NOTES ON HOW THE GOSPEL CHANGED THE WORLD

.How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news! (Romans 10:15).

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sigh to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:15-18).

For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).

My thoughts have not been refined on this topic so they might sound a little awkward when you read them--feel free to comment, though I'm sure that Husker Red will comment in any case.

Literally, the word "gospel" means, "Good message."  Now what is a good message to some is not a good message to others.  Those who have a vested interest in keeping things as they are do not welcome a message that can be life-changing!  When a member of a dysfunctional family begins to act positively and bring about change in the family, one other member of the family will always undermine and sabotage the functioning family member so that nothing will really change.

It is important to understand that concept as I talk about how the gospel changed the world.  Significant positive change will never happen without opposition, so it is understandable that the first Christians faced great opposition and persecution as they began to live their lives for Christ.

But the gospel about Jesus Christ really did change the world!  I have been perusing a book my son Paul gave me called, The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark.  Having been through a Bible College church history class and a seminary church history class, I thought I knew a lot about church history, but Dr. Stark gave me a few things to think about.  My thoughts written here are reflections from reading his book.

The first Christian missionaries first went to the Greco-Roman cities.  Because city walls were expensive to build, they limited expansion.  Thus, the population behind them became very dense with densities approaching modern-day Calcutta and Bombay.  Add to that the animals that were required for transportation and business and crowding was intense.  The streets were less than 10 feet wide.  Roman law limited the upward limit of housing to about 60 feet--these houses frequently collapsed.  There was no privacy.  A family might have only one room.  Though sewers were built, they were for the wealthy, otherwise they were open pits.  Those who found the stairs to steep and the journey too long to the pit simply emptied the contents of the chamber pot on to the street.  Good water was very scarce as well, so a bath seldom, if ever, occurred for the poor.  Crime rates were extremely high so venturing out after dark was extremely dangerous.  All of this needed to be said so that it is understood that disease was rampant and life was hellish behind the city walls.  The average life expectancy was less than thirty.  Adding to this was the different ethnicities in the city.  In Antioch, the fourth largest city in the empire, there were 18 different ethnic divisions. It was into this environment that Christians brought the gospel.  The result of the gospel was a culture that made life in the city more stable and tolerable because the gospel is about God and the life to come!

First, the good message says that God loves people.  The simplicity of John 3:16 was astounding to those of the first centuries of the Christian era.  The gods only demanded service, then they might do something good for the worshipper, but they did not care for the worshipper.  OTOH, the basis for human behavior is the love of our Father in Heaven.  The worship and the moral behavior He demands is for our good and our welfare.   The change in behavior resulting from the preaching of the gospel was the birth of a counter culture which brought a better life here as well as ensuring a life to come.

The gospel was good news to the children.  Both Plato and Aristotle taught that infanticide was legitimate state policy.  As a result, unwanted children were routinely exposed, left to die.  Of course, it was Christian teaching that the killing of innocent life is murder.  There were two kinds of people who picked up exposed infants to care for them, those from the pagan temples who reared them to be prostitutes and the Christians who took their faith seriously.

The gospel was good news for women.  It might seem strange that the life expectancy for a woman was shorter in those times than for men, but there were reasons for this.  In the Roman world there were about 135 men for every 100 women.  Reasons for a higher female mortality rate were infanticide, females were not as highly valued as men, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion.  Only the women of Sparta in the ancient world enjoyed much higher esteem and thus lived longer as well.  Christianity demanded sexual fidelity of men in marriage, condemned infanticide and abortion and entitled women with the same inheritance as men (Galatians 3:27-29).

The gospel was good news to the poor and the sick. Because of the gospel, they were seen as objects of God's love.  In 165 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, what is thought to be the first smallpox epidemic swept the Roman empire.  During the 15 year duration of the epidemic, between a quarter and a third of the population died of the disease.  Then in 251 a new and equally devastating epidemic that is thought to have been the measles swept over the empire again.  These mortality rates are of the book-of-Revelation proportions!  Depopulation was severe not only because of death, but because people of means could flee the plagues, but Christians did not flee.  They practiced their Christian faith, giving a drink of water in the name of Jesus, not fearing death because of the heavenly life to come.  Generally, the pagans left the sick to die, but Christians nursed the sick.  The gospel gave meaning to their work because they viewed heaven as their destination and the epidemic was merely schooling for the life to come.  The gospel says that God demonstrates his love through sacrifice and that Christians must demonstrate love in the same way.  The plagues did not "passover" the Christians, but their mortality was much less, about 20% less, due to simple nursing, food and water.  The pagans noticed this and many were converted as a result.

CONCLUSIONS: A culture is what it believes.  The more I study history the more I believe that had Christ not come into the world, it would be a vastly different place than it is now; not advancing beyond the "Greco-Roman" level of advancement because a sufficient foundation for advancement could not be built.  Without commenting on Islam, which is another study that verifies my conclusion, the pagan cultures could not explain or give reason why one should be charitable to the sick and the dying.  The emperor, Julian, who hated Christians, nevertheless admired their charity, tried to mobilize the pagans to charity, but could not because they had no reason to.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom