Why Christianity changed the world—the supremacy of the individual
Biblical Values the Built the West - Part 3
The main emphasis of my ministry is the power of Jesus Christ to shape the world and the people in it. My writing, my videos, and my speaking all put front and center the supremacy of Christ.
Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Bible built Western culture. Christians believe that both the Old and New Testaments are the written word of God. But Judaism is a small religion. It took Christianity to spread Old Testament ideas around the world and Christianity is the greatest missionary and cultural force that has ever existed. If it had not been for Christianity Old Testament ideas would be nearly unknown. But the spread of Christianity has caused them to become the most important ideas in world history.
In two recent videos I shared eight unique biblical ideas that have transformed culture. In this video I want to share four more.
First, Christianity spread the biblical doctrine of free will. Each individual has the ability to choose good or evil and make a host of other choices in his life. This leads naturally to the Christian belief in individual accountability before God. It also leads to the death of tribalism. In Matthew 3 Jewish leaders are bragging about being children of Abraham. John the Baptist tells them, “God can turn rocks into sons of Abraham.” John wasn’t very impressed with their Jewish lineage. And neither is God. I am a Baptist. I used to tell my students jokingly that Baptists have replaced Jews as God’s chosen people. And I am sure there are Baptists who think that way. That they have a special in with God. But when a man stands before the judgment seat of the Almighty he can’t boast about being a Baptist, a Jew, or a member of any other group. He will be judged on the basis of his own decisions.
This Christian doctrine has been bitterly opposed by the Marxist Progressive cult. Marx argued that everything in your life was determined by your group, your class, your tribe; that your individual identity and choices played no role in who you are as a person. It’s the opposite of what Christianity teaches. As a result, Christian societies have rewarded individual excellence no matter the tribe of that individual. Achievements in Western culture have come from every imaginable group. What would our society be like if Jews had been denied the opportunity to succeed in it? Or America’s richest minority group—people of Indian heritage? Or people from east Asia; Japanese or Korean immigrants? 31 years ago a Chinese immigrant who attended a Baptist high school in Kentucky founded Nvidia. Today it is one of the most valuable corporations in the world worth several trillion dollars. In Christian culture every individual possesses infinite value and free will. People have used that freedom to build the richest and best culture in world history. It would not have happened without the Christian view of the individual.
Second, Christianity teaches that men are basically evil. Yes, they have free will but they use it for wickedness. I am not arguing that people never make good choices or do good things. But Jeremiah 17:9 sums up man’s basic constitution: “The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can know it?” This affects every sector of society—education, law enforcement, parenting, and everything else. I have argued in other videos that social order in many of America’s cities is collapsing because Progressive liberals deny this doctrine. A correct view of the sinfulness of man leads to correct public policy.
Third, the rule of law. Intellectuals like Thomas Sowell argue this is the West’s most important contribution to the world. What is it? The rule of law insists that all individuals be treated equally and fairly by a nation’s law enforcement apparatus. The laws must be written down. You can’t obey the law unless you know what it is. Each individual in a society has equal access to justice and has fundamental human rights that are legally protected by the society. I once visited a college classroom in China. I was speaking with a young lady afterwards and asked her what she was studying. She said, “law.” She wanted to be a lawyer. I said, “There is no rule of law without God.” It is dependent on an independent lawgiver who hands down universal principles of justice.
A writer in World magazine said: “For an ordinance of reason to be established and applied for the good of man, lawmakers…first know what man is and what good is. All law is a manifestation of morality in this sense. It is concerning, then, when judges cannot or will not define the basics of human nature, the distinction between male and female or the humanity of the unborn, for example.”
Fourth, truth is objective; people don’t get to make up things and call them true. When a man says he has decided to be a woman no he hasn’t. He’s still a man to matter what gender he claims. Our intellectual elite have taken human freedom to absurd lengths claiming to make up anything they want and call it true. I have an entire video series on the lies I have been told by so-called intellectuals and it is stuff they made up and called true. The entire scientific enterprise depends on the objectivity of truth. Truth needs to be discovered. It cannot be invented. When all the nonsense of modern man is blown away what you are left with is reality. And God is the creator of what is real and the judge of what is real and what is right and what is wrong.
In my last video in this series I will give four more Christian values that built Western culture. I want to praise the God of Scripture, the only true God, for revealing His truth to us.
More: My videos on the Great Deceptions of my lifetime: https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLkHlTST983SpNT5Z37B6qlPsTjYMAm_qP/edit
First video on the values that built the West: What was the world like before Christianity changed it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-RaBj_Kwg
How Christianity invented science(second video on the values that built the West): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-RaBj_Kwg
Why America’s big cities are a mess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nl67Ig5hI4
Law requires theology:
DEI is the enemy of this; Marxist egalitarianism hates this; free markets depend on it; Charles Murray on the importance of genius—allowing the most brilliant STEM students freedom and opportunity; https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-roots-of-stem-excellence-higher-education-cognitive-ability-over-dei-df09f6c7?mod=MorningEditorialReport&mod=djemMER_h
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