Heal the Sick

“And great multitudes followed Him,
and He healed them all.”
(Matthew 12:15)

“Christ was concerned not only with humanity’s spiritual condition,” writes Schmidt “but also with its physical state. The healing acts of Jesus were never divorced from his concern for people’s souls, their spiritual well-being.”[i] “For him no healing was complete which did not affect the soul.”[ii] Christ was a holistic healer! He told his disciples, “I was sick and you looked after me” (Matthew 25:36). Schmidt continues,

“These words did not go unheeded. History shows that early Christians not only opposed abortion, infanticide, and abandoning infants, but they also nurtured and cared for the sick, regardless of who they were. Christian or pagan, it made no difference to them.”

The world the Christians entered during the Greco-Roman era had a colossal void with respect to caring for the sick and dying. Dionysius, a Christian bishop of the third century, described the existing behavior of the pagans toward their fellow sick human beings in an Alexandrian plague in about A.D. 250. The pagans, he said, “thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died.”[iii]

And we thought the after effects and response to Hurricane Katrina was under par!

The response of the early Christians was something different all together. They did not run out of fear or thrust aside the sick and dying. Rather they risked their very lives by tending to the contagiously sick and dying. Many of these faithful followers of Christ not only risked their lives, but lost them in helping others. One name that is known is,

Benignus of Kijon, a second-century Christian who was martyred in Epagny because he “nursed, supported, and protected a number of deformed and crippled children that had been saved from death after failed abortions and exposures.”[iv]

In the first century, there were no hospitals as we know them today. As already stated, those that were sick or diseased were often left to die by themselves. The only exception was those who were a part of the military. It was the Christians who would frequently take into their homes the sick and dying and care for them. It was the Christian church who began to develop centers for people to be taken care of.

The first ecumenical council of the Christian church at Nicaea in 325 directed bishops to establish a hospice in every city that had a cathedral.[v] Although, these early Christian hospitals or hospices were not what people understand by hospitals today. Their most important function was to nurse and heal the sick, they also provided shelter for the poor and lodging for Christian pilgrims.

The first hospital was built by St. Basil in Caesarea in Cappadocia about A.D. 369. It was one of “a large number of buildings, with houses for physicians and nurses, workshops, and industrial schools.”[vi] Some historians believe that this hospital focused exclusively on those with sickness and disease.[vii] The rehabilitation unit and workshops gave those with no occupational skills opportunity to learn a trade while recuperating.[viii]

It is important to note – and the evidence is quite decisive – that these Christian hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions. There is “no certain evidence,” says one scholar, “of any medial institution supported by voluntary contributions… till we come to Christian days.”[ix] And it is these Christian hospitals that revolutionized the treatment of the poor, the sick, and the dying.

By the mid-1500s there were 37,000 Benedictine monasteries alone that cared for the sick.[x] Nearly four hundred years after the Christians began erecting hospitals, the practice drew the attention of the Arabs in the eight century. Impressed with the humanitarian work of Christian hospitals, the Arab Muslims began constructing hospitals in Arab countries. Thus, Christ’s influence which moved his followers to build and operate hospitals, spilled over into the Arab-Islamic world, demonstrating once more that Christianity was a major catalyst in changing the world, even beyond the boundaries of the West. In this instance, it changed a world in which the sick were once largely left to fend for themselves, to one in which they were now given humanitarian medial care, a practice not known previously. Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan had become more than merely an interesting story.

In the early church it was the bishops and monks who “took charge of lunatics at a very early period, and gathered them together in houses specially assigned for that purpose.”[xi] During the early Middle Ages, the mentally disturbed were primarily cared for in the monasteries. It was the Association of Friends (Quakers), who in 1709, erected a general hospital in Philadelphia that housed “lunatics.”[xii]

The physician and medial historian Fielding Farrison once remarked, “The chief glory of medieval medicine was undoubtedly in the organization of hospitals and sick nursing, which had its organization in the teachings of Christ.”[xiii] Thus, whether it was establishing hospitals, creating mental institutions, professionalizing medical nursing, or founding the Red Cross, the teachings of Christ lay behind all of these humanitarian achievements.

