“Many today who disparage Christianity may not know or believe that, were it not for Christianity, they would not have the freedom that they presently enjoy. The very freedom of speech and expression that ironically permits them to castigate Christian values is largely a by-product of Christianity’s influences that have been incorporated into the social fabric of the Western world …  This freedom, similar to the freedom that Adam and Eve once had, ironically permits the possessors of freedom to dishonor the very source of their freedom.  As Fernand Braduel has so eloquently stated, ‘Throughout the history of the West, Christianity has been at the heart of the civilization it inspired, even when it has allowed itself to be captured or deformed by it.’

On the basis of the historical evidence, I am fully persuaded that had Jesus Christ never walked the dusty paths of ancient Palestine, suffered, died , and risen from the dead, and never assembled around him a small group of disciples who spread out into the pagan world, the West would not have attained its high level of civilization, giving it the many human benefits it enjoys today. One only needs to look to sectors of the world where Christianity has had little or no presence to see the remarkable differences.”1

1. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, (Michigan: Zondervan, 2001) 22-23 (Nook eReader version)