On my Christmas list this year was the book Dominion by Tom Holland. It is subtitled, How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. When I first came across it online the title intrigued me as did the reviews, having received critical acclaim in both Christian and non-Christian circles. The prominent Christian author and pastor, Tim Keller, wrote, "It is hard to overstate the importance of Holland's book...". Ross Douthat of the New York Times called it "a galloping tour of Christianity's influence across the last 2,000 years" and captured the overall argument of the book by quoting from its pages calling the Christian faith, "the most influential framework for making sense of human existence that has ever existed."
Christianity's influence on the world is wide and deep. The other two Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam, have their own calendar years (5783 for the Jews, 1444-1445 for the Muslims) but both would defer to AD (Anno Domini - the year of our Lord) 2023 very shortly. There are countless other examples in Holland's book.
From my own experience, just last week my church pastor recalled his years of ministry in Muslim Kuwait. Christianity is legal there but proselytism isn't - and yet every Christmas season the malls put up big Christmas trees and Christian Christmas carols are played throughout the concourses. You can be arrested for giving someone a Christian Bible in Muslim Kuwait but no one seems bothered by "Joy to the World" or "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!" with their Christ-centered worship messages blaring from the speakers.
Moses led thousands of his enslaved countrymen out of Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land. King David slew his tens of thousands and Muhammad introduced Islam to the Arab world with the Qur'an and the sword. By contrast, Jesus shared His gospel with 12 apostles of low means with most of them deserting Him when He died a criminal's death on a Roman cross. Not the kind of script normally written for powerful revolutionaries. And yet, the Western world at least, instinctively patterns itself on His teachings and legacy. The thinking person must wonder why this is.
Holland cites many examples throughout history of people groups acting "Christianly" to advance their causes - in his words, "From Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to #MeToo". Many have employed the Christian ethos - some legitimately, others hypocritically - to achieve their ends and there are no signs of this stopping anytime soon. Many are the special interests that seek gain on the motifs of oppression and martyrdom and many are the counterfeits. Whatever the motivations, twisted though they may be, all pay homage to Jesus Christ through imitation, however subtle the approach. Hypocrisy is the compliment that vice pays to virtue, as they say.
It is assumed everywhere that we live in a post-Christian world, and Christians, fretting over depleted church memberships, tend to agree. According to a pre-Covid survey by Faith Communities Today (FACT) in the U.S., the median number of attendees of evangelical congregations has dropped to 65 from 137 in the year 2000. Interestingly, the culture is not entirely to blame; the Church herself is also at fault. A similar survey conducted in Canada found that 65% of Evangelical leaders don't make evangelism a priority. In fact, only 9% considered evangelism a high priority.
Personal faith in Christ may not be in vogue these days (even in the Church) but the Western world isn't quite ready to quit Christendom (read: the Judeo-Christian ethic) in its many forms, according to Holland. The culture was formed over centuries and it won't be changed in a generation because of the rise of self-seeking special interest groups or "the Nones", meaning those who subscribe to no religious beliefs whatsoever.
Christians should be more concerned about widespread biblical illiteracy and the watering down of the faith among their own numbers, and not so much worried about the Judeo-Christian ethic's place in society. Sadly, many believers have forgotten the lesson from 2 Kings 6:15-17. God hasn't gone anywhere even if the Church, gripped by the fear of man, has a siege mentality. His help is near and His way is still the best thing for the human race on every level. Always has been. Always will be.