In the nineteenth century hospitals in the United States became more common, especially after the Civil War. As the growth of hospitals spread across the nation, it was predominantly local churches and Christian denominations that build them. This was evidenced by many of the hospital’s names. Most reflected their affiliation with a given Christian denomination or honored a Christian Saint. The Christian identity and background of many American hospitals is now being erased, however. In recent years, as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have been purchasing more and more private Christian hospitals, their Christian names are being replaced. Thus, people, at least in America, will soon have no more symbolic reminders that the hospital(s) in their town or city had Christian origins.

The American church historian Philip Schaff summed it up well when he said, “The old Roman world was a world without charity.”[xiv] It was the teachings of Christ that inspired Christians to demonstrate selfless charity and love, even to the point of risking their own lives, and utilizing their own resources to care for them.



What places in our community (hospitals, collages etc.) were Christian founded establishments?



Read and meditate on Acts 3:1-6.

“Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us. "So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Acts 3:1-6



What are some ways you can “give what you have” to those in our community who are in need?

[i] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 151.
[ii] V. G. Dawe, The Attitude of Ancient Church Toward Sickness and Healing,” (Th.D. theosis, Boston University School of Theology, 1955), 3. Quoted in Under the Influence, 153.
[iii] Works of Dionysius, Epistle 12.5
[iv] George Grant, Third Time Around, 27. Quoted in Under the Influence, 153.
[v] Howard W. Haggard, The Doctor in History, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934), 108. Quoted in Under the Influence, 154.
[vi] Fielding H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, (Philiadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1914), 118. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156.
[vii] Grant, Third Time Around, 19. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156
[viii] George E. Gask and John Todd, “The Origin of Hospitals,” in Science, Medicine, and History, ed. E. Ashworth Underwood, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1883), 323. Quoted in Under the Influence, 156
[ix] Garrison, Introduction to the History of Medicine, 118, Quoted in Under the Influence, 157.
[x] C. F. V. Smout, The Story of the Progress of Medicine, (Bristol: John Wright and Sons, 1964), 36. Quoted in Under the Influence, 157.
[xi] Burdett, Hospitals and Asylums, 1:16. Quoted in Under the Influence, 160.
[xii] Thomas G. Morton, The History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, (New York: Arno Press, 1973), 4-5. Quoted in Under the Influence, 161.
[xiii] Garrison, Introduction to the History of Medicine, 118. Quoted in Under the Influence, 166.
[xiv] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896), 2:373. Quoted in Under the Influence, 167.

Imprints of Education

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NIV)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.”
(Proverbs 1:7 NIV)

"Every school you see – public or private, religious or secular – is a visible reminder of the religion of Jesus Christ. So is every college and university,”[i] writes Dr. James Kennedy in his book What if Jesus had Never Been Born?. He continues,

“This is not to say that every school is Christian. Often the exact opposite is true. But the fact is that the phenomenon of education for the masses has its roots in Christianity. Nor is this to say that there wasn’t education before Christianity, but it was for the elite only. Christianity gave rise to the concept of education for everyone.

From the beginning of Christianity, there has been an emphasis on the Word of God. This grows out of its strong Jewish roots, since Christianity is derived from Judaism. Christians have often been called the “people of the Book,” which implies a literate people. Dr. J. D. Douglas, general editor of The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, writes: “From its beginning the religion of the Bible has gone hand in hand with teaching. . . Christianity is par excellence a teaching religion, and the story of it’s growth is largely an education one. . . as Christianity spread, patterns of more formal education developed.[ii]

Many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries in order for people to read the Bible for themselves. Similarly, a monumental development in the field of human learning was the printing press. Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468), was the first to develop a movable type printing press that made it possible to mass produce books. Gutenberg is reported to have said, “I know what I want to do: I wish to manifold [print] the Bible.” To achieve this, he “converted a wine press, so it pressed pages onto the type blocks.”[iii]”

“While Christians were not the first to engage in formal teaching activities in school-like settings,” writes historian Alvin Schmidt in Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization, “they appear to have been first to teach both sexes in the same setting.”[iv] Schmidt continues,

“Given that Christianity from its beginning accepted both men and women into its fold and required that both learn the rudiments of the Christian faith, both men and women were catechized before being baptized and received into church membership. Furthermore, catechetical instruction commonly continued after baptism.”

