(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)
