Wednesday, August 24, 2016

"THE FOUNDATION WHICH ELEVATES OUR SOCIETY"



(by Chaplain David C. Causey, USA - pictures added)
An article appeared yesterday (22 August 2016) about a 16th Century church which was built at the command of Hernan Cortez after he conquered the city of Cholula.  For the site of this particular church - La Iglesia de los Remedios - the builders chose the top of a prominent hill which rose abruptly from the surrounding plain.  This church has served the community for nearly 500 years. 
However, in 1910, when the town began excavating at the base of the hill to build a mental hospital, workers made a stunning discovery.  The hill, upon which the 500-year-old church was built, was no hill.  It was a monstrous pyramid.  In sheer volume it is the largest pyramid in the world, nearly 1500 feet wide at its base and 200 feet high.  Actually, the pyramid was a succession of pyramids built on top of each other by different rulers as the land changed hands from the Teotihuacans to the Olmec-Xicallancas to the Toltecs to the Aztecs.  Construction on it began about 300 BC.  By the time Cortez arrived the pyramid was so covered with dirt and vegetation that it was mistaken for a hill.  This mistake actually preserved it, for Cortez destroyed most of the other religious monuments in the area.
Something struck me about this story.  It dawned on me that the builders of La Iglesia de los Remedios had no idea that its foundation had been laid hundreds of years earlier - by the very religions which they repudiated.  They were completely ignorant of the fact that the religious devotion of pagans was responsible for lifting their Christian temple so high above the earth.
This is symbolic of what is now happening in our nation culturally.  But it is happening in reverse.  In post-Christian America the very mention of Christ or the church in public schools and universities conjures up images of intolerance, ignorance, book burnings, slavery, and lynching.
A steady drone of anti-Christian propaganda has blinded us to the positive influences of Christianity.  For instance, the very spread of Christianity resulted in the establishment of thousands of hospitals and charitable organizations worldwide (e.g. The Salvation Army – which assists nearly ten million families annually, the Red Cross, World Vision, Food for the Poor, Habitat for Humanity, etc.).  The abolitionist movements in both Great Britain and the United States were spear-headed by devout Christian believers.  In fact, two-thirds of the membership of abolitionist organizations in the US at the time of the Civil War consisted of Christian Clergy.   The modern Civil Rights movement began in the churches, not in academia or government or the media.  
From its beginning Christianity influenced culture in a positive way.  The rise of Christianity in the Roman world led to the cessation of such despicable practices like infanticide (i.e. the daily discarding of hundreds of newborns – mostly female), the bloody gladiatorial games, abuses of women (e.g. brutalizing women, widow burning, foot binding), atrocities against slaves, cannibalism, and the general disregard of human life.  Of course, by today’s reasoning Christianity was guilty of interfering with indigenous cultures and imposing its view of morality of others.  By today’s twisted logic it would have been better if all those human rights abuses, baby-killings, gladiatorial games, cannibalism, and the abuse of women had continued.  Perhaps that’s why, in a society which now repudiates Christianity, those very abuses are returning.
 Many Americans have also overlooked the fact that the concept of universal education and literacy likewise came from the Judeo-Christian faith.  Before the American Revolution John Adams made the observation that, in a very religious New England, an illiterate man was as rare as a comet.  Schools were everywhere, in every town, educating every child.  And they were all begun and operated by the various churches in colonial America.  In fact, the first 123 colleges in America were established by churches.  Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Brown Universities were all started by churches – some for the express purpose of training ministers of the gospel.
Nor should it be overlooked that the greatest scientists, from Francis Bacon onward, have predominantly been Christian believers.  Isaac Newton, Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, Lord William Kelvin, Johannes Kepler, Nicolaus Copernicus, Carolus Linnaeus, Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, Charles Babbage, Richard Owens, Max Planck, Gregor Mendel - and even Galileo Galilei – were all believers in the God of the Bible.  I should also mention that Galileo’s astronomical observations did not conflict in any way with biblical doctrine.  It only conflicted with the astronomical position first postulated by Claudius Ptolemy, a Greco-Egyptian astronomer, 1,400 years earlier.  The Roman Church had simply accepted Ptolemy’s prevailing view of the universe (a geo-centric view), and that’s where the conflict arose. 
In reality, the Judeo-Christian faith elevated society by proclaiming the value of human beings as created in God’s image, by teaching the brotherhood of all men, by defending women and children from abuses, by promoting education and literacy, by promoting a view of the universe that is governed by natural laws which the Creator Himself established, and by laying the foundations for law and government in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.  Would you believe that even the concept of three branches of government (legislative, judicial, and executive) comes from the Bible?  Check out Isaiah 33:22. 
In other words, our modern godless culture benefits from the foundation laid by the Judeo-Christian faith which preceded it.  All of us benefit from the values and faith of the Bible which we condemn as tyrannical.  Beneath our modern society lies a mighty, rock-solid pyramid – the Judeo-Christian faith.  Don’t be too quick to sweep it away.  All other foundations are shifting sand.
PRAYER:  Almighty and merciful Father, please bless the United States of America.  Please forgive our many sins.  Please heal our land of its divisions and its spiritual and moral sickness.  O God of our fathers, send forth Your Divine Spirit to turn our hearts to You in faith and repentance and to each other in love and reconciliation.  Please bless America and make her citizens spiritually sound and morally straight.  Raise America to true greatness and grant her supreme success as Your torch of freedom and Your instrument of peace throughout the world. Amen.
 (Information from:  http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/08/22/world-largest-pyramid-is-hidden-in-mountain-in-mexico.html; http://mexonline.com/cholula-pyramid.html; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHLioeL9dYk; http://www.faithfacts.org/christ-and-the-culture/the-impact-of-christianity; http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sciencefaith.html)

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