In movies, TV shows, documentaries, and major magazines we on a daily basis see attacks on the Christian religion. There is a constant and nauseous line of attack on the hypocrisy and lack of meaning to the Christian religion. Many writers, movie producers, and TV anchors call for it’s death as a meaningless philosophy and organization. The church is being silenced in education, government, and business. These attacks are cloaked by the cries of being tolerant, loving, and inclusive. The real tragedy is the acceptance of many well meaning Christians to the charges made by secular sources on the church. The Crusades, inquisition, and slavery are some of the more common episodes in church history that are used to discredit Christianity and all too often Christians simply accept what is said by our enemies as true. Very seldom do we see anything positive on what Christianity has done for the good of the world. Never have I seen a program on the effects of Christianity versus the effects of Communism. Lets take a few minutes to see the positive effects of Christianity.
The basis for our faith is the Scriptures, Old and New Testament so the effects of Biblical teaching should show in both Jewish and Christian cultures and they do! Do you know that 30% of Nobel Prize Winners are Jewish, 1% Islamic and the vast majority of the rest are from Christian cultures. Many of these awards are for advances in science, so much for Christian culture suppressing scientific progress. But lets start with how Christianity affected the religious culture of the world first.
The apostles entered a world much like ours and they lived in the super power of their day. The state was not opposed to the local religions of the day in fact they used them to bring unity and money to the state. In Acts 19 we see Paul in Ephesus where he preached against “man-made gods, which are no gods at all”. In the Roman world the religion was an integral part of life. The same is true today, although I am sure that I would receive a great deal of opposition to that statement. However religion is another word for having faith in an object, idea, or person. Most of the western world today has faith in man and his own creative genius. The western world also has faith in man through our military power and our politic savvy. The Roman world had the same gods and several thousand more. Each town had their own personal god that brought, hopefully, good luck and prosperity.
Paul faced was facing the local goddess Diana at Ephesus. God gave Paul great success in his preaching which brought about a decline in profit for the local silversmiths. Riots ensued which nearly brought about the death of Paul and his companions. The riots were partly about commerce, but money was not the only issue. The Roman government had used the local cults to bring about politic union by tolerating the false gods and ideas of the local culture. Christianity was not and is not tolerant toward false gods. It does not call for violence but it does require that it believers serve Christ and Christ alone. It does not and did not then tolerate magical practices. We have been accused of doing so, but that comes from a basic misunderstanding of the practices of Christianity, especially the Lord’s Supper.
Christianity declared a rational faith, without the secret mysteries or mythology of the Greek and Roman gods. Christianity freed man from the worship of nature and the occult worship it brings. It placed all men under the rule of the law of Scripture and it freed science to explore the world in a logical and rational way.(More on this later) Initially it freed the church from government involvement and support. Within a very short time however the government and the church were joined which was very hurtful to the purity of the church. But a great group of Christians stayed separated from government control.
Paul took the message of the gospel to a world of many different religions and with supernatural power overcame all obstacles. The world we live in is no different and we can with God’s power and grace be as effective as the early church. “Jesus Christ, The Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”
Why look at this subject? Because Christians have been mislead and lied to about their history and far too many have never researched or checked to see what the truth is. Our children are bombarded with false ideas about Christianity and we need to counter these attacks. Further is will strengthen your faith and hopefully make some angry enough to stop the attacks. In part 2 we will look at faith and science, are mutually exclusive or not?
PASTOR'S CORNER
