What is truth and is it important?

The famous words of the Roman governor of Judea Pontius Pilate were “what is truth?” Jesus Christ, God in the flesh and the only person in the whole world who could have told Pilate what “truth” was told him that he had the truth but Pilate didn’t care and this was the greatest crime of all—because the one person who could have given him the truth was standing right before him. And like Pilate most people do not care about the truth but more importantly we have lost a sense of the absolute truth. Everyone believes what “they believe” is the truth but most do not use coherent arguments to understand if what they believe is logical.

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”  Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” – John 18:33-38

When Jesus says “My kingdom is not of this world” He was showing Pilate that his kingdom and the people who would be in his kingdom do not belong to this world, because this world is going to die, along with everything in it. When Jesus comes back to this world, he will burn it and destroy it and there will be no America, Europe or nation left; because this world will pass away and be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth--which will never pass away, because it will be eternal. Pilate is confused by this statement because he is thinking in human terms; as if Jesus will rule as a political kingdom would.  Jesus then tells him that he was born to give witness to the truth and Pilate says “What is truth?” Jesus says everyone who listens to him knows the truth. What is truth? According to Webster’s Dictionary, truth is “conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be.” Truth is the most important question that anyone can ask, because without it you have only lies and the father of lies is the Devil.  Everyone who does not believe the truth belongs to the father of lies.

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. – John 8:34

Today we don’t like talking about the truth. In fact we came up with a way to completely disregard the truth in order not to offend anyone. This new way to disregard the truth and replace it with a lie which isn’t so offensive is called political correctness or PC. It is politically incorrect to suggest that Jesus ever said anything like:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6 

This is an absolute statement, that is, it makes a claim that if you do not follow “the way” of Jesus (Jesus is truth itself) than you will not go where Jesus is going but go to the place which was made for the “Devil and his angels.” Jesus is saying that he is the representation of truth itself and Buddha can’t save you, Krishna can’t save you, Allah can’t save you, not even your own good works can save you—only Jesus can save from people going to hell. Do you think that might be offensive? Yes to those who do not believe it, this is certainly offensive. The bible makes no claim to be politically correct, in fact it is the very opposite. The bible even says that its message is foolishness to those who do not believe the Truth. 

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18

The Truth of Christianity is both inclusive and exclusive; it is exclusive because it claims to be the only Truth and that there is no other “way” and it is inclusive because no matter whom you are and what you have done, you will be accepted as equal in the body of Christ. Truth by definition excludes something, because something cannot be and not be in same sense and in the same relationship but I will come back to that in a moment. The reason why political correctness was invented was to muddle the truth.

What did the serpent say to Eve in the Garden of Eden? “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” The serpent (Devil) wants to confuse us and by failing to trust the Truth which is God, we make God out to be a liar. Jesus was found without sin; God does not lie.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. – 1 Peter 2:22

Political Correctness was started by a group of Marxists around World War 2. The Communists discovered that in order for their ideology to flourish, they needed a better strategy and so they invented a way to go around the truth. Instead of using economics as Karl Marx had envisioned, they would use the culture. The Communists understood that their beliefs would never be accepted in society if they said what they believed outright—so they hid their beliefs behind a façade of lies and half-truths. Take for instance the feminist movement; they could attack western culture for its oppression against women but they would never mention how women were treated in ancient China or any other society—because the attack was never meant to bring out the truth (although for some people It was), it was to criticize western culture and ultimately destabilize society as a whole.