Instructing both men and women, as the early Christians did, was rather revolutionary. Although there is no unanimity among historians, many indicate that the Romans before the birth of Christ did not formally educate girls in literary skills. Their schools, says one educational historian, apparently only taught boys – and then only boys from the privileged class – in their gymnasia, while the girls were excluded.[v] In light of this ancient practice, Tatian, once a student in one of Justin Martyr’s catechetical schools, proclaimed that Christians taught everybody, including girls and women.[vi]

Formally educating both sexes was also largely a Christian innovation. W. M. Ramsay states that Christianity’s aim was “universal education, not education confined to the rich, as among the Greeks and Romans…and it [made] not distinction of sex.”[vii]

Christians taught individuals from all social classes and ethnic backgrounds, especially in preparation for church membership. There was no ethnic bias.

The most significant move in the direction of universal education occurred with the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Martin Luther and John Calvin both advocated for universal education. Calvin’s Geneva plan included “a system of elementary education in the vernacular for all, including reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and religion, and the establishment of secondary school for the purpose of training citizens for civil and ecclesiastical leadership.”[viii] Martin Luther, along with co-worker Philipp Melanchthon successfully persuaded the civic authorities to implement the first public school system in Germany, which was tax-supported.[ix]

Thus, the desire to have public tax-supported schools, whether wise or not, even in a society where Christian values predominate, has its roots in the thinking of prominent Christian reformers like Luther, Calvin, and Comenius. Although public schools have by now become totally secularized, especially in the United States, they originated with individuals who were motivated by the love of Jesus Christ, whom they wanted taught for people’s spiritual and material benefit.

In addition, it was Christian ministers who were responsible for bringing Sign Language to America and developing educational schools for the Deaf. It was also a Christian man by the name of Louis Braille, who by 1834, gave to the world of the blind six embossed dots, three high and two wide, for each letter of the alphabet. So that Braille’s accomplishments don’t seem divorced from any influence of Christianity, listen to what he said as he lay on his deathbed, “I am convinced that my mission is finished on earth; I tasted yesterday the supreme delight; God condescended to brighten my eyes with the splendor of eternal hope.”[x]”

Finally, let’s look at universities.

The best evidence indicates that universities grew out of the Christian monasteries. However, given the powerful influence that secularism now has on most Americans, they are probably not aware that “every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War – except the University of Pennsylvania – was established by some branch of the Christian church.”[xi] Nor are most Americans aware that in 1932, when Donald Tewksbury published The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War, 92 percent of the 182 colleges and universities were founded by Christian denominations.

Catechetical schools, cathedral schools, Episcopal schools, monasteries, and medieval universities, schools for the blind and deaf, Sunday schools, modern grade schools, secondary schools, modern colleges, universities, and universal education all have one thing in common: they are the products of Christianity. Individuals in Western societies spend many years in schools, colleges, or universities, but they have learned very little about the contributions Christianity has made to education, so highly treasured today. In the absence of this knowledge, it is not only Christianity that has been slighted, but Jesus Christ as well. Were it not for him and his teachings, who knows what stage of development education would be today?


Consider the following excerpt written by Dr. James Kennedy[xii]:

While more than 200 years of Christian education in this country produced a .04 percent illiteracy rate, what has public and increasingly secularized education succeeded in doing? In spite of the fact that more than a trillion dollars have been poured into the educational system, what has happened? The illiteracy rate has increased 32 times. Today, we have 40 million illiterates! In addition there are an estimated 30 million more functional illiterates in this country.

A report entitled A Nation at Risk, released by the U.S. Department of Education in the 1980’s, sums it up well: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. . . we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.”[xiii]


Pray: Take a few moments and pray for our local school system.
South Bend currently has a fifty percent drop out rate. Something has to be done
about this!



[i] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 40.
[ii] Douglas, The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, 330-331. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 41.
[iii] Hyatt Moore, ed., The Alphabet Makers: A Presentation from the Museum of the alphabet, Waxhaw, North Carolina, (Huntington Beach, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1990), 13. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 43.
[iv] Schmidt, Under the Influence, 172.
[v] Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas, (London: Macmillan, 1922), 46. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.
[vi] Titian, “Address of Tatian to the Greeks,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 2:78. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.

