The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches
Some people have made huge contributions to society, justice, or education and their names are forever enshrined in the annals of human history.
A king, an inventor, a scientist, or a carpenter and traveling preacher ?
Which do you think would leave the greatest mark on history?
H.G. Wells Wrote:
I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.
Historians, philosophers, and world leaders have marveled at the impact Jesus has had on the world
This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science…he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.
Historian Philip Schaff
Here Are 6 Undeniable Ways Christianity Has Changed The World
1) Women’s Rights
Throughout ancient history we see endless examples of women treated inhumanely. All of a sudden, about 2,000 years ago, we see an incredible movement of women converting to Christianity.
In fact, the early church was so saturated with women that it was often criticized as “a women’s religion”.
What made the difference ? Jesus
Jesus treated women with dignity, respect, and a pure love that stood in stark contrast to society.
Jesus’s friends and ministry partners were women. To the detriment of his own reputation, Jesus spoke with and ministered to all kinds of women including sinners, prostitutes, and the unclean.
Perhaps the most striking example is that women were the first to witness Jesus after he rose from the dead. While women were worth less than men in the Roman world, in Jesus’s eyes they were equally valuable having been made in the image of God.
And the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 “And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” 8 And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
Matthew 28:5-8
While adulterous husbands who viewed their wives as property and/or playthings were the norm in the Roman world, Christianity demanded that a man be committed to his wife and love her sacrificially.
2) Human Rights
According to the Judeo-Christian worldview, human beings were created by God and, as such, have never ‘acquired’ their basic rights from the state. Nor are such basic rights a result of any work performed by them, but it flows directly from the nature of each human being who is always conceived in the image of a loving God (Gen 1:26).
Today in America, we think basic human rights are common sense. But that has not always been the case.
The idea that all humans should be treated with dignity was extremely rare before Christianity stepped onto the scene. The modern roots of our individual rights and freedoms in the Western world are found in Christianity.
The recognition by law of the intrinsic value of each human being did not exist in ancient times. Among the Romans, law protected social institutions such as the patriarchal family but it did not safeguard the basic rights of the individual, such as personal security, freedom of conscience, of speech, of assembly, of association, and so forth.
For them, the individual was of value ‘only if he was a part of the political fabric and able to contribute to its uses as though it were the end of his being to aggrandize the state’.1
According to Benjamin Constant, a great French political philosopher, it is wrong to believe that people enjoyed individual rights prior to Christianity.2 In fact, as Fustel de Coulanges put it, the ancients had not even the idea of what it means.
To care for our fellow man is a very Christian idea rooted in the life and teaching of Jesus himself.
3) Humanitarian Aid
In Luke 14:13 we see Jesus say,
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
And the Apostle John says in 1 John 3:17
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Caring for the poor and needy has been a strong part of Christianity’s legacy since the beginning.
We often see Jesus healing the poor and the outcasts and in the early church they cared for orphans, widows, and the helpless.
Even today, we see that legacy of caring for those in need being carried out on a monumental scale. Christians send money, missionaries, and volunteers all over the world to minster to people’s needs both physical and spiritual.
How much life has been spared, diseases treated, and hungry fed over the centuries because of Jesus is incalculable?
4) The Rule of Law, and individual liberty
The notion that law and liberty are inseparable is another legacy of Christianity. Accordingly, God’s revealed will is regarded as the ‘higher law’, and therefore placed above human law. Then liberty is found under the law, God’s law, because as the Bible says, ‘the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul’ (Psa 19:7). If so, people have the moral duty to disobey a human law that perverts God’s law, for the purpose of civil government is to establish all societies in a godly order of freedom and justice.
In declaring the equality of all human souls in the sight of God, Christianity compelled the kings of England to recognize the supremacy of the divine law over their arbitrary will.
The Christian religion worked there as a civilizing force and a stranger to despotism. As one may say, ‘The Bible’s message elevated the blood-drinking “barbarians” of the British Isles to decency.’6
There is not land beneath the sun where there is an open Bible and a preached gospel, where a tyrant long can hold his place … Let the Bible be opened to be read by all men, and no tyrant can long rule in peace. England owes her freedom to the Bible; and France will never possess liberty, lasting and well-established, till she comes to reverence the Gospel, which too long has rejected … The religion of Jesus makes men think, and to make men think is always dangerous to a despot’s power
Charles Spurgeon; Joy Born At Bethlehem
4) Education
Christians have always been concerned with the mind.