They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. – Romans 1:25

Truth is embodied in a person (Jesus) and people have the ability to think and it is this ability which is least used. As an example, let’s say someone says “how can God be truth and why can’t their be multiple ways to God?” The reason God is truth is because there is no other being which we can rationally think about which is “higher” than God. When I say “higher,” I mean more omnipotent and all-knowing as well as omnipresent. The reason is that God is God and there is nothing and no one which has his point of view; clarity, truth and understanding.  Whether you look to science, logic or morality, there is an absolute truth claim to ideas which can be known. Logical absolutes exist in science and we can understand logical absolutes in the coherence of an argument itself by looking to the three laws of logic. The three laws of logic are:

1. The Law of Identity
2. The Law of Non-Contradiction
3. The Law of Excluded Middle

The law of identity states that A is A. An Apple is an Apple. In other words, something is what it is. If something exists, it has a nature, an essence. For example, a book has a front and back cover with pages. A car has four wheels, seats, doors, windows, etc. A tree has branches, leaves, a trunk, and roots.  This also means that anything that exists has characteristics.  We recognize what something is by observing its characteristics.  You know that a tree is a tree because you see its branches, leaves, a trunk, etc. 
     Furthermore, if something has an identity, it has a single identity. It does not have more than one identity.  In other words, if something exists it has a set of attributes that are consistent with its own existence.  It does not have a set of attributes that are inconsistent with itself.  Therefore we can easily conclude that a cat is not a parachute. An Apple is not a race car. A tree is not a movie.
     The law of non-contradiction tells us that A cannot be both A and not A at the same time and in the same sense. In other words, something (a statement) cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same way. We use the law of non-contradiction constantly in discussions and debates because we are naturally able to recognize when someone is contradicting himself.  If I were to tell you that yesterday I went shopping and then later I told you that yesterday I did not go shopping, you would be correct in saying there was a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when one statement excludes the possibility of another and yet both are claimed to be true. Since we know that both cannot be true, we see a contradiction.  From this principle we can conclude that truth is not self-contradictory. This is a very important concept. Let me repeat it. Truth is not self-contradictory.  
     The law of excluded middle says that a statement is either true or false. For example, my hair is brown. It is either true or false that my hair is brown. Another example: I am pregnant. The statement is either true or false. Since I am a male, it is not possible for me to be pregnant.  Therefore, the statement is false. If I were a female, it would be possible for me to be pregnant (given normal bodily conditions). A woman is not "kind-of" pregnant. She either is or is not pregnant - there is no middle position.  The law of excluded middle is important because it helps us deal in absolutes. This is particularly important in a society where relativism is promoted and truth statements are denied.

As people who have studied most religions know, they are not just different but fundamentally different and most claim to be the one “truth.” Therefore there is no such thing as all roads leading to God. It says in Acts that:

 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. – Acts 4:12 

That is an absolute claim and people who think morality can exist apart from God commit the same error. Morality must come from somewhere; otherwise it would only be someone’s opinion. C.S Lewis says in his book Mere Christianity “Isn't it amazing that even young children have a sense of right and wrong, even at an early age? This inherent morality seems to be already present at the earliest stages of childhood. Just watch any children play together and you'll hear, "That's not fair!", "You cheated". There is an innate sense of justice that adults also have. This internal morality is universal and is found in all cultures and nations and peoples groups. For example, most cultures universally believe it is wrong to kill innocent people. This is found in agnostics, atheist and all of the world's major religions, including Christianity. Where did this in-built sense of morality come from?” Lewis understood that without a moral absolute, such as “Thou shall not steal” than we are simply giving our own opinions. Now-a-days, most people think that tolerance is a far better road to drive on than truth. Tolerance is the cherished word today. Thou shall not judge is the most known bible verse in America today and for good reason. Yet we fail to realize that without judging, we wouldn’t even be able to understand that judging is wrong! When the Bible says do not judge, it means that you should not judge without first judging yourself and in another sense it means do not ever condemn someone—like saying “you are going to hell and there is nothing you can do about it!” This is evil, because it assumes that you know without a shadow of a doubt where that person is going after death but I digress, tolerance is made to be more important than truth and justice. However the truth is intolerant because it assumes something that is and something that isn’t. For instance murder is always wrong and that is intolerant towards murderers. Likewise God is intolerant of only one thing, sin. This is why absolute morality must take precedence over tolerance, because without it there can never truly be any authoritative good or evil, because morality would be left to individual people’s opinions. Some of the most famous philosophers and atheists understood this and our founding fathers understood that without Christianity, there could be no absolute morality or truth, because truth and morality depend upon something other than what individual people think; otherwise it is just mere opinion. Morality must have a moral lawgiver/God and so does truth.