[vii] W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire Before A.D. 170, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), 345. Quoted in Under the Influence, 172.
[viii] Lars P. Qualben, A History of the Christian Church, (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1958), 270. Quoted in Under the Influence, 176.
[ix] Douglas H. Shantz, “Philipp Melanchthon: The Church’s Teacher, Luther’s Colleague,” Christian Info News, (February 1997). Quoted in Under the Influence, 179.
[x] Etta DeGering, Seeing Fingers: The Story of Louis Braille, (New York: Julian Messner, 1951), 11. Quoted in Under the Influence, 183.
[xi] Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, (Rockville, Md.: Assurance Publishers, 1984), 157. Quoted in Under the Influence, 190.
[xii] Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 55.
[xiii] A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education by The National Commission on Excellence in Education, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Eduation, 1983), 5

Wonderfully & Fearfully Made

“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:27 NIV)

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
(Psalm 139:14 NIV)

“I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.”
(John 10:10 NIV)

Prior to the coming of Christ, human life on this planet was exceedingly cheap, especially in the Roman Empire, during the times of Jesus and the Early Church. In those days abortion was rampant. It was not uncommon for unwanted or inconvenient babies to be taken out into the forest, mountainside or valleys to starve to death or be consumed by wild animals, or to be picked up by some stranger passing by who would then use them for whatever perverted purpose they had in mind. Frederick Farrar has noted that “infanticide was infamously universal” among the Greeks and Romans during the early years of Christianity.[i] The Twelve Tables of Roman law states “we drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal.” If the parents were poor, they would abandon the babies. Moreover, female babies were often abandoned because they were considered inferior.

Early Christian literature repeatedly condemned the killing of children, both born and unborn. And, infanticide (murdering of infants) was no small part of society during the times of Christ. “Infanticide,” said the highly regarded historian W. E. H. Lecky “was one of the deepest stains of the ancient civilizations.”[ii] Greek poet of the fifth century B.C. mentions infants being thrown into rivers and manure piles, exposed on roadsides, and given for prey to birds and beasts.[iii] In Sparta, when a child was born, it was taken before the elders of the tribe, and they decided whether the child would be kept or abandoned.[iv]

In response to this, Christians leaders didn’t only speak out about the sanctity of human life, but they took action. Christians frequently combed through the forest and mountainsides looking for abandoned babies. They would then take them in, nurse them to health, care for them and raise them as their own. Another commonly practiced means of disposing of unwanted babies was to throw them over bridges to drown in the waters below. Christians would hide out underneath these bridges, catch the dumped babies and take them in. Infanticide, abandonment and abortion began to disappear in the early Church.

The low view of human life was repeatedly made manifest in these widespread practices of infanticide and abortion. But what was the root of such cruelty and low view of humanity? Some “historians and anthropologists tend to site poverty or food shortage as the primary reason for their prevalence. However, historical data indicates that poverty was not the primary cause for the high abortion rates among the Romans in the century preceding and during the early Christian era. At this time in history the Roman honor and respect for marriage had virtually become extinct.”[v] Roman “marriage, deprived of all moral character,” as one historian has noted, “was no longer a sacred bond, and alliance of souls.”[vi] Moreover, chastity was virtually nonexistent and adulterous relationships were par for the course within Roman marriages at this time. As a result, when an adulterous woman would become pregnant, she would destroy the evidence of her sexual indiscretions, thus adding to Rome’s widespread abortions. One does not have to have a doctorate in sociology to see the parallel between the culture of Rome and that of Post-Modern America. The sacred bond and alliance of marriage is quickly deteriorating. Adulterous promiscuity is so common that there is hardly a television mini-series, sitcom or mini-drama that doesn’t currently glamorize such activity. Could it be that these factors have also begun to erode at the American value of human life like that of the Romans? And, the response? Protest and picketing rarely produce the desired results of those involved. In fact, they are typically motivated out of a foul-spirit in the name of righteousness. Rather than constructing picket signs, the early Christians constructed baskets to catch babies being thrown over bridges and abandoned along the hillsides. Love was the operative verb of these first followers of Christ. Love for one another. Love for those who practiced injustice and deceit.