See Jesus’s words in Matthew 22:37
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Jesus and most of his early followers were Jewish. Many Jewish families emphasized education. The early Christians carried on this emphasis and expanded it They expanded it to non-Jewish people as well as to Jews, and they expanded it to include girls as well as boys. They wrote instruction manuals for new Christians and for children in order to prepare them for church membership.
In ancient civilizations it was rare that women got any education at all.
Christians may have been the first to teach both sexes in the same setting, and in this they were simply following the lead of Jesus himself. In 2016 Pew Research have found that women across three generations, have gained more years of schooling than men.
The early Christians believed in basic teaching for every church member, whether a child or a new convert. They also wanted church leaders to be well educated in God’s Word and to have a solid grasp on the workings of God’s world. This led them to establish schools.
Martin Luther urged a school system and said that it was “shameful and despicable” for parents not to make sure their children got a good education. Luther may have been the first to press for public schools funded by government and to insist that every child should have access to a good education.
John Calvin promoted elementary education for all children, including reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and religion. Calvin also led a movement toward establishing secondary schools to train people for leadership in church and government.
Literacy in Ireland came as a result of St Patrick’s ministry there.
Nearly all of the first universities in England and America were started by Christians including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Oxford, and Cambridge.
5) Science
For much of history people saw the world as spirits, demons, and small “g” gods as influencing the forces of nature.
But Christians believe there is one God who made both the world and everything in it (including us).
Medieval Christians were the first to come to the understanding that since God made both the world and mankind, man should be able to experiment with nature and understand it better.
Professor Rodney Stark does an excellent job showing the Christian roots of science in his book For The Glory Of God where he says,
The Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth century was the … result of [Christian scholarship] starting in the eleventh century… Why did real science develop in Europe … and not anywhere else? I find answers to those questions in unique features of Christian theology.
Even the physicist Paul Davies as a non-believer can see how the origin of science is rooted in Christian beliefs. He says,
All the early scientists such as Newton were religious in one way or another. They saw their science as a means of uncovering traces of God’s handiwork in the universe
Wikepedia Lists 81 Scientists that were outspoken in their Christian Faith from before the 18th century thru the 19th century that made monumental contributions to modern science.
Here are just 10 from before the 18th century that laid the foundation for modern mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy, and botany.
| Isaac Newton | 1643-1727 | Discovered Law Of Gravity |
| Johannes Kepler | 1571-1630 | Discovered Laws Of Planetary Motion |
| Hildegard of Bingen | 1098-1179 | Founder of Scientific Natural History Germany |
| Galileo | 1564-1642 | Father of Modern Physics |
| William Turner | 1508-1568 | Father of English Botany |
| Francis Bacon | 1561-1626 | Established What Is Called Scientific Method |
| Nicholas of Cusa | 1401-1464 | Developed Concepts of Infinitesimal and Relative Motion |
| Nicholas steno | 1636-1686 | Pioneer in Anatomy And Geology |
| Nicole Oresme | 1623-1382 | Discovered Atmospheric Refraction |
| Jean Buridan | 1300-1358 | Discovered Theory Of Impetus |
| Blaise Paschal | 1623-1662 | Projective Geometry, The Calculator |
While Christians might seem to be a minority in science today, they still have a strong presence.
For example, Francis Collins who led the Human Genome Project is an outspoken follower of Jesus.
What has Christianity has done for the world? The answer is all around us, from the laws that protect us, to the principles that guide us. It has shaped every area of our lives, yet because its influence is so huge, we take its heritage for granted and forget that Christianity was the source of this civilization!
What About The Bad Things Done In The Name Of Christianity
Christians could point to all the atrocities done in the name of atheistic worldviews such as Communism. In China alone the 20th century witnessed some 65 million deaths as a result of a belief system based on atheism. Logically, however, this does not mean that atheism is false. Likewise, pointing to atrocities done in the name of God does not mean Christianity is false. If anything, evil in the world supports the Christian belief that everyone has a bent toward selfishness and egotism—what the Bible calls “sin.”
Geisler, Norman. 10 Questions And Answers On Atheism and Agnosticism: Key Insights and Viewpoints . Rose Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Conclusion : The Greatest Impact Of Christianity Has Been Changed Lives
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself…
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