In order to have a rational discussion there must be a coherent reality of truth and no illusion. There is no illusion which can sustain itself, because there must be something which gives life to the illusion. So what is truth? Truth is a person, who is called Jesus Christ. Jesus claimed to be “one” with the Father God. C.S. Lewis once made the argument that Jesus is either a liar, lunatic or Lord. Jesus made some incredible claims about himself; he claimed to be one with God, able to forgive sins, etc. Jesus is Lord and he is the way the Truth and the Life. The Truth is important, because without Him, nothing will ever make sense.

References -

Carm.org – Critical thinking school

Webster’s 1828 dictionary

Reformation Study Bible ESV

Bill Whittle – After burn

Ravi Zacharias

C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity

Some favorite things of mine

I love reading. I love to study as well as learn new things and have a library of books that I own but still need to read. While growing up, I primarily read the Harry Potter series, the Chronicles of Narnia and the Inheritance series. I loved reading those 3 different fantasy novels and their corresponding sequels but besides that, I had little interest in reading anything else. As I got more into politics, I decided to read a few political books and then history books. Thereafter, I decided to read Mere Christianity and by that time, I could read basically anything and enjoy it. In the last year I have probably read over 80 unabridged audiobooks and 40 hard copy books. I love studying into the classics and understanding the beautiful ideas which help shaped western civilization. There would be no private property or liberty without the writings of Biblical authors, Greek, Roman and Christian authors and those who fought to preserve freedom or the world from being enslaved. I have a very extensive list of books that I have in my wish list and hope to eventually read. Here is a list of some of my favorite books, movies and resources.

My favorite book is my bible. 

My 10 favorite books  –

The Left Behind Series – This is like the tv show “24” on steroids! This series is long but it is very intense and drags you into the semi fictional/biblical prophecies of the end times in a way which leaves you clinging onto every word. You will grow and learn a lot from this series as well. 

The Chronicles of Narnia – A Christian classic. Tells the biblical story--through the use of talking animals and a strange world of mystery and fantasy. It is beautiful story of how there are things greater then ourselves and great adventures to be had, if we follow the “narrow path” of truth.

Mere Christianity – One of the greatest Christian classics of all time and my introduction to Christianity. C.S. Lewis is a great introduction to that faith which has so much love, faith, rational and logical depth—and charity not in the temporary state of man but in the eternal Providence and merciful plan of a God who created eternal beings who have the option to choose to live for themselves or for the love of all.

God’s Smuggler – An autobiography written by a man who lived the life of Jason Bourne, in all of its intensity--except for the benefit of God. He visited the worst of the Soviet states during their prime and smuggled bibles as well as shared the Gospel with thousands who lived under tyranny.

Liberal Fascism – If you want to understand how our society has gotten to this point in history and what the founders of modern liberalism accomplished, read this book. Hitler was not a man of the right but of the left. If you think it can’t happen in America, this book will help you understand that it already has happened in America and we have just forgotten about it.

The Consequence of Ideas – My favorite R.C. Sproul work. Sproul provides an amazing description of Philosophy from that of pre-Socrates-era, Augustine and lastly Freud. His book captures beautiful ideas which shaped the western mind about God, reality and truth.

One thing you can’t do in heaven – Evangelism. This was very convicting and really helped me understand the importance of the Gospel. This guy makes most people who evangelize--look lukewarm.

