GREAT WORKS OF CHRISTIANITY
© Carlos Padilla – May 2022
Great Works of Christianity is a short journey which reminds us of the influence of Christianity in society in 2000 years of history, to our days. It does so in areas like charity, health, education, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, business, work, social and political society, human rights, and of course religion and theology. It is about a type of social and international engineering that touches the hearts and the minds of people and brings them close to Christ, to His personality, to the love of God. It is about the good works and good ideas to serve in loving the neighbour, which are part of the way of life of every disciple of Jesus Christ – Yahshua. In the “Judgment to the Nations (Matthew 25:31-46)” the Lord blesses those who: “Gave Him food when He was hungry, drink when He was thirsty, took Him in when He was a stranger, clothed Him when He was naked, visited Him when He was sick or in prison” But others did nothing. The key is that Jesus asks us to do it to the neighbour when is needed, because for Him is as if we did it to Him. If you want to be a good Samaritan, inspire with the Great Works of Christianity. Keep reading…
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY
Philosophy: the expression of Descartes “cogito ergo sun” describes man in his search for answers to the existential questions. Science explains how, but not why of things, and it is there where philosophy and even more religion is vital for the mind and the soul of man. Plato and Aristotle have had influence in great theologians like Saint Agustin of Hippo, or Saint Thomas Aquinas. But it is Christianity which has influenced philosophy and ethics. Since the Areopagus of Athens where Paul preached, to the areopagus of Internet, the Word of God continues to change lives and giving existential answers from God to man.
Theology: the “Queen of Sciences”, has forged its legacy since the councils of the primitive Church which provided the consolidation of the sane doctrine, which could identify the Canon of the Bible, leaving aside writings without inspiration, until the Protestant Reform, which returned the Church to the Sacred Scripture of which it had separated. Today it is possible to know the true doctrine of the Bible even in theological seminaries for everyone and online, so that no one deceive you.
Religion: without a doubt, the influence of Christianity in religion is the more significant and different. Different from any other approach in the relationship with God because it is the only religion in which God offers to sacrifice for us, being the creator and giver of life, while is all the others it is to man that it is demanded what he has to offer. True Christianity, that which is based in the New Testament of the Bible, specifically in the Gospel of Salvation through the exclusive merits of Christ, and it gives as a fruit the forgiveness of sins, faith in His work on the Cross, resurrection from death for eternal life, and all if this by the grace of God who grants the faith needed to stop basing that relationship in an unending way of fulfilment of liturgies, promises, sacrifices and personal efforts unable to make us reach the holiness of God to enter in His heart and in eternal life. The good works prove that we love God and our neighbour, but they don’t buy salvation. The question is: Do you know Yahshua – Jesus Christ? https://www.yahshua.net/receiveChrist.htm
Literature: The Bible is the book of books more read of all times; its divine inspiration is evident for how it transforms the lives of millions of souls in history and for the fulfilment of the prophecies, without exception. God chose authors and translators. Cervantes: the Quixote is full of the influence of the Bible of Casiodoro de Reina, that reformed friar from the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo in Seville, persecuted by the Inquisition for providing the Gospel and the Bible in Spanish. The Confessions of Saint Agustin, mystical works of Teresa of Jesus or John of the Cross, Institution of the Christian Religion, of John Calvin, The Pilgrim, of John Bunyan, Mere Christianity of C.S. Lewis, The Normal Christian Live, of Watchman Nee, or works like Narnia of Christian inspiration for all the family, have enlightened the soul mind of its readers.
Culture: in the XVI century the Renaissance had its germ in a movement influenced by the Protestant Reformation in the sense of seeking for humanism and placing man in the centre, but it focused it so that man could come to God, because man is the object of the divine salvation. The situation of sin of man before God makes theologians to question the wrong path taken by the Catholic Church, and go to the Bible in vernacular tongs and for the people, a reform of the way of thinking in general that would change culture forever. In the XVIII and XIX centuries illustration would conclude that movement taking man to pure reason, to critical thinking and the search of knowledge which from Christianity was searching a way out from dogmatism, of intolerance, and that the Christian could know faith by himself, and prove what is truth. In our times the world has lived two world wars, the fall of communism, the industrial revolution, and the digital, with Internet, where everyone can know Jesus. http://www.yahshua.net/GospelCultures.htm
Classical music: Handel, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart or Mendelssohn composed great works of Christian worship, many of them almost exclusively in their devotion for God. Today, is not only classical music, but many music styles are created with the inspiration of praising our God, influenced by the Bible and the Holy Spirit Who moves us to it, as we read in the last Psalm, 150: “…Let everything that has breath praise the Lord; praise the Lord”. https://www.yahshua.net/Praise.htm
Christian art: Miguel Angelo (God creates Adam, or The Final Judgment), Raphael (The Virgin and the Child, or The Transfiguration), Leonardo da Vinci (The Last Supper), Salvador Dalí (The Christ of Saint John of the Cross), Bruegel the old (The Tower of Babel), Rembrandt (The Return of The Prodigal Son), no doubt contributed to reflect the glorification of God through art, great works that continue to impact the present spectator.
