Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Christian History of the West

Europe has been far removed from her cultural Christian mooring for a long time. To the best of my knowledge, one could not in any sense of the word consider the European culture a Bible culture. The days of the prominence of Christianity have disappeared into her history.


America had Christian prominence in her heritage that does continue to this day. However, while there is a huge presence of Christian churches in America, there is currently little to no affect upon culture at large. Christianity has become a private faith with a few leaders championing public issues from a Christian perspective, but by and large it is not the denominate public worldview of the nation today.


Just the same, both Europe and America have in their history a Christian heritage that did influence much of the progress of the West. In America specifically, our Republic was fashioned by men who had a strong Christian worldview. They built the Constitution upon the principals that man was created to be free and from that freedom we can choose to elect representatives that we permit to govern us. The need for checks and balances of those representatives into an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branch was because the Founders believed in the fallen nature of man. They believed that people ought not to be permitted to rise up to be long time rulers of the people for the propensity of power to corrupt is in the hearts of man.


Alexis De Tocqueville, a Frenchman, visited America to learn about the strength and prosperity of a post Revolutionary War America. He found that America’s strength was not where he expected to find it, but in her churches, in her citizens who labored to self-govern themselves to protect the freedom of future generations.


There are a myriad of quotes by the Founders of the importance of the people to adhere to Biblical morality in effort to protect the Republic form of government for this government can only work for a people who are intent upon self governing themselves without the need of overbearing laws which restrict citizens due to the numbers of people who do not practice self-governance.


The reason we look at the past today with eyes that cannot see the Christian heritage, is that it so ingrained in our culture without the education of how it came to be that it appears to be common sense rather than a way of life influence by a revelatory book. In fact, Jefferson’s wording of “self-evident” in the Declaration is rather in correct, because these principals were not ones they devised, but ones they accepted from Scripture. The reason for the “self-evident” wording was that the prominent philosophy of the day said that things that were true were self-evidently known, so that word was used to emphasize the truth of the principals rather than how they were derived.


The way to see the stark difference between the principals accepted as “self-evident” in the West and the rest of the world is to observe the non-Western cultures. In India, equality is not self-evident—there is a cast system that does not value equality. In China, the retiring head of state in 2002, Jiang Zemin, was asked what he wanted to see for the future of China. He responded, “I would like for my country to become a Christian nation.” He could see that the West was Christianized and he wanted the results we have.


I, however, think our results, while good as America is the nation of hope to many nations, can be better. I think the Church in America is not very involved in helping her become strong again in a way that is full of love and not full of moralizing rebuke. In a way that provides viable solutions to the problems of this nation rather than just being focused on a few moral issues such as abortion. If we really believe we are in relationship with the living God and have Him living through us we ought to be more relevant to our current economic and national problems than we are. We ought to be able to come up with answers that really make a difference and help stabilize the nation without any hidden agenda—just as a gift—and not as a method of evangelism.


Secularization will not stabilize the Western culture. The Kingdom of God can do this, but there is not much reason to say it if the Church can’t show it and show it in a way that is respectful to the other cultures in this nation and to the government of this nation. We need to come along side the people who are in power and ask how we can help, instead of throwing stones from the safe distance of our homes via our facebooks and blogs. We have to be willing to help at all levels starting with the neighbor next door and working our way up to serve Washington in an honorable and helpful manner.


A shift in this direction is already sweeping through the Church in this post-Christian era that has great potential to become a healing balm to the nations. A Church is mobilization to not just aid the American nation, but to be for all nations to come into the freedom and equality that is available in the Kingdom of God. This won’t be a movement of the “religious right” but one marked by honor and love like never before. What a different world this can be when people express the love and honor of the Father without reservation.

7 comments:

CyberKitten said...

karla said: Europe has been far removed from her cultural Christian mooring for a long time.

Thankfully, yes - but not for long enough....

karla said: To the best of my knowledge, one could not in any sense of the word consider the European culture a Bible culture.