The Triumph of Christianity – This work is like a summary of all of Rodney Stark’s incredible books on Christian history. It doesn’t cover all of Christian history but it does completely destroy the arguments that Christianity was anything but a blessing to women, minorities, slaves, freedom, science and the world. Everything that you may have been taught about the Christian faith does a 180 in this powerful book.

When God writes your love story – This is a beautiful story of how two people can be so in love with God that they devote their courtship to pleasing Him. Their journey is filled with great insights into how we can fail to live for God when our need for relationships becomes our idol. This book and “When Dreams come true” really changed my perspective on how to live for God.

The Cure – The cure is a short but powerful book about how we can so often fall into the legalistic mindset of trying to do good ourselves to please God and how most people will never get out of this mindset or the idea that they are doing “good.” However, the Word of God teaches us that we are not “good” or saved by works but faith and no matter how much we try to be good, there is nothing we could do to please God apart from trusting Him and what he did for us upon the cross.

My 10 favorite documentaries/movies – 

The American Heritage series/ Building on the American Heritage series – Both of these will completely reshape your idea of America and blow your mind. We have been lied to and told that America was born a secular nation, after watching this; you will wonder how we have lost so much of our own history. 

Drive by history: Ancient history/ Drive by history: Israel – Best overview of history in video format I have ever seen. This guy covers a lot of material, is very interesting and funny!

Monumental – Life changing documentary about the Pilgrims and their journey to America. This is worth watching just for the incredible monument which should have been taught to every American and should be more famous the statue of Liberty.

The Left Behind trilogy – A good depiction of the first two books in the series. 

Ben-Hur – Greatest movie ever made. I love Ben-Hur. The story is centered on the Roman and Jewish culture in the first century A.D. and beautifully captures a part of Christ’s story.

The Lord of the Rings – My favorite movie is all three of these. Everything about it is epic in scope and is probably the greatest recreation of the Bible’s story from the perspective of a fantasy story.

180 – Life changing. 180 shows you how you view life, can shape the rest of your worldview. Have probably watched it about 10 times.

Lee Strobel: The Case for Christ, the case for faith and the case for a creator – A former atheist turned Christian, shows the evidence for the Christian faith from science, history and biblical prophecy. The evidence he provides is very powerful.

Agenda – Clarion call to wake America up! This shows you how the communist agenda of the Soviets has basically been accomplished in America and most people don’t even realize it.

The Third Jihad – An enlightening look into the radical world of Islam from a peaceful Muslim--who wants to warn America. Shows you how determined Muslims are to destroy American culture and replace western society with Islam and Sharia law.

My 10 favorite news and study resources – 

Drudge Report – Simply the easiest and most efficient of all news sites online and my favorite.

The Blaze – My second favorite news site but is even better then Drudge in some ways. Glenn Beck is my favorite radio host. He is extremely informative, interesting and funny.

Dennis Prager – Besides Glenn Beck, Dennis Prager is my favorite conservative radio host. He is one of the reasons for my conversion to Jesus Christ.  The guy has the most brilliant mind and has truly a wise insight into almost every issue in life.

ligonier.org – R.C. Sproul has taught me many things and is a gifted teacher of systematic theology and philosophy. His Reformation Study Bible (ESV) is truly a blessing and is my personal bible.

Wallbuilders.com/Wallbuilders radio – I believe David Barton and his work will be forever remembered in America as the reason why America survived. His work in recovering our Christian heritage in American history is simply without parallel and I believe everyone should study his work.

CARM.org – Great resource in defending your faith and understanding Christian doctrine, apologetics and logic. I especially enjoy their online course on the study of logic and critical thinking. 

gotquestions.org – A resource which I use frequently if I have a question that I need answered on basically anything to do with the Christian or Catholic faith.

theresurgence.com – Deep thought and reflection upon God’s Word and on equipping Christians with tips on bible study, prayer, leadership, etc. Mark Driscoll is an amazing teacher and my favorite pastor.