Architecture: cathedrals are a human expression to glorify the greatness of God, a Christian human intent to provide the Church with a common house of prayer that reaches the heavens. At the beginning the basilica with the plan of central nave and cross at the end has left the bases, with a mix of Romanic style as precursor, arriving to the basilicas from Constantine and Byzantium. After the gothic style is the great reflexion of Christian symbolism in architecture, with its grad stained coloured glass windows, to the floor plan in the shape of a cross and the buttresses, with the dome in the centre of the cross, it is the basic plan of every gothic cathedral in the world. You can see it in the cathedral of Seville, in the Sacred Family in Barcelona, in those at the Czech Republic, France in Notre Dame, Italy at the Basilica of Saint Peter, or in the cathedral of Milan, or in the one in Florence, and in Austria the Votive Church, as well as the English abbeys, like the one of Westminster. In Germany Protestantism inherited some cathedrals from the convert, but they would become more sober in their interior decoration. The character of Christianity as a religion more of the inner makes architecture to sometimes give more emphasis in the interior of the temples than to the exterior. Following would be the baroque movement more ornamented and used by Catholicism to add a lot of imaginary. In present time there are churches in modern buildings, but it is not an architecture dedicated only to a church as gothic was.
Education: Christianity has been the great enhancer of education, school or university: Oxford, Princeton, Harvard or Yale were founded by Puritan or Presbyterian Christians. Without a doubt the fact that the Protestant Reformation worked for the people to be able to read the Bible in their tong, as well as the invention of the printer and the distribution of didactic material, were base to improve and set systems of education based in Christian ethics and love for the neighbour. The basic concept is that a good Christian with good knowledge is better equipped to serve God and the Church better, as well as the world in which he lives, whether through the scientific, medical, educative, legal or the path of any profession, as well as prepare to high level the seminary students who will be pastors in the churches.
Business: man must glorify God with his work. This is why the protestant world in particular has been the foundation of the great progress that was in the protestant countries, due to the protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism of which Max Webber talks about in his book (not that one which only thinks of its benefit, without looking to people which is a business without scruples) but that of the company which provides work and give value to the world, and a benefit and purpose of its mission. The United States of America were founded with the Bible and its values, even if today they don’t recognize them as they use to. Christian philanthropists, business direction and administration, honesty, the transparent management of funds, and not to allow for corruption, are, not only the solid base of a company, business or job, but have been inspired by the ethics of the Bible.
Science and technology: Gregorian calendar incorporated the 4th of October 1582 pushed the date forward 10 days and became 15th of October of that year. It rules in all the world, being the dates of history measured from the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ – Yahshua BC and AD a system that substituted the Julian, to give a solar year of 365,2425 and provide leap years to compensate, and all of that despite the initial disagreement between the church of Rome of the time and scientists like Copernicus and Galileo in the dispute for the solar year, for the heliocentric theory in which the earth turns around the sun, and not the opposite. We know of the achievements of Christian scientists like Pascal, Bacon, Newton or Einstein, and a long list, many of them Nobel prices, that you may read in: https://www.yahshua.net/EvolutionCreation.htm and increase your knowledge in Science and Faith https://www.yahshua.net/sciencefaith.htm
Christian NGOs; and evolution of missions: In a previous study about the history of the “World Missions” https://www.yahshua.net/missions.htm we could enter in the depth in the Christian work that Jesus Christ called us to “Great Commission” which is focused in carrying the Gospel and make disciples to all the nations, and which includes helping the neighbour in the way, something the people of Israel put to practice. Now we focus in that second part, that of the good works, not forgetting the Gospel. Food banks, sheltering those homeless, pastoral emotional support, the Church and works of charity save millions to the governments, and offer the possibility to enrol helping in teams that serve families and society.
Mendicant orders, the monasteries, the convents, and other institutions have provided to the charity to others a pillar of society that all the world, whether believer or not recognizes, for the Christian heart cannot live without serving the neighbour and sharing the love of God, with the Gospel of Salvation, and with the immediate necessary help. Missionaries like William Carey, known as the father of modern mission, or Hudson Taylor in inner China. Both them as the great Christian army of charity in history, inspire new generations to continue the work of works, nor for merits of own salvation, but for love to the neighbour and for the glory of God.
