The Most Powerful Ideas of All Time



I was a Western civ professor for nearly forty years. So I have taught it hundreds of times. In fact, I just taught it last fall to a group of students overseas via Zoom. And year after year I began to notice that Western culture is a product of biblical ideas. Ideas that have been spread around the world by the Christian faith. It used to irritate me that my colleagues would trash the Bible and the Christian faith while being completely dependent on it for everything in their brains. 

The Bible contains the most powerful ideas in history. Without the Bible there would be no modern world. No Christian religion, no human rights, no U.S. constitution, no Scientific Revolution. No technological revolution. No women’s rights. No such thing as the rule of law. No ministries of care and compassion. I could list many other aspects of the modern world that only exist because God inspired a small collection of men to write His truths down in the Bible. 

One day at lunch an English professor was ridiculing the Bible and the Christian faith. I said to him, “Michael, did you know that every important idea in your brain comes from the Bible and your Christian culture?” He sputtered and muttered and acted thoroughly insulted. But what I said was true. The major ideas that have shaped the world have all come from the Bible and have been transmitted into Western Culture through the teachings of Christianity. One example of the awesome power of Jesus Christ is His ability to enter the minds of people who claim to despise Christianity.

So I decided to write a book about those ideas. Ideas on which the modern world is totally dependent. Ideas no one would believe had they not been revealed in the Bible. 

My book is entitled “seven ideas that changed the world.” I won’t go into all of them but let’s briefly consider two. The first chapter of the first book of the Bible contains the most powerful and important statement ever made about the human race. In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him.”

This is the most socially powerful statement ever made. Almighty God is telling us that every human life is sacred because each human is created in His image. This is sometimes called the sanctity of life, and virtually everyone in Western culture has agreed with this biblical doctrine. I discovered that the most angry atheist at my university believed that all humans had value. That we shouldn’t exterminate people just because they were disabled; that people of color are just as valuable as everyone else. The impact of this idea on modern life is beyond calculation. It has led to our entire human rights tradition. It’s where the concept of social justice arises. Without it there would be little or no compassion for the poor and disadvantaged. It is the single most powerful idea in the public square ever and it has never been believed by anyone not influenced by the Bible. It has been spread all over the world by the awesome power of Jesus Christ.

Let’s consider a second idea. It comes from the second half of the same verse. So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

This is the most important statement ever made about women. I have asked secular intellectuals many times if they believed in the equality of women. They always act insulted by my question. But I follow it up with this question: “Where did you get that idea? From Charles Darwin?” Nope. That idea comes from the Bible, specifically Genesis 1:27.

In my book I elaborate on these two ideas and add five more. These seven ideas come exclusively from the Bible and no one has ever believed these ideas except people exposed to the Bible. These Bible ideas are then spread around the world through the awesome power of Jesus Christ.

So I would encourage you to read my book. You can access it on Amazon. Just search for the title, Seven Ideas that Changed the World, and it comes right up.

Thank you for listening. Here on my YouTube channel I have many more videos on the same theme. May our God continue to mightily bless you through his truth.