Quote:
Originally Posted by Chuckychess
Some of those positive effects were part of post #44 in this thread:
JESUS CHRIST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN WORLD HISTORY:
This is from Massimo LorenziniÂ’s book A Reason for the Hope, pages 199-200:
Who is the most influential person in the history of the world? Nobody knows the exact
date of His birth, but His coming into the world split history into B.C. and A.D. He never
wrote a book, but more books have been written about Him than anyone else in history
and the only eye-witness accounts of His life and teachings have been translated into
more languages than any other writing (2,000+). He never painted a picture or
composed any poetry or music, but nobodyÂ’s life and teaching has been the subject of
output of music, plays, and all other forms of art. He never raised an army, but millions
of His followers have laid down their lives for Him. Every year about 330,000 are
martyred for identifying with Him.
During His public ministry, His travels were limited to an area about the size of New
Jersey, yet today His influence is worldwide. He never spoke to more than a few
thousand people, yet today His followers make up the largest religious group the world
has ever known. He had no formal education, but thousands of schools, colleges,
universities, and seminaries have been founded in His name. He never owned a
property, He had to borrow a boat to sail in, a donkey to ride on, and even a coin to use
for an illustration, but all around the world today thousands of hospitals, orphanages,
churches, pregnancy centers, and other buildings have been erected to carry out his
work.
Who am I describing? Jesus of Nazareth, of course. Of Him Napoleon said, “I know
men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other
person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar,
Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our
genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour
millions of men would die for Him.”
All that may be true (except the “he built an empire on love” crap; ask those who have been persecuted and/or put to death for various heresies about that) but again, it has much more to do with the historical and political development of world civilization than it does with anything Jesus himself said or did. People have done a whole bunch of things and given credit to Jesus, many of which fly almost directly in the face of what Jesus actually said and taught. Just one example: the Crusades. Christians fought a war and killed a whole bunch of Muslims ostensibly to free the Holy Land, but in reality to try to limit the expansion of the Muslim empire. Did Jesus not tell us to turn the other cheek when someone strikes our cheek? According to what Jesus actually said, when the Muslims started conquering lands previously belonging to Christian civilization, true Christians should have offered to give them more rather than fight.
At least that is the case to the extent we can know what Jesus actually taught. There actually are no direct eyewitness accounts of Jesus or his teachings. The gospels all were written by unknown authors decades after the purported date of the crucifixion. None of them were actually written by the apostles that they are named for. None of them were intended as historical accounts, but rather As theological propaganda furthering the aims of their actual authors. The gospel of John was written, for example to emphasize the point of view of Christ being primarily divine rather than human, a fairly widespread heresy in the early church. Mark was written primarily to further the view that Christ was a Jewish Messiah and his teachings should be spread solely among Jews. Luke was written from the opposite view, that ChristÂ’s teachings were meant to be universal. LukeÂ’s view obviously won out, but that was certainly a very heated point of content among early followers of Jesus.
All this does not even account for the fact that most of what is considered orthodox Christian teaching does not actually origins with Jesus, but rather was expounded by Paul of Tarsus. Modern Christian belief is really an amalgamation of the best understanding of what Jesus taught blended with the theology promoted by Paul. A big example of this is the new covenant theology, namely the idea that the Law of Moses as stated in the books of Exodus Deuteronomy and Leviticus no longer applies. That was an essential step to allow a schism between Judaism and Christianity, but it certainly is not what the gospels claim Jesus taught. Jesus taught that the old law was still the law. “Not a hot or a tittle” has changed.
You are looking at this from a Eurocentric viewpoint. That can hardly be helped given the widespread dominance of European culture around the world. However, Jesus is not that important to most of the billion people in India. He is not that critical to the lives of another billion or so living in China. There are many more living in Africa who really could not care less about Jesus. Some of these people were inspired by Muhammad. Some by the Buddha. Others by the writings of the Hindu scriptures. What evidence do you have that they are wrong to be so inspired and that you are correct? All you have are writings from a few thousand years ago that you believe to be holy. They have exactly the same.
