Ode to Jesus

It is impossible to exaggerate your debt to Jesus Christ – even if you do not believe he is our God and Savior. His ideas revolutionized how we view ourselves and others. His moral teachings resulted in our “inalienable” natural rights,[1] and those influenced by his teachings established the legal mechanisms to defend these rights. Christians and others who believed in the Christian worldview also created the nations of Europe and North America, which are directly responsible for today’s technological world and all its benefits. They established and nurtured modern STEM, capitalism, the rule of law, and representative governments – all of which vastly improved the human condition. In addition, they influenced other nations and cultures, sometimes by force, to respect the natural rights of their citizens and those of other countries.

We cannot overstate Jesus Christ’s impact for good on the world. Every person today is positively affected in one way or another by ideas and products that can be shown to owe a debt to Jesus and his followers.

When the framers of Western civilization were creating the modern nations of Europe and North America, they needed a set of governance rules and a judicial system for each nation that replaced the absolute monarchy models of the past. 

The Americans were the first to recognize the supremacy of natural rights, which they enshrined in the US Constitution in 1789. As the new country’s supreme law, it became the foundation for transforming society into one where a person’s natural rights took precedence over human law. As the nation matured and more Americans wanted natural rights for those who were enslaved, the US went through the Civil War, which saw the freeing of the slaves and the loss of power by those wanting to continue the old order.

For the most part, the Europeans ignored following the Americans in enshrining natural rights into their supreme laws despite accepting some in reduced form. But their attitude changed after the devastating wars of the 19th and especially 20th centuries, which killed a sizable percentage of their population, destroyed their economies, and reduced great swaths of the continent to rubble. 

The American success in unifying a continent and the material success of its people became something to be admired and emulated. Thus, the Europeans now imitated the Americans in recognizing the natural rights of those within their borders to various extents.

The result of copying the Americans was astonishing! The Europeans experienced the longest period of peace and the greatest increase in the quality of life in their history. Industries, militaries, and economies were shared, judicial codes were standardized, and national borders could be traversed without stopping.

The West’s success became an example for the rest of the world. The nations that enshrined natural rights into their governing and judicial systems leapfrogged economically and socially ahead of those that did not. 

The benefits of recognizing natural rights are obvious today, but where did the idea that we have these rights come from? Where did the US Founding Fathers like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison get the transformative idea of natural rights?

The idea that humans have natural rights come from Jesus Christ’s teachings. Some of these are:

   “Do unto others what you want to be done to you.” (Matthew 7:12)

   “Whatever you did to the most unimportant of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me … Whatever you did not do to the most unimportant of my brothers and sisters, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25:40,45)

   “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Mark 12:31)

   “Love one another.” (John 13:34)

   “There is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, or male or female: You are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

These teachings of empathetic morality, human equality, and the innate dignity of all humans are ideas that the US Founding Fathers have known since childhood. These moral principles framed their outlook on interpersonal relations and are the direct source of the concept of natural rights.

Societies that applied Christ’s moral teachings became the most attractive in history. Serving God meant having genuine love and charity toward others. It meant serving each other and taking responsibility for the welfare of others. It meant swallowing one’s pride and tolerating differences. Moral discipline (the action of obeying rules and doing “good”) and bodily self-control (the deferment or rejection of selfish pleasure) became internal instead of externally enforced by the state or by another authority figure.[2] 

So thoroughly has the West absorbed Christ’s morality into our culture’s ethics that most believe we possess inherent rights and assume that recognition is standard everywhere. Even atheists who argue against belief in God assert that Christ’s Golden Rule (“Do unto others what you want done to yourself”) is innate within us – that we do not need God to be “good.”

But these are simply untrue.

Our core human nature prioritizes insiders over outsiders. This is why we will always save our young child's life over a stranger's a hundred times out of a hundred. This explains why a tragic death in our neighborhood affects us more than one that happens in a distant land. Our sense of group identity is responsible for most of the violence and brutality that our species commits. This explains why nations go to war against other nations even if they share the same religion; their national group identity supersedes their religious identity. Our internal desire to triumph over others, especially when having power, explains why people in positions of power tend to want to keep that power or even extend it. Thus, tyrants and those with weapons victimize the helpless.

But even those who believe we have natural rights disagree on where the rights start and end. For instance, countries as close as Canada and the United States diverge on whether a specific act is moral or immoral. This discrepancy is even worse when comparing Western and non-Western nations. One only needs to live outside the West to see that nations do not share the same values. 

