Christianity Changed the World Through Powerful New Ideas



Christianity grew from a tiny obscure group into the most powerful cultural, social, and intellectual force of all time.  Its rise was the most important development in the history of the human race. How could such a thing happen? 

I have given a number of reasons in my university lectures. But today let me give one that I have been dwelling on recently. Christianity possesses the most powerful ideas in human history, ideas that found themselves powerful in the minds and hearts of the people of the Roman Empire from 33 A.D. on.

Let’s consider five of these powerful, world-changing ideas:

Christianity held out the promise of eternal life which has been found in other religions but was especially powerful in the Christian community and contributed mightily to the growth of the church. Death was not the end. There was hope beyond the grave. This is a powerfully motivating idea down to the present. People who believe they are going to heaven are far more likely to sacrifice themselves on earth for the good of others. Christians tend to live more sacrificial lives than anyone else.

Another reason Christianity was world-transforming: Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. The uniqueness of Jesus has great power. In one of the first sermons of the Christian church Peter said, Neither is there salvation in any other. There is one name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Christians believed there was a heaven, you could have eternal life, but only Jesus could get you there. That was a powerful motivation for spreading the good news of the Christian faith.

One idea that helped produce astonishing growth in the early church was the Christian belief that you can have a personal relationship with God. I remember reading one of the greatest journalists of the past generation—Malcolm Muggeridge. In studying the life of Jesus he came to understand that he could have a personal relationship with Jesus that was different from one he could have with, say, Socrates.

Christians believe Jesus rose bodily from the dead and this is one of the most powerful ideas of all time. Christians were absolutely convinced of this, convinced enough to die for it. Death had been defeated. The greatest enemy had been conquered. When I was a college student I attended a symposium where a professor said there was no life after death.  I went up to him after his lecture and I asked him how he could know that. I’ll never forget his answer. He said, well, you look at a body and it looks, well, dead. Wow. How profound. I said from a logical standpoint the best way to determine life after death is for someone to die and then rise from the dead. He would then be an authority on the subject. So I asked the professor, Do you know of a religion whose founder rose from the dead? I do!

The ethical system of the early Christians was world-changing. It was a unique vision of right and wrong.  We have a remarkable letter preserved from a Christian who lived around 150 A.D. In it he said, “Christians dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.”  The early Christians believed in the sanctity of life, the equality of women, the value of all humans, including children and slaves. These ideas have become commonplace in our world because Christianity made them so. But in the beginning they were new, radical, and powerful.

Christian ideas are the most powerful in human history. I have recently completed a book, “Seven Ideas that Changed the World”, in which I elaborate on the power of Christian ideas. Just Google it or search for it on Amazon and it comes right up.

More powerful than all the armies that have ever marched is the power of ideas. And Christian ideas are the most powerful that have ever existed.