God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty (25 page)

The Muslim world’s treatment of women is at the center of an international debate. Women lack rights and are forced to keep themselves under a cloak of obscurity. While many Muslim women willingly accept this lifestyle, it is not an option for faithful adherents. During my teenage years when I lived for a short season with my parents in Algeria (a Muslim nation), we were told how the women had always been forced to walk behind their husbands. The only exception had been in times of conflict where land mines were hidden and posed a great danger to someone stepping on them. In those cases the women were allowed to walk in front.

4. A
BOLITION OF
S
LAVERY

The abolitionist movement to free the slaves first in England and then in America was led by committed followers of Jesus Christ. William Wilberforce, an English parliamentarian, was influenced by John Newton and Methodist Church founder John Wesley to lead a twenty-year battle ending slavery in England. It was on his deathbed that he received the news that parliament had voted to outlaw completely this abhorrent practice. Thirty years later the United States would do the same.

Slavery was a fact of life in the ancient world. The slave population in ancient Athens reached eighty thousand, which was at least 40 percent of the population.
²⁰
At least a quarter of the population of ancient
Rome
were slaves.
²¹
The Bible was the only source of opposition or restraint against the broad spectrum of human slavery. The book of Exodus records the radical
deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. Nothing like this had ever occurred in human history.

Slavery consisted of a broad spectrum of meaning in the Bible. It is used in different ways from economic slavery, to conquered peoples, to the idea of being a servant. Paul often referred to himself as a servant or slave of Jesus Christ. The gift of salvation is what Christ offers the world. Salvation from what, you ask? Slavery.

The Bible was definitive about the most insidious and harmful form of slavery, which is
spiritual
slavery. While abuse and man-stealing were condemned, there was the constant reference to redemption, or being bought out of slavery. Critics were upset with Jesus because He did not offer immediate political liberation from Roman oppression. He came, however, to liberate us in the spiritual sense. It is only when we are free internally from the bondage of sin that we are free indeed. All roads there lead back to the gospel since the gospel gives the promise of true
freedom
to the captives (Luke 4:18).

We find throughout the Bible the unfolding of God’s plan for redemption. Even though it was a spiritual deliverance, a physical deliverance followed. God starts from the inside out. For instance, even though Hebrews were delivered physically from Egypt, they were still in spiritual bondage to sin. Jesus first liberated hearts, then the physical followed.

Most biblical slavery wasn’t permanent and instructions were given on how someone’s freedom could be obtained. The Bible also describes how slaves were to be treated humanely. These are some of the first examples of human rights in history! By the end of the New Testament, Paul would introduce the radical concept that slaves and masters were brothers (Galatians 3; Philemon).
Historian Rodney Stark summed it up this way: “And just as it was Christianity that eliminated the institution of slavery inherited from
Greece
and
Rome
, so too does Western democracy owe its essential intellectual origins and legitimacy to Christian ideals, not to any Greco-Roman legacy. It all began with the New Testament.”
²²

5. E
DUCATION

Of all the areas of life that the grace of God has touched, none is more obscured than the arena of
education
. The fact that the Bible is excluded from having any influence in much of the academic realm today may be one of the great ironies of history. The reason? It was the Judeo-Christian framework that emphasized glorifying God with all your mind as well as your heart. Skeptics argue that religion called people to retreat from study of the physical world, but the reality was just the opposite.

Universities in
Europe
were birthed out of the monastic schools in the Middle Ages and continued to serve Christian purposes.
²³
The vast majority of colleges and universities in the United States also were started explicitly to promote the Christian faith. Most today, however, ignore their foundations and often teach against Christianity.
²⁴
The very idea of the
university
is the concepts of
unity
and
diversity
being combined. The diversity relates to the numerous branches of
knowledge
from astronomy to zoology. What was the unifying factor that connected all these areas of study? An intelligent Creator.

With the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, books proliferated. Bible reading and study became the fuel that fired a reformation in the area of religion and education. Commoners now had knowledge within their grasps. Leaders of this reformation became known as
Protestants
, primarily because
they believed that God’s Word was the ultimate authority over popes and kings alike. Public education was largely birthed in Western Europe during the
Protestant
Reformation. Reformers Martin Luther and John Knox promoted universal public education since they saw it as indispensable to Christian faith.
²⁵

6. C
HARITY

The generosity of the Western world is beyond dispute. In spite of the financial woes of late, the history of giving to those in need is a direct result of the Christian ethos that permeated the foundations of America and the free world. Christ didn’t just bring salvation to the world; He taught that it is “more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). This spirit of giving demonstrated that God was the ultimate source of wealth and that as people gave in His name they were honoring Him.

There may be some charities as of late that have been funded by skeptics due to the glaring omission of this kind of activity, but it does not logically follow their worldview. As Taunton explained:

While atheists can perform works of
charity
or maintain high
moral
standards, history reveals that they
don’t
with any degree of consistency. The statistics bear this out. According to a study by the
Barna
Group, Christians are the most charitable segment of the population. The same study indicates that the average evangelical gives almost
ten times
as much money to nonprofits as the average atheist.
²⁶

The movements in England to help the poor in the nineteenth century were prime examples of the motivation of Christians to demonstrate their faith through their benevolence. The drive to
establish orphanages was led by believers in order to follow the instruction about what real religion is supposed to do. “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:26–27).

