If Jesus Had Not Been Born

If Jesus Had Not Been Born

Imagine the result if some powerful hand suddenly erased from the earth every trace of the influence of Jesus upon humanity.

In the great art museums of the world, every masterpiece based upon Christian themes would be gone. Michael Angelo's fabulous David, Moses and the Pieta would be missing. His glorious panorama in the Sistine Chapel would be erased. So would DaVinci's Last Supper, Raphel's Madonna, Van Dyck's Christ and the Tribute Money and Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son

From the world of music all the great Christian hymns would be gone. There would be no Handel's Messiah. Isaac Watt's Joy to the World and Charles Wesley's Hark the Herald Angels Sing would have vanished. Every Negro Spiritual would be missing.

From the world of architecture all church buildings would be gone, including the great and spectacular cathedrals such as Notre Dame, Westminister Abbey and St. Peter's.

The shelves of the libraries of the world would stand half empty if every book relating to Christ and his religion were removed. The great literary classics would be filled with blank pages where formerly were references and allusions to Christ and his teaching. The writings of Dante, Milton, Goethe, Browning, Tennyson and Dickens would be gone or mutilated. The works of multitudes of poets and moral teachers would be missing.

Most hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and unwed mothers would have vanished.

Many of our greatest schools would have disappeared.

From the founding documents of our nation and states many salient statements would be excised.

No missionaries would have gone to our primitive and pagan ancestors not only to evangelize them but to bring civilization to them as well. Many ethnic and tribal groups would still have no written language since missionaries often did that for them.

There would be no New Testament to inspire and uplift us, to help us reform our lives, to help us perceive the better way to life and prepare for death.

There would be no leavening influence of churches helping people find a better, more noble way of life, strengthening marriages, caring for orphans and other poor people, consoling and caring for the bereaved.

Most homeless shelters and relief stations would be gone. What a dark dreary world it would be. No one with a sane mind would want to live in a Christ-less world.

Consider the value of Christ's message. He taught us the sacredness of all human life. The world in which he was born practiced infanticide, suicide, slavery, brutal gladiatorial games for public entertainment. It lived by the iron rule of might makes right. He taught us the value of the spiritual aspect of our lives and the need to live on a higher, more noble plane. He showed us the nobility and worth of women. In the first century world they were generally considered the property of their father or husband, with no personal rights. He taught us the brotherhood of the human race, all created by a common Father and in his image. He taught us to love our neighbor as our self. He showed us the loving nature the God we serve. Not the cruel, blood-thirsty gods of the pagan world. In his Sermon on the Mount he set forth the greatest moral/ethical code ever known to man. In himself he gave us a perfect example to follow. By his death and resurrection he made it possible for us to be freed from the fear of death. He pulled back the curtain to reveal to us life beyond the grave and the hope of immortality. He taught us how we could have forgiven for our sins and be saved.

An anonymous author rightly concluded, "all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that have ever ruled, together have never affected the life of man upon this earth like this one solitary personality." Secularists still rage against Jesus as their kind have done for centuries past. His past enemies are long forgotten, but the Son of God born of Mary has more followers than ever before.

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