Medicine: nursery and hospitals: History provides great contributions of the great Christian works, like the concept of hospital that we know (a word that comes from hospitality and hospice, where hotel comes from), from the first centuries by Christians, hospices and later their specialization for civilian population. In the same way, a Christian woman, Florence Nightingale, organized what we know as modern nursery, creating an hygienic protocol and of care of the sick, placing women who assisted in medicine in the place they deserved in the XIX century. The founder of the Red Cross, Dunant, also Christian followed the steps of his parents to help the neighbour. Salvation Army, or the hospital ships Mercy Ships provide surgery in the third world to the poor. Many Christians have taken care of lepers, blind, paralytics, mental sick, feeding the poor, advising those in prisons and with problems, and many times without resources. Today the world has the resources and the churches and Christianity keep giving the love of Christ from the good works.
Politics: Human Rights: abolition of slavery. We all know that the hymn “Amazing Grace” of John Newton, was the fruit of a transformed Christian heart, that of a slave trader called by God to achieve the abolition of slavery, he became a pastor and helped his friend, the British member of parliament William Wilberforce achieve it, after several proposals, in 1807. Christian ethics provided great achievements to politics, as this one.
Woman in society, her position was always discussed, but in Judaism and Biblical Christianity she receives the honour that God had given her from the beginning. Again the Christian Florence Nightingale achieved respect for the nurses and provided a system of health care aseptic, or Susan B. Anthony a Quaker who fought for the rights of women; Rosa Parks did not stand up for a white man to sit, as the bus driver asked her, which ended in Martin Luther King Jr. began the fifth for the rights, and we know its influence. Also the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta with the poor, and her influence on Catholics, as well as the missionary work of the Irish Amy Carmichel in India. Between these works we must stand out the special care in orphanages and the seeking of families of adoption that give love and purpose in live to those orphan children: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble…” James 1:27.
Prison ministry Prison Fellowship of Chuck Colson, advisor to Richard Nixon and accused in the Watergate case, served in prison and founded the ministry to help the prisoners that repent and come to know Christ, and their families. Others like Wintley Phipps, the famous evangelical singer invited by all White House presidents, helps children of prisoners. Other brothers of churches from the Theological Seminary of Seville, also visit prisoners with the love of Christ.
One of the Christian organizations that has had and has more impact in the world continues to be Samaritan Purse https://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/history/ which was founded by evangelist Billy Graham and which’s legacy is continued by his son Franklin. At present they even have a section for urgent help in natural tragedies, while they continue helping in all the world. Its inspiration followed the words of Jesus when He told the story of the Good Samaritan ¡Go and do likewise! Luke 10:25-37.
THE SILENT DAILY GOOD WORKS OF THE CHRISTIAN
Also, and in an individual way there is another mission of good works, maybe the most important of all although it cannot be seen at a glance, it does not have a name of missionary organization, nor structure, neither NGO, and is the one done every day by each Christian individually in a silent way, and of which no account is given in any registry, but that God carries in His heart and looks at from His throne. The help to the orphans and the widows, to the relative, to the friend, to the brother in Christ, to the neighbour, each prayer, gesture in a relationship, help, visit to the sick, to the prisoner, the financial aid to the one that cannot reach the end of the month, or cannot pay the electricity bill, or buy a present to his child on his birthday, all this is what changes society and the world. Those who plant trees, clean the beaches or the fields, try to avoid fires, recycle, care for the planet from their small contribution because it is the creation of God. All these could be called https://www.yahshua.net/super-christians who on the contrary than the superheroes do not call the attention, but are light of the world.
CONCLUSION
God’s love is the origin of the Great Commission, and the influence in the world of the Great Works of Christianity that we have seen, an agape love, the love to the neighbour which is the essence of the New Commandment: That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another! John 13:34-35. And that we believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ – Yahshua; John includes in his first epistle: 3:23.
Without a doubt there are more Christian influences than those referred in this resume, which is useful to us to remember our impact, whether when preaching Jesus Christ, or when we work, but what really matters is that all that we love in life, our dedication, the work, the way we treat others and the way we live in society, we do it for the glory of God. The greatest influence in history has been that of Christianity, and it has done so in all the fields that we have seen along this small journey.
I close the same way as I did in the first study about the Missions in the World, with the Text of Hebrews 13:15: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Amen.
