What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?

Published December 24, 2010 in the Lynchburg Ledger 

Because of revisionist history, religious bigotry and just plain bias, there is a great misunderstanding between the principles of Christianity and the religion of Christianity. 

Today, we see tremendous anti-Christian hostility in our institutions of learning, the media and the entertainment industry.  The pagan beliefs of people of influence in these institutions have succeeded in spreading much false and misleading information. 

There is no better time than the Christmas season when the world pauses to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, on whom the Christianity was founded, to set the record straight.

Christianity is better described as a relationship, not a religion.  Just as if being born in a garage wouldn’t make you an automobile, being born in a Christian family or even attending church doesn’t make you a Christian.

A person becomes a Christian by recognizing he is a sinner, believing that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and accepting the salvation offered by committing his life to following Jesus. 

We can contrast the difference between Christianity and Islam because the God of the Bible sent His Son to die for us.  The god of Islam has the sons of his followers die for him.

Various Christian denominations address the concept of salvation differently.  Romans 10:9 declares, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

In John 3:3, Jesus said, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  In John 4:16, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Unfortunately, many churches today are preaching a “social gospel,” “liberation theology,” and various other perversions of the gospel of Christ, leading many astray. 

A Christian does not do good works to gain salvation, but does good works because they have salvation, called justification.  They do good works because they desire to please God and this is called the process of sanctification.

The principles of Christianity transcend the religious rituals and traditions of the various churches and have profoundly impacted world history for the past 2,000 years.  It is possible to adopt Christian principles in one’s life without actually becoming a Christian and this is what leads to much confusion.

The Christian church arose following the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a pagan environment that was the Roman Empire, where slavery was a long accepted institution and women were second-class citizens. 

Early believers desired only to live their lives in accordance with Christian principles and had no expectation of transforming society, but that is exactly what happened.

Over the next 2,000 years, the principles of Christianity were responsible for transforming much of society from a pagan existence to the society we know today.

For example, in pagan Roman society, the killing of unwanted infants was a common practice.  Deformed boys and unwanted girls were abandoned to die.  This resulted in males outnumbering females by as much as 30 percent. 

Because of the Christian principle that man is created in the image of God, early Christians would rescue these discarded infants and raise them as their own.  The early pagan society soon took note of the Christian compassion and love shown to these children.

Christianity was born into a world teeming with slaves.  Slavery was accepted as a part of life, and even Plato and Aristotle both approved of the institution.

It was the early Christians like Justin Martyr who first deplored the selling of children for prostitution, a form of slavery.  “Pretty boys” were sold for homosexuals, and girls were sold to brothels.  St Patrick rejected all forms of slavery in the fifth century.

However, it was not until just after American independence that a voice against slavery was raised in the British Parliament.  William Wilberforce, a devout Christian, made it his life’s work to abolish slavery, and indeed on July 29, 1833, slavery was ended throughout the British Empire.  Wilberforce died three days later.

In America, Christians also labored to end slavery and operated the Underground Railroad, which helped many slaves escape to the north.  However, there were also Christians who supported the institution of slavery.  It took a civil war and the death of over a half million men to settle the issue.

Slavery still exists today in Muslim countries such as Sudan, where Christians are forced into slavery even today.  The sex slave business is also thriving and is becoming more prevalent here in the U.S. as our national morality declines.

Besides emancipating women and slaves, Christianity is responsible for the first true hospitals.  Many still bear their Christian names, such as: St. Elizabeth’s, Holy Cross, St. Jude’s and Virginia Baptist.

Christianity is responsible for most early colleges, such as: Harvard (1638), Yale (1701), Princeton (1746) and Dartmouth (1754).

Christianity showed the world how to minister to the poor and raise them up.  It taught the world the ideals of law, peace, and justice and individual dignity.

Today however, much of what Christianity has given to mankind in under attack from those who would have us return to a pagan society.  The recent vote in Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” is a prime example of what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “defining deviancy down.”

So this Christmas, we would do well to pause and reflect just how much the birth if Jesus, which is the only real meaning for the season, has meant to the civilized world.  Try to imagine what a pagan world might be like if Jesus had never been born and Christian principles had never been widely accepted even by non-Christians.  Also, picture what society may be like in the future as we become more and more of an anti-Christian nation.