI2CKTUg

How Christianity Invented Science: The values that built the West, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXTXYXaXyCI

What was the world like before Christians changed it: The values that built the West, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXTXYXaXyCI

The Federalist on how the current assault on marriage will destroy democracy:

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/25/how-americas-war-on-marriage-threatens-democracy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-americas-war-on-marriage-threatens-democracy&utm_term=2024-10-25

George Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation: https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789