The very word
charity
actually comes from the Bible itself. In Greek it is the word
agape
, which is the term for God’s love. This is distinct from the word
phileo,
which means brotherly love. To give from a heart of love, therefore, is a godly characteristic and demonstrates that a person is a true believer. To give without that kind of love is an empty, self-centered activity that has little value in an eternal sense: “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3
KJV
).

7. C
ARE FOR THE
S
ICK

The idea of helping the sick originated in the
Old Testament
and was expanded through the rise of Christianity. Jesus explicitly sent His followers to heal the sick (Matthew 10:8). He also commanded them to show great concern for the lowest and most vulnerable in society (Luke 14:13). Early Christians placed a great emphasis on hospitality (Romans 12:13), which even became a requirement for church office (1 Timothy 5:10).

For centuries large numbers of Christians have put this teaching into practice. “In homes, whole families adopted a style of life modeled on that of the Apostles; some devoted themselves to missionary works, others to Charitable deeds among the outcasts of Roman Society—lepers and others identified as ‘unclean’:
vagabonds, prostitutes, the homeless and destitute.”
²⁷
Christian homes and church meeting areas became primary care centers. When the persecution of Christians subsided in the fourth century, these efforts expanded into centers dedicated to the care of the sick, which were the forerunners of modern hospitals. “Churches everywhere took care of widows and orphans; tended the sick, the infirm, and the disabled; buried the dead, including indigents; cared for slaves; and furnished work for those who needed it.”
²⁸

Other parts of the world offered similar care on a much smaller scale, but the extent of and emphasis on helping the poor, needy, and infirm were unprecedented in history. The witness of the church even drove the Roman emperor Julian to write in the fourth century, “Why then do we think that this is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause? Each of these things, I think, ought really to be practiced by us.”
²⁹

Looking around the world today, we clearly see that the building of hospitals and the care for the sick and dying are a part of the Christian mandate.
Mother Teresa
stepped into the hopeless situation of Calcutta, India, and sacrificially served the poorest of the poor. She explained why she felt this daunting task was her duty: “There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in—that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”
³⁰

8. E
THNIC
U
NITY

One of the major story lines in world history is the conflict between ethnicities. Ethnic cleansing is still practiced as some
nations attempt to eliminate minorities by force. Christianity introduced the idea that you be “brothers and sisters” with people from another ethnicity because of Christ. Noted historian Rodney Stark explained, “The natural tendency of man was to segregate into their own particular ethnic circles and exclude others on the basis of being lesser or even non-human. Christianity broke down the wall of division between ethnicities and promoted a message that all men could be brothers through Christ.”
³¹

The term
race
, in the way it attempts to define the distinctions between people groups, actually becomes twisted to the point of suggesting that people of different color are somehow different “kinds.” When Darwin wrote
On the Origin of Species
, the subtitle was
By Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.
Racism’s roots are derived from this kind of naturalistic mind-set. The Bible on the other hand states clearly that God made the nations from “one blood” (Acts 17:26
KJV
). This is why the Christian message offered hope to all nations through the gospel. Jew and Gentile, black and white, male and female were all equal in Christ (Galatians 3:28).

One of the most unique teachings of Christ is known as the parable of the good Samaritan. In response to His message of “love thy neighbor,” He was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Jesus responded with a story of a man who was robbed and beaten and left for dead beside the road. He told how religious people as well as the man’s own countrymen passed by and ignored him. The hero of the story was a man from Samaria, someone from a different, even despised
ethnicity
. He stopped and helped the man in need. We are told to imitate his actions and love others regardless of the color of their skin or their countries of origin.

9. L
IBERTY AND
F
REEDOM

Freedom
and liberty are some of the most precious gifts of the
gospel of
grace. Kings, pharaohs, dictators, and tyrants fill the historical landscape with legacies of their oppression over those they ruled. Certainly they were not all bad. Many of these leaders were just and righteous. But the concept of these leaders themselves being subject to a higher law came from the revelation of Scripture. Christ is revealed as King of kings and Lord of lords. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9–11), even the knees and tongues of kings. Everyone is accountable to God’s law. This is the foundation of freedom from the arbitrary tyranny that was commonplace throughout history. Personal freedom had been born. Indeed, liberty is a God-given idea.

Rodney Stark wrote about John Locke, one of the key foundational thinkers whose writings shaped America’s founding fathers. Locke put the spotlight on the real source of the freedom and liberty that distinguished America from every nation before it.

Many also express admiration for John Locke’s seventeenth-century works as a major source for modern democratic theory, seemingly without the slightest awareness that Locke explicitly based his entire thesis on Christian doctrines concerning
moral
equality. Most textbook accounts of the birth of our nation now carefully ignore the religious aspect, as if a bunch of skeptics had written these famous lines from the
Declaration of Independence
: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
³²