Movie Guide.org – I use this with basically every movie I see. I used to watch a lot of movies and still do watch quite a few. Movie Guide helps me know if a movie is entertaining and if it isn’t too anti-God and liberal.

conservapedia.com – Is sort of like my personal Wikipedia. It has many citations and great resources for study and quick reference.

4 Big lies about Christianity and Church history

Is something which occurred in the past important? What can the study of history do for us in the present? As the Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero warned centuries ago, “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always child.” Why is history important? History is important because God is ultimately the creator of all things and in him we live and move and have our being. The Bible declares that history is important, “called to remember the former days” “remember the days of old” “consider the generations long past.” 

I love history and I want to clear up a few misconceptions about Christian history and the Church’s history. It is amazing the amount of misinformation, lies, half-truth’s and myths which exist in history and especially what is called Church or Christian history. Protestant Christianity largely believes in sola scriptura which in Latin means “Scripture alone.” Not tradition, not what one Church currently believes but what the Bible says about the Bible. That isn’t to say that we believe in solo scriptura “by scripture alone.” That is completely against Biblical teaching because we cannot live our lives simply by reading the Bible alone, for instance when there is a speed limit sign on the road we can’t say that just because it isn’t in the Bible doesn’t mean that that we can go against it. The Bible speaks about obeying the government but it also speaks about not obeying the government when the government tells you to round up Jewish people such as happened in the Third Reich. Therefore we should be like the Berean’s who “examined the Scriptures daily” for they did it to make sure that what the apostle Paul taught wasn’t contrary to what God had spoken about in the Old Testament but in the context of history, we should do it to seek out the truth whatever it may be and live by the truth even if it may be uncomfortable. As Jesus said “the truth will set you free.” Women were among the largest population of the early Christian group because in those days women were seen as not equal to men but Christians saw woman as equal. In our study of history, we will examine four big lies labeled against Christianity: The Bible is intolerant and hateful, The Crusades were a dark spot on Christianity, The Church prevented science and freedom (The Dark Ages), the Church has been mostly intolerant and hateful (Spanish Inquisition). 

Big lie #1          The Bible is intolerant and hateful

First off, these lies are so complex that I could expand the explanations into the hundreds of pages but in order to just relay a few, I will try and keep it short. 

Today many believe the Church (those who are to be saved) and the Bible is intolerant but what is the Church? The Church is the body of Christ. What is the body of Christ? The body of Christ is each individual in the local church and the universal church as a whole—Each Christian is in a very real sense is like a human body part. Some of us use our mouths to teach and preach. Some of us specialize in using our hands to give and serve others and others use their legs to serve in some way. We each need each other—for how can the mouth say go and do this while we have no hands or legs? So what does the Church believe? It depends on the church but all Christians who are to be saved go to heaven believe in the teachings of God which are contained in the Bible alone. Therefore what the Church believes and what is the only inerrant source of information in the world is contained in the Bible.

 “The Bible is intolerant towards women, gays, etc.” This is a legitimate argument to those who have not read the Bible and don’t compare all of Scripture together. The Bible is made up of 66 books and therefore it is easy for many people who don’t know the Bible to take a verse out of context. However to those who know the Bible, the only thing the Bible is intolerant of is “sin.” Sin literally means “missing the mark” and we all miss the mark of being pleasing to God. Sin is disgusting in God’s sight, because unlike us God has never done anything detestable, He has never dishonored Himself, He has never murdered, and He has never coveted. God is Holy and a perfect Judge. God does not lack anything and there is nothing materially we could give Him that He would ever want. The Bible says that God hates those who are serial liars, slanders and those who are quick to run to evil yet it also says that God is long suffering, giving grace to those who do not deserve it and not wanting any to perish (go to Hell) but all to repent and trust in Him. So yes in a sense the Bible is “intolerant” but it is only intolerant of what is evil… seems reasonable to me. Does God hate homosexuality? Jesus said that what you are comes out of your heart and that nothing good dwells in us. So does God hate homosexuality? God hates all sin and when we go against what He made us for, “man and woman” we sin. It is irrelevant what the sin is, we all sin and fall short of God and all our trying to please God in doing good things is like dirty rags in the eyes of a perfect and Holy God. So God hates all sin and what we are is sinners. But doesn’t God love us? Yes He does but He also hates what we are; which are sinners and no sin can ever enter heaven. God can only accept perfect people into heaven and their was only one who in history which we know was perfect. 