Christ’s teachings changed us as a species. Those who internalized his teachings of human dignity, equality, and reciprocal empathetic morality created something the world has never seen before:

Natural rights. 

The paradigm that recognizes everyone, even our worst enemy, has natural rights equal to our own counters humanity’s default nature that “might makes right” and “powerful insiders are more valuable than weak outsiders.” 

Applying Christ’s teachings creates an artificial floor to our values that prevent us from plunging into our fundamental nature that is cruel and unfair to others. 

Following Christ’s moral principles establishes civil societies that are attractive and enjoyable to live in. When enforced by the state as a rule of law that applies to all equally, these principles create the best of all possible worlds: People can enjoy living within safe communities that give equal opportunity for the pursuit of happiness, and where differences are tolerated when they do not trample on the natural rights of others or violate the social contract that the community knowingly agreed to follow.

The overwhelming social benefit of Christ’s moral teachings explains why people everywhere changed their societies to give their citizens equal rights. Nations that refused stagnated and experienced brain drains of their best and brightest, who went to places where they could live where their natural rights were respected.

We must never lose sight of the source of the West’s human ethics: The teachings of Jesus Christ. Without this foundation, the ethics have no objective justification.

For example, where did atheists get the idea all humans have equal worth regardless of race, wealth, social status, appearance, and sexual orientation? Who told them this is “good” and its opposite is “evil”? The idea is not self-evident in nature or outside Christian morality. As Burke and Bentham pointed out way back in the 18thcentury, “inalienable natural rights” is an idea that floats on air because it cannot be validated by anything objective. This explains why no religion or philosophy in history taught it before Christians started creating the modern West.

It is easy to demonstrate the problem of inalienable natural rights when ignoring Christian morality by asking atheists and other anti-Christians:

• Why is slavery wrong, and who told you that you have a right not to become a slave?
• Why is it wrong for you to be tortured?
• Why is racism wrong, and who told you all races are equal?
• Why is it wrong to force someone to join a religion and who told you that you have freedom of religion?
• Why is wife-beating wrong, and who told you women are equal to men?

The immediate answer is “the law” or “the government.” But where did the government come up with the ideas, and what justified them? When one traces the ideas back, they all lead to Christ’s moral teachings such as his Golden Rule that the framers of the West internalized. That was when humanity’s values cleaved, creating a new path that recognized natural rights for the first time in history.

To say it another way:

How does the unbeliever justify the belief that humans have innate worth and equality when these ideas contradict human nature’s core value that powerful insiders are more valuable than weak outsiders? 

Because Jesus Christ said so.

The most virulent anti-Christian directly benefits from ideas that are not just derived from Christ but are actively sustained and supported by his teachings. Remove the source, and the concept of natural rights collapses because nothing objective justifies them except Christ’s words. 

The biological fact that all humans belong to the same species is irrelevant since humanity’s default nature always places greater value on insiders than outsiders. 

This explains why slavery historically existed everywhere and why people have been killing “outsiders” since we lived in bands and tribes. You will always save your young child’s life over a stranger's; you would not be human were it not so.

Those who try to extinguish Christianity and its influence in our world are like a man hammering away at a building’s foundation. If he succeeds in his goal, the building will collapse, crushing him and everyone else inside it.

Any attempt to remove the West's Christian foundation eliminates the validation of our innate worth and equality. Standards then become arbitrary and changeable on the whim of whoever is in charge. Tyranny returns, resulting in calamity for the rest of us.

Good people everywhere, Christians and non-Christians, must oppose any attempt to weaken our civilization’s foundation but underpin it instead. Christ’s words are too valuable to ignore.

[1] From a moral standpoint, we have reciprocal natural rights – rights that are inherent in us as humans and do not come from any government. Consequently, they cannot be morally taken away by anyone, provided we do not violate the natural rights of others or break the social contract (where we knowingly and willingly subject these rights to a human law). Natural rights are “human rights” that do not need the government or money to enforce. They apply to everyone equally.

Because we are human, we have a natural right to:

1. Life

2. Liberty

3. Physical Security

4. Fair Trial

5. Equality

6. Property

7. Freedom of Religion

8. Pursue Happiness

9. Freedom of Speech

10. Vote for a Representative   Government

[2] For example, the true follower of Jesus Christ does not keep the money they saw fell out of a pocket of an “enemy” because their internal moral code tells them that it is “wrong.” They do not need to be externally forced by the state to return the cash on pain of punishment.