George Grant points out that in the seventh century, the Council of Vaison met to “reiterate and expand that pro-life mandate by encouraging the faithful to care for the unwanted and to give relief to the distressed.”[vii] At that time, the Church reaffirmed its commitment to adoption as the alternative to abortion.

Grant demonstrates how, in centuries past, the Church – through word and deed – gave rise to a pro-life view of human life. After reviewing much of the evidence for how the early Church and the early medieval Church impacted the value of human life, Grant sums up:

“Before the explosive and penetrating growth of medieval Christian influence, the primordial evils of abortion, infanticide, abandonment, and exposure were a normal part of everyday life in Europe. Afterward, they were regarded as the grotesque perversions that they actually are. That remarkable new pro-life in consensus was detonated by a cultural reformation of cosmic proportions. It was catalyzed by civil decrees, ecclesiastical canons, and merciful activity.”[viii]


Ponder...

What parallels can you detect between the Roman view of human life and the views that are permeating our American society today?

Take a few moments and pray for the abused and unborn on this nation.

Action: Do you know a child, who could benefit from you investing into their life in some small way?

[i] Frederic Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity, (New York: A. L. Burt Publishers, 1882), 71.
[ii] W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals: From Augustus to Charlemagne, (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), 2:24.
[iii] Euripides, Ion, trans. Arthur S. Way, (New York: William Heinemann, 1919), 51. Quoted in Under the Influence, 52.
[iv] Kenneth J. Freeman, Schools of Hellas, (London: Macmillian, 1922), 13. Quoted in Under the Influence, 52.
[v] Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001), 55.
[vi] C. Schmidt, The Social Results of Early Christianity, trans. R. W. Dale, (London: Wm. Isbister, 1889), 48.
[vii] George Grant, Third Time Around: A History of the Pro-Life Movement from the First Century to the Present, (Franklin, TN: Legacy, 1991, 1994), 20. Quoted by James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 14.
[viii] Grant, Third Time Around, 46-47.

Across the Centuries

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
(Romans 12:1-2)

Many are familiar with the 1946 film classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, wherein the character played by Jimmy Stewart gets a chance to see what life would be like had he never been born. The main point of the film is that each person’s life has an impact on everybody else’s life. Had they never been born, there would be gaping holes left by their absence. This is certainly true of every human that has ever been created, most notably one – Jesus Christ. He has had an enormous impact – more than anybody else – on history. Had He never come, the hole would be a canyon about the size of a continent.[i]

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as the one solitary life.[ii] This week we will look at a few of the affects that the cause of Christ has had on civilization.

Yet, we live in an age in which only one prejudice is tolerated – antichristian bigotry. Michael Novak, the eminent columnist, once said that today you can no longer hold up to public pillorying and ridicule groups such as African-Americans or Native Americans or women or homosexuals, and so on. Today the only group you can hold up to public mockery is Christians. Attacks on the Church and Christianity are common. As Pat Buchanan once put it, “Christian-bashing is a popular indoor sport.”

But the truth is this: Had Jesus never been born, this world would be far more miserable than it is. In fact, many of man’s noblest and kindest deeds find their motivation in love for Jesus Christ; and some of our greatest accomplishments also have their origin in service rendered to the humble Carpenter of Nazareth.[iii]

Napoleon, who was well accustomed to political power, said that it would be amazing if a Roman emperor could rule from the grave, and yet that is what Jesus has been doing. (We would disagree with him, though, in that Jesus is not dead; He’s alive.) Napoleon said: “I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel . . . nations pass away, thrones crumble, but the Church remains.”[iv]

Despite its humble origins, the Church has made more changes on earth for the good than any other movement or force in history. This week we will only highlight a few contributions Christianity has made to civilization, and we will only be able to scrap the surface of each of those touched on. There are volumes of historical accounts substantially validating each of the following. (If you would like to study any of the items discussed this week in further, it would be recommended that you read Under the Influence by Alvin J. Schmidt and What if Jesus had Never Been Born by James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe. Under the Influence would be recommended for grander research and thoroughness, though it may be harder to locate than the other.) That being the case, below is a bullet list of a few of the many positive contributions Christianity has made through the centuries.

