What If Jesus Christ Had Never Come To Earth?

What if Jesus Christ Had Never Come to Earth?

Pastor Eric J. Hanson

(with thanks to the late Dr. D. James Kennedy)

December 23, 2007

On this Christmas Sunday, we stop and reflect on the events that brought our Lord Jesus Christ to Earth to become the Savior of all who will put their trust in Him. Through the years, your pastors have considered many aspects of the Christmas story from this pulpit, from simply re-telling the story, to Greek word studies on various aspects of it, such as just what the star of Bethlehem was. We have looked at seemingly minor characters in this great pageant of God’s love, such as Anna and Simeon, and found out, that in God’s great plan, they were not minor after all.

Today we are going to do something different. We are going to look at the effects upon our World, if the Lord had not come to be born here and had not lived upon this planet which He holds together. I acknowledge with gratitude, the great help I received in preparing this message by viewing the Coral Ridge Ministries presentation that bears the same name as my sermon today. Dr. Kennedy, and those who now continue the great Coral Ridge ministry to our country, are heroes of the Faith. Now let’s get to the body of this message.

Secular Humanists, today’s so-called Secular Progressives, are quick to say that the Christian Faith is the biggest problem around. They blame many woes upon those who seek to follow the Lord. They are especially quick to paint true believers as ignorant, uneducated, anti-science, and easily commanded by our leaders. Followers of Christ are mischaracterized as intolerant of all others, and quick to launch a middle ages style crusade.

In the face of these falsehoods, it is good to take a look at the actual changes the World has seen because of the message of Jesus Christ. Let’s look today at a few areas of great progress among people, because the Lord came to Earth.

We will not be considering the matter of eternal salvation or damnation in this little study. Those subjects have been explored many times from this pulpit. Today we are looking instead at the human condition as it is experienced in this life. Let’s go there now.

Science

A favorite charge hurled against believers in Jesus Christ is an “anti-science” card. The reality is far different. The founders of modern science, almost all of them, were devout believers who were motivated by and informed faith to investigate creation. They sought to think God’s thoughts after Him, and thus to discover divine design and logic in nature.

Francis Bacon, who is credited as being the father of modern science, said that there are two books essential to our understanding of God’s mind. These two are the holy Bible and the book of nature.

Critics of the Faith are quick to hold up the Catholic Church’s opposition to part of the work of Galileo Galilei, as proof that religion is anti-science. The truth here, however, is the Galileo himself was a devout believer. That which he opposed, was Roman Catholic dogma, not the teaching of the Bible. The Roman Church taught that the Earth is stationary and that the sun and stars move around it. The Bible does not teach this. Galileo reproduced the work of Copernicus, and confirmed that the Solar System is indeed heliocentric. (Sun-centered) rather than Earth centered.

A quote from Galilleo, which the humanists never mention is this: “The Holy scriptures may not err. Expositors and commentators on the scriptures may err in many ways.” This Godly man, who was looking for divine design, also founded physics, and formulated several other important scientific foundations in fields ranging from ballistics to determining specific gravity, to measuring temperature.

Strong Christian believers who made great scientific progress also include such people as the following:

Louis Pasteur (Bacteriology)

Johan Kepler (Celestial Mechanics)

Lord Kelvin (Energetics)

Blaise Pascal (Geometry and calculations)

Joseph Lister (Antiseptics)

Robert Boyle (Chemistry)

Samuel Morse (Telegraphy)

Isaac Newton (Calculus and Dynamics)

Newton, noting the exact distance of the Earth from the Sun, said that this did not simply happen by chance, nor did the laws, such as gravity, which regulate the universe. Newton is acknowledged by many, to have perhaps possessed, the greatest scientific mind ever.

The Christian Faith and the Scriptures gave the impetus for modern Science to arise. Hinduism could never have produced he scientific method. It is riddled with fatalism and a cyclical view of reality. Tribal religions, which see little local deities in control of everything, could never have produced modern science. The whole focus of Islam is struggle and warfare to rule the World. Islam also does not teach the Genesis truth that people are created in God’s image and are commanded by God to subdue the Earth and rule over it as good and wise stewards.