The Most Pivotal Moment #2

Since Christ’s life, death, and resurrection was the most pivotal moment in history, how did it change the world?  What were the changes in history and individual lives because of the resurrection?  (See my article pivotal moment #1)

Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35).  The early church and first-century Christians practiced this in their personal lives, in their relationships with other Christians and to the Jewish and pagan world of their day.

Christianity changed the world.  Here are three of many ways:

Hospitals and Health Care

Their love was demonstrated publicly by their care for the sick, both Christian and pagan.  Dionysius, in about AD 250, described the pagan treatment of the sick as thrusting them out, neglecting them, and, when they died, treating them with utter contempt.  On the other hand, Christians nurtured and cared for the sick, whether Christian or pagan.  Hospitals in the Western world owe their existence to Christian teachings and culture.  Christian Charity hospitals were the world’s first voluntary charitable institutions.  Christians treated the sick differently because they recognized that each human being is made in God’s image and is valuable to Him.  Jesus instructed Christians to care for their neighbor and express God’s love toward all.

ScienceDirect.com included a special article from the “European Journal of Internal Medicine” concerning the origin and evolution of hospitals.  These comments were included: “The origins of the public hospital are evidenced in early Christian age, when the Christian message led people to assist the sick and the poor and to establish centers for such interventions, initially in the house of the bishop, then in monasteries and, finally, in autonomous buildings (the hospitals).”

“Since the sixteenth-century hospital’s model, originally developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, had been exported all over the world by Christian missionaries, becoming the fundamental nucleus of the western medicine approach.”

In an article titled, “How the Church Invented Healthcare” by Mike Aquilina, this statement is made: “The hospital was, in origin and conception, a distinctively Christian institution, rooted in Christian concepts of charity and philanthropy.  There were no pre-Christian institutions in the ancient world that served the purpose that Christian hospitals were created to serve.”

Education

 In a Britannica article, “Forms of Christian Education,” this statement is made: “The Christian church created the bases of the Western system of education.”

The first colleges in America were founded by Christians, and approximately 106 out of the 108 first colleges were Christian colleges.

“Most of the colleges in the United States that started over 300 years ago were originally Bible-proclaiming schools. Dartmouth in New Hampshire, Harvard in Massachusetts, Yale in Connecticut (originally Puritan), and Princeton in New Jersey (originally Presbyterian) once had rich Christian histories.”

Although the Ivy League Schools have long since departed from the faith, they were originally intended to educate students in the truths of God.  Harvard’s mission statement proclaimed, “Everyone shall consider as the main end of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.  John 17:3.”

On the grade school level, the New England Primer in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and the McGuffey Reader series in the 19^th century were very popular.  The New England Primer was based more on religious values, but both series taught Biblical moral values.  “The McGuffey Readers became cornerstones in establishing America’s moral values.  Although the books were not overtly religious, they did stress religious values and emphasized moral lessons intended to develop students into good citizens.  The books encouraged moral values for over a century and conveyed a distinctly American cultural framework, emphasizing allegiance to the nation.  To illustrate the concepts, the McGuffey Readers presented stories emphasizing strength of character, truth, and goodness.  The stories distinguished between good and bad by introducing varying viewpoints on many issues and topics, and they concluded with morals, often concerning goodness, truth, and untruth.”

Christianity (based on Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection) immensely impacted world history.  Hospitals and schools are just two of the significant results of Christianity.

Spiritual Impact

 However, the most important impact is on the individual who trusts Christ as Savior.  Throughout the centuries, when persons received Christ as Savior, the Lord produced a spiritual miracle that transformed their lives.  True Christianity is not a religion but rather a relationship.  You are born into the family of God, and Christ lives in you.  (Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

You are now a changed person.  “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  “The eminent Russian writer, Count Leo Tolstoy, told how he turned from evil to good: “Five years ago faith came to me: I believed in the doctrine of Jesus, and all my life was suddenly changed.  I cease to desire that which previously I had desired, and, on the other hand, I took to desiring what I had never desired before.  That which formerly used to appear good in my eyes, appeared evil, and that which used to appear evil appeared good.” (# 5415, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, p. 1230)

The stories of changed lives through the centuries are countless: Paul the murderer and persecutor became Paul the apostle; the transformed lives of all the apostles; drug and drink addicts to able servants of the Lord: proud moral and religious people to simply “sinners saved by grace”; self-sufficient atheists realizing their emptiness and turning to Christ; highly educated people discovering that in Christ is all wisdom and knowledge; the wealthy unbeliever learning that it is better to lay up treasures in heaven than to trust the temporary pleasure of wealth and entertainment.  To listen to many more stories of transformed lives, you might want to tune in to the radio broadcast “Unshackled,” originating from the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Illinois.

When you experience the “new life in Jesus,” you will come to enjoy new peace, joy, and comfort like you never experienced before.  You will also have a new direction and purpose as you yield to Him.  Then there is the joy of getting to know the Lord better each day as you study the Word of God, spend time with Him in prayer, and walk in obedience to Him.

The Scripture, 2 Corinthians 3:18, never fails to inspire and encourage me.  “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.” Our goal is always to progress towards Christlikeness as we prepare for heaven.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3).

Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection were the most pivotal historical moment.   When you accepted Him as Savior, that was the most pivotal point in your personal history.  Will you commit your life to working toward growing into His likeness?

If you have not yet received Christ as Savior, why not make that decision today and let today become the most pivotal point in your history?