“We must consider that Christianity’s ‘initial thrust’
has hurled ‘acts and ideas’ not only ‘across centuries,’
but also around the world.’” [v]
(Thomas Cahill)

Read through the following. As you do, see if you are aware of how each of these was initiated and propelled by Christians.

A Brief Overview

· Hospitals, which essentially began during the Middle Ages.
· Universities, which also began during the Middle Ages. In addition, most of the world’s
greatest universities were started by Christians for Christian purposes.
· Literacy and education for the masses.
· Capitalism and free-enterprise.
· Representative government, particularly as it has been seen in the American experiment.
· The separation of political powers.
· Civil liberties.
· The abolition of slavery, both in antiquity and in more modern times.
· Modern science.
· The discovery of the New World by Columbus.
· The elevation of women.
· Benevolence and charity; the ‘Good Samaritan’ ethic.
· Higher standards of justice.
· The elevation of the common man.
· High regard for human life.
· The codifying and setting to writing of many of the world’s languages.
· Greater development of art and music. The inspiration for the greatest works of art. [vi]

“No one is like you, O LORD; you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.”
(Jeremiah 10:6)

[i] James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 4.
[ii] Some have attributed this to Philips Brooks, the writer of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Quoted by Kennedy, 7-8).
[iii] James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, introduction to book.
[iv] Philip Schaff, Person of Christ: The Miracle of History, (Boston: The American Tract Society, undated), 323, 328.
[v] Thomas Cahill, Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus, (New York: Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 1999), 311.
[vi] James Kennedy, What if Jesus had Never Been Born?, 3.

Current Series

Unlearning Self

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,
and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.”
(2 Corinthians 4:5)

“For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men?
For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”
(Galatians 1:10)

In her book It Only Hurts When I Laugh, Ethel Barrett tells how four outstanding servants of God died to self and sin. George Mueller, when questioned about his spiritual power, responded simply, “One day George Mueller died.” D. L. Moody was visiting New York City when he consciously died to his own ambitions. Pastor Charles Finney slipped away to a secluded spot in a forest to die to self. And evangelist Christmas Evans, putting down on paper his surrender to Christ, began it by writing: “I give my soul and body to Jesus.” It was, in a very real sense, a death to self.

John Gregory Mantle wrote, “There is a great difference between realizing, ‘On that Cross He was crucified for me,’ and ‘On that Cross I am crucified with Him.’ The one aspect brings us deliverance from sin’s condemnation, the other from sin’s power.”

Recognizing that we “have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), we should, as Paul admonished in Romans 6:11, consider ourselves “to be dead indeed to sin.” We still have sinful tendencies within, but having died to them, sin no longer has dominion over us. We die to our selfish desires and pursuits. But believers must also think of themselves as “alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11). We should do those things that please Him.
Successful and victorious Christians are those who have died—to live![i]


Ponder the follower thoughts by R. S. Rendal

A young man approached an older Christian with this question: “What does it mean as far as this life is concerned to be ‘crucified with Christ’?” The believer replied, “It means three things: (1) a man on a cross is facing in only one direction; (2) he is not going back; and (3) he has no further plans of his own.” Commenting on this, T. S. Rendall wrote, “Too many Christians are trying to face in two directions at the same time. They are divided in heart. They want Heaven, but they also love the world. They are like Lot’s wife: running one way, but facing another. Remember, a crucified man is not coming back. The cross spell finis for him; he is not going to return to his old life. Also, a crucified man has no plans of this own. He is through with the vainglory of this life. Its chains are broken and its charms are gone.”[ii]

[i] Our Daily Bread, Saturday, July 30.
[ii] Our Daily Bread, Saturday, November 28.

Bondservants of Christ

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated to the gospel of God.”
(Romans 1:1)

“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi,
with the bishops and deacons.”
(Philippians 1:1)

“Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness.”
(Titus 1:1)

“James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad.”
(James 1:1)

“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained like precious faith with us
by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 1:1)

“Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father,
and preserved in Jesus Christ.”
(Jude 1:1)

...take it deeper

The apostles could have used any number of salutations and titles to distinguish themselves, why do you suppose they often intentionally chose the title bondservant?




What are the modern implications and applications of this in our own times and culture?

“Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;
live as servants of God.”
(1 Peter 2:16)