What was the world like before Christians changed it?

A number of years ago a British missions publication, Operation World, said the United States was the nation most influenced by the Bible in world history. That may be true, but Western culture in its entirety is a product of the Bible.  Every resident of Western culture has benefitted from the Word of God whether they know it or not. Lots of well-known people, including men with towering intellectual reputations, have recently concluded that Western culture is the best that has ever existed and must be preserved.  Many of these truths that built the West come exclusively from the Bible and would be believed by no one if God had not revealed them in His Word. So when you have an acquaintance tell you they don’t believe the Bible or any of that religion stuff you tell them, “Nonsense! Your brain is full of ideas that come from the Bible, the Bible only, and you believe them passionately.”

It's worth taking a moment and thinking about what the world would be like if God had not revealed His truth in Scripture. In a recent essay Andrew Doran summarized the world before it was impacted by biblical truth. “Human sacrifice was a near-universal practice in primitive pagan societies, even among sophisticated pagans.

The Greeks had elaborate religious rituals for killing their pharmokoi (scapegoats). Romans buried sacrificial victims alive in religious rituals to spare Rome from its enemies…and though human sacrifice was later banned, crucifixion, mass executions, and murderous entertainment continued until banished in the Christian era. The Carthaginians, like their Phoenician and Canaanite ancestors, sacrificed their own children, as did many Mediterranean peoples. Aztec, Maya, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian civilizations all had rituals for human sacrifice.

Ritualistic violence among low pagans was less well documented but often more horrific. Christians from the medieval to modern eras…personally witnessed ritualized torture, murder, and cannibalism, from North America to Northern Europe and Asia. Celtic and Baltic, Germanic and Angle, Comanche and Guanche—more peoples partook than can be numbered because most have gone extinct. Ritualistic barbarity was universal.”

But then came Christianity and the biblical truths that changed all this and built Western culture. What are those truths? Today I begin a series of videos spelling out sixteen truths that Christianity brought to culture and on which Western culture is based.

First and foremost is the sanctity of life an idea that comes exclusively from Genesis 1:27; “So God created man in his image…”; the Bible teaches very human being is created in the image of God and therefore is of infinite worth and value. The idea has been found in no other culture outside of Christian influence. Numerous cultural values spring from this one theological concept and I will elaborate on them below. I have dealt with this doctrine in the video, “The Most Powerful Idea in History,” which I link below.

The second powerful cultural idea comes from the second half of the same verse—Genesis 1:27. “Male and female created he them.” Women are created in the image of God and therefore also have infinite worth and value. It is no accident that Western culture has been the best in history for women. Once one of my students at Colorado Christian told me of a friendship she had developed with a young woman at a secular university. The secular student had looked up some verses on the internet and decided the Bible was the enemy of women. I told my CCU student, “I will answer this young woman’s specific questions in a moment. But first let me make a general observation. The Bible has been a greater blessing to women than all the other books in the history of mankind combined.” Women in western, Christian culture live the best lives any women have ever lived and it is because of truth God revealed in His Word.

The third truth that built Western culture is the counterpart to the second; The Christian doctrine of male sexual restraint.  A number of years ago Dennis Prager, an orthodox Jew, wrote a brilliant essay entitled, “Judaism’s Sexual Revolution.” He lays out the biblical teaching on sex which both orthodox Jews and Christians follow. It was Christianity that spread this teaching around the world and infused Western culture with it. Prager argues that without the biblical teaching on sex, Western culture would not exist. In Dominion Tom Holland points out that Christianity produced the only culture in world history to restrain male sexual behavior. This is an important and often overlooked Christian doctrine that is essential for the existence of the West. It is also the one on this list most under attack.

Fourth, human rights. The U.N. Declaration on human rights says in its first paragraph that it recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family.”  It then goes on to say that this is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. In other words, all the other rights. I asked a Jewish law professor at CU one time if this wasn’t a religious statement and he said absolutely. I would add, it’s not just a religious statement, it is a biblical religious statement drawn wholly from Genesis 1:27. Thus, all your social justice movements for which Western, Christian culture is so well known, originate in Scripture.

In future videos I will add to this list. Thank you God for revealing your truth to us. How rich it has made our lives.

More: My video on the sanctity of life, “The Most Powerful Idea in History”;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iDInhQdqbQ