It is that internal moral code that made the West the most attractive and successful civilization in history.

Jesus suffered for mankind's sins.

He took our punishments!

God placed upon himself our sins,

To save us from torments!

Christ's Atonement was infinite.

Pain, inconceivable!

It was infinite hurt and fear.

Unimaginable!

He was a sinless substitute.

He was the Lamb of God!

He was a stain-free sacrifice.

An offering to God!

Jesus ransomed himself for us.

Because of him, we’re free!

Christ's holy blood paid the ransom.

We slaves can now be free!

Jesus died for humanity.

He died for you and me!

God's only Son died for our sins.

Despite we’re not worthy!

He reconciles us to our God.

His blood justifies us!

His sacrifice reconciles us.

His blood sanctifies us!

We’re redeemed through his holy blood.

We’re washed clean in his blood!

His shed blood removes mankind's sins.

Made sinless through his blood!

We are nailed to the cross with him.

We’re crucified with Christ!

We share his death; we share his rise.

We live to God in Christ!

     In the beginning was the Word.

     And the Word was with God!

     He existed before the world.

     And ere the universe!

Our cosmology is vastly different than those of the biblical writers. For the first time in history, we can finally understand enigmatic biblical passages that describe Jesus existing before “creation” (i.e., big bang) in a location outside the universe or in another realm.[1] 

“He is the image of the God who has never been seen, and existed before the universe was created. 16 He created the universe. Everything in heaven and earth, everything we see and cannot see, including thrones, powers, rulers, or authorities; he created them all, and they are for him. 17 He existed before the universe and causes it to hold together.” (Holy Bible: Colossians 1:15-17)

“In the beginning was the Word; the Word existed with God; and the Word was God. 2 He existed with God in the beginning. 3 He created the universe. Nothing exists that he did not create. . . 10 He went and lived on Earth. And even though he created it, the world’s inhabitants did not know who he was. . .

14 The Word became flesh and lived among us. We have seen his glory—the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Holy Bible: John 1:1-3,10,14)

[1] The possibility also exists that this reality is a designed world like an advanced video game or simulation while God lives in the “real” world outside it.

     The Son has the Father's nature.

     By nature, he is God!

     The Son radiates God's glory.

     Exact image of God!

Our movement away from deductive inference philosophy to empirical science has allowed us to view “nature” as comparable to science’s “species.” Jesus is God by nature (belongs to the “God” species), just as he is also a man by nature (belongs to the Homo sapiens sapiens species).

So important is the need to understand that the Holy Bible repeatedly describes Jesus to be “God” in addition to being a man that the table below[1] identifies, paraphrases, and provides links to over fifty parallel bibles where the Bible either applies the word “God” to Jesus or describes him to be “God” despite not using the word. 

[1] Taken from Is Jesus “God”?: Chapter 7.3.

[Table 1]

     He had glory ere creation.

     He shared God's glory!

     He gave up his equality.

     He emptied his glory!

Jesus was honored as the Son of God and as one who is “God” by nature before this universe came into existence. He gave up that glory and honor when he decided to become a lowly human. 

“Now, Father, glorify me with yourself and restore the glory I shared with you before the world’s creation. . . 22 I gave them the glory you gave me so that they may be one just as we are one. . . 24 Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. I want them to see the glory you gave me because you already loved me before the world’s creation.” (Holy Bible: John 17:5,22,24)

     He was foreordained to atone –

     Before the world was made!

     He was ordained to save mankind,

     Before the earth was laid!

Jesus was foreordained to perform the Atonement (the Fall's annulment) before this Earth was even made. This means if he was foreordained to atone, then Adam had to be foreordained to Fall for the Atonement to make sense. Thus, Adam’s Fall (the introduction of death, sin, moral weakness, and experience of trials) was not a cosmic accident that an all-knowing God did not anticipate. The Fall, although planned, had to be freely done by man for the Atonement to be valid.

“So that the times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you.” (Holy Bible: Acts 3:20)

“As you know, gold and silver were not used to pay your ransom from the futile life you received from your ancestors, 19 but with the incalculably valuable blood of Christ, theunblemished and spotless Lamb of God, 20 who was chosen before the world was created, and was revealed in these last days for your sake.” (Holy Bible: 1 Peter 1:18-20)

     He came from heaven before birth.

     The Son came from heaven!

     He gave up