Thankfully not.....

karla said: The days of the prominence of Christianity have disappeared into her history.

Hopefully never to return.....

karla said: I, however, think our results, while good as America is the nation of hope to many nations, can be better.

Now that's almost funny... America as the hope of the world [snigger]

karla said: Secularization will not stabilize the Western culture.

Stabilize? In what way? Are we in need of stabilization?

karla said: A Church is mobilization to not just aid the American nation, but to be for all nations to come into the freedom and equality that is available in the Kingdom of God.

Would that include the freedom to believe in different things? Would it also include freedom *from* religion as well as freedom *of* religion? Also I don't see much in the way of equality where women are concerned in all of the major religions......

Karla said...

Cyber "Stabilize? In what way? Are we in need of stabilization?"

The economy is one sign of a lack of stability. The rise of terrorism in our midst is another.

Cyber "Would that include the freedom to believe in different things? Would it also include freedom *from* religion as well as freedom *of* religion?"

Yes.

Cyber "Also I don't see much in the way of equality where women are concerned in all of the major religions......"

The Bible does provide a firm support of this, but it is not always practiced as it ought to be. I've done post on this previously.

CyberKitten said...

karla said: The economy is one sign of a lack of stability. The rise of terrorism in our midst is another.

There are indeed a lot of problems with Capitalism that cause instability in the markets. These could certainly be adressed.

By 'terrorism in our midst' do you mean the home-grown variety or the imported kind? The imported kind can probably be reduced by not killing so many innocent people in far-away places..... At least that would be a start...

karla said: The Bible does provide a firm support of this, but it is not always practiced as it ought to be.

Indeed. Does the Bible give firm support for total equality? Or is it more of a 'separate but equal' kind of thing?

Karla said...

Cyber “There are indeed a lot of problems with Capitalism that cause instability in the markets. These could certainly be adressed.”

There are problems with socialism and communism the word over too.

Cyber “By 'terrorism in our midst' do you mean the home-grown variety or the imported kind? The imported kind can probably be reduced by not killing so many innocent people in far-away places..... At least that would be a start...”

I mean all of it.


karla said: The Bible does provide a firm support of this, but it is not always practiced as it ought to be.

Cyber “Indeed. Does the Bible give firm support for total equality? Or is it more of a 'separate but equal' kind of thing?”

No people are inferior to another, all are equally created in God’s image and all are wonderfully made.

boomSLANG said...

Same pattern; different day.

Mike aka MonolithTMA said...

Another friend of mine posted something about the pledge of allegiance and the flag and all that and how God should remain in the pledge. This kind of patriotism that tries to claim God is on one nations side or another smacks of idolatry.

Which part of the Bible did the idea for a constitutional republic come from again?

Karla said...

Mike “Another friend of mine posted something about the pledge of allegiance and the flag and all that and how God should remain in the pledge. This kind of patriotism that tries to claim God is on one nations side or another smacks of idolatry.”

It’s not that God is on the side of one nation over another, but that we need to be on His side, the side of good, righteousness, etc. It’s like saying I’m for God, but it is not saying that God will be on my side if I pick a fight with my neighbor. If I do that I demonstrate the falseness of my statement of being for Him in the first place.


Mike “Which part of the Bible did the idea for a constitutional republic come from again?”

It’s not that the Bible specifies a particular form of government as being the right one. It doesn’t. It is that the Founding Fathers decided upon such a model because they thought it best fit the equality and liberty of man with the balances of power in place for the fallen corrupt nature of man. The principals that are Biblical are not that we ought to have a Republic, but that man ought to be free and that we ought to have the power to consent to those that govern us. Moreover, that there is an equality of man that ought to be valued and taken into account. And that the fallen nature must not be ignored and people be permitted to rise to power without any checks and balances. Equality was not well practiced in those days, but the principal was there that our nation grew into.