            “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

We all recognize this verse but maybe we would understand the gravity of this verse if we made it personal. 

For God so Loved You that he gave his only Son for you, that if you will believe in him, you will not be condemned to a just judgment but have everlasting life. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). 

Big lie #2          The Crusades were a dark spot on Christianity

            “The Crusades (1095-1291) were a series of European Christian campaigns into the Middle East, fought during the middle ages. They were the military responses made by Christians from Western Europe to the Pope's pleas to re-capture the Holy Land from Islamic influence.”  This is perhaps the most misunderstood event in Christian history besides the Spanish Inquisition. Most histories of the Crusades start during the speech “Pope Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom to fight for the defense of the Christian East and the protection of pilgrims who visited the Holy land, in a speech made at the Council of Clermont on November 27, 1095.” Yet this is unfair because it fails to take into account what happened prior to the Pope’s call—especially what had happened for the past 400 years beforehand.

            It all started one night during the final part of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year, around the year 610 A.D. Muhammad ibn Abdallah, a forty-year old merchant from the town of Mecca. Muhammad and his supposed call from allah “god” started him and his followers off as a peaceful group among the largely Christian Middle East but soon he started raiding caravans and taking over small cities and it wasn’t long until his raids became full  scale wars between Christians, Jews and all those who didn’t agree with Muhammad. Muhammad gradually became more and more blood thirsty and became quick to shed the blood of his enemies and had little mercy for particularly Jews and Christians. Egypt and Northern Africa used to be home to a large population of Christians but once Islamic armies had captured large portions of the Middle East, they turned northwest, northeast and southwestern and swept across northern Africa. They were stopped at the gates of the Eastern Empire of Christianity (Constantinople) and in northern France. The Spanish fought against the Muslim armies for centuries after they first swept across Spain. Within 150 years of the birth of Muhammad and his religion, Islam had conquered most of the world. They had almost taken over all of Europe. If they hadn’t been stopped in France and modern day Turkey, we would all be speaking in Arabic today and praying towards Mecca five times a day. 

This is one of the primary reasons for the Crusades. It is often believed that Christians went to the Holy Land to become rich but this is preposterous since you would basically have to be either extremely wealthy or go bankrupt and then take out loans from your relatives to even go there, since it wasn’t a short journey. If Christians wanted to get rich quick, they could have made war against Muslims in Spain, since Spain was a very wealthy. Their were many reasons which Christians decided to go but one of the most important was to defend the Holy Land where Jesus Christ had walked and many had wanted to go because they thought that it was a form of repentance for their sins. With such a vast group of Christian armies (since there were tons of different groups which made up armies) which made their way to the Holy Land, some did commit horrible acts, especially the small group of peasants which murdered Jews on their journey to the Holy Land, yet these were quickly rounded up and condemned for their atrocities. The Crusades were more complicated than most people think and were not without atrocities but neither can they be labeled as an unjustified war.

