Civilization Transformed

"These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
(Acts 17:6)

Everything that Jesus Christ touched, writes Dr. Kennedy, He utterly transformed. He touched time when He was born into this world; He had a birthday and that birthday utterly altered the way we measure time.[i][ii] Kennedy continues,

Someone has said He has turned aside the river of ages out of its course and lifted the centuries off their hinges. Now, the whole world counts time as Before Christ (B.C.) and A.D. Unfortunately, in most cases, our generation today doesnt even know that A.D. means Anno Domini, In the year of the Lord.

Jesus utterly transformed everything He touched. Not only countless individual lives, writes Paul Maier, professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University but civilization itself was transformed by Jesus Christ.[iii] Professor Maier continues,

In the ancient world, his teachings elevated brutish standards of morality, halted infanticide, enhanced human life, emancipated women, abolished slavery, inspired charities and relief organizations, created hospitals, established orphanages, and founded schools.

In medieval times, Christianity almost single-handedly kept classical culture alive through recopying manuscripts, building libraries, moderating warfare through truce days, and providing dispute arbitration. It was Christians who invented colleges and universities, dignified labor as a divine vocation, and extended the light of civilization to barbarians on the frontiers.

In the modern era, Christian teaching, properly expressed, advanced science, instilled concepts of political and social and economic freedom, fostered justice, and provided the greatest single source of inspiration for magnificent achievements in art, architecture, music, and literature that we treasure to the present day.

Jesus says in Revelations 21:5, Behold, I make all things new. Behold! This is the Greek word idou, which means to note well, look closely, and examine carefully. As we do so, it isnt long before we see that it was the cause of Christ and the mission that He sent His first disciples on that has truly turned the world upside down and made things new. Some of His last words were, Go into all the world And as we look at the world almost 2,000 years later, we see time and time again the imprint of Christ and His followers around the globe.


Take a few moments and brainstorm how we as individuals and as the Church can make a mark in the midst of the world we live and practically fulfill the call of Christ to go into all the world whether that world be another country or in your back yard.



Prayer
God help us to not focus on how big the world is and become overwhelmed but to focus on the one in front of us. Whether that person be our spouse, a parent, teacher, or a stranger; help us to be led by your spirit to See a need, Fill a need.



The Last of the Gladiators

Telemachus was a monk who lived in the 4th century. He felt God saying to him, Go to Rome. He was in a cloistered monastery. He put his possessions in a sack and set out for Rome. When he arrived in the city, people were thronging in the streets. He asked why all the excitement and was told that this was the day that the gladiators would be fighting and killing each other in the coliseum, the day of the games, the circus. He thought to himself, Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each other, for enjoyment? He ran to the coliseum and heard the gladiators saying, Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar and he thought, this isnt right. He jumped over the railing and went out into the middle of the field, got between two gladiators, held up his hands and said In the name of Christ, forbear.

The crowd protested and began to shout, Run him through, Run him through. A gladiator came over and hit him in the stomach with the back of his sword. It sent him sprawling in the sand. He got up and ran back and again said, In the name of Christ, forbear. The crowd continued to chant, Run him through. One gladiator came over and plunged his sword through the little monks stomach and he fell into the sand, which began to turn crimson with his blood. One last time he gasped out, In the name of Christ forbear.

A hush came over the 80,000 people in the coliseum. Soon a man stood and left, then another and more, and within minutes all 80,000 had emptied out of the arena. It was the last-known gladiatorial contest in the history of Rome.




[i] Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, created the Christian era in A.D. 525. He began time with the birth of Christ at A.D. 1. He was later proven to be off by 4 years, which means that Christ was born four years Before Christ! No matter, for the coming of the Son of God into our world demarcates the history of our world. It has never been the same since.
[ii] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 1-2.
[iii] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 8.