Big lie #3       The Church prevented science and freedom (The Dark Ages)

Contrary to what most people think, the Church didn’t prevent science but it actually invented it. Christians prior to and during the Scientific Revolution were influenced by those during the “Dark Ages.” The "Dark Ages" is a term used for the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. “Recent historical research has debunked the idea of a "Dark Ages" after the "fall" of Rome. In fact, this was an era of profound and rapid technological progress, by the end of which Europe had surpassed the rest of the world. Moreover, the so-called "Scientific Revolution" of the sixteenth century was a result of developments begun by religious scholars starting in the eleventh century.” It is believed that after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe fell into darkness but the opposite is the case. After Rome fell, Europe separated into hundreds of independent “statelets” and ushered in the rise of technology, art, culture and freedom. At the end of the Roman Empire, there was extensive slavery throughout Europe but by the time of the “Renaissance” it was long gone. Romans preferred to use manual slave labor and made little use of water or wind power. Yet by the 12^th century, Europe had become so crowded with windmills that owners began filing lawsuits against each other for blocking their wind. Agriculture was also revolutionized with horses instead of oxen cultivating fields and selective plant breeding beginning in the monasteries. Chimneys and eyeglasses were invented. 

Heavy cavalry were introduced and maintained only by Christian Europe and helped stop the Muslim conquest of France in 732 and it also helped the Crusaders along with the crossbow. While gunpowder was not invented in the West, the West was the first to use it in warfare. Within a decade of gunpowder arriving from China (which mostly used it for fireworks), Europe had started constructing sailing ships armed with cannons. Capitalism is thought to have started in the Protestant Reformation but it actually started in the “Dark Ages.” Large monastic estates developed into well-organized free markets. With the birth of Capitalism, it brought great economic success and by the thirteenth century leading Christian theologians had fully debated the primary aspects of emerging capitalism—profits, property rights, credit, lending and the like. All classical societies were slave societies, even the Northwest America Indian tribes had slaves long before Columbus arrived but there was only one civilization which has ever rejected human bondage: Christendom. And it did it twice! Slavery was first eliminated in the “Dark Ages” by the Church, which echoed the call of the apostle Paul in declaring that all men were equal, whether slave or free, but in all things and always there is only Christ. Music, art, literature and education were all revolutionized by Christian Europe in the “Dark Ages.” The greatest myth of all is that of the “renaissance.” Had there really been a rebirth of classical knowledge, it would have been an era of cultural decline, since Christian Europe had long since surpassed classical antiquity in almost every way. In essence, what we now understand as modern-day freedom largely originated in Christian Europe during the “Dark Ages.”

Big lie #4       The Church has been mostly intolerant and hateful

When I say the Church capitalized, I mean the universal Church of the ruling and reigning Lord Jesus Christ. We can look at specific events throughout history and see hatred or intolerance from those who claimed to be a part of the “church” and any form of such things is a horrible. However just because there are false converts throughout Christianity’s 2000 year existence, doesn’t mean that real Christians don’t exist. Take for instance, the Spanish Inquisition. The shocking truth about that is almost everything that has been claimed about it is an outright exaggeration and lie. It was propagated by the English and Dutch in the Sixteenth century, while they were at war with Spain. In all but 2% of the cases did inquisitors ever use torture. Church law, limited torture to one session lasting no more than fifteen minutes and there could be no danger to life or limb. Nor could blood be shed! Even with these rules it is possible to have very painful techniques. However we must remember that Europe was plagued with intolerance and hatred of changing the status quo with the Reformation in full swing and it was far worse in other areas besides Spain… so much so that those who were imprisoned tried to transfer to the inquisition’s prisons.    

Even one death from hatred and intolerance is far too many. There will always be those who think they are doing good by not tolerating something or hating someone and they like wolves in sheep’s clothing sometimes gain a lot of power, even in governments, yet the only real force which has ever stopped slavery, war, hatred, intolerance and promoted freedom has always been followers of Jesus Christ.

References

The Triumph of Christianity by Rodney Stark

Drive Thru History: with Dave Stott’s

The Reformation Study Bible ESV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0shXucArA&list=PL47671000BED9EAE2&index=31&feature=plpp_video – The Authenticity of the Bible – Josh McDowell

http://www.conservapedia.com/Crusades - The Crusades

God’s Battalions by Rodney Stark

Islamic Imperialism: A history by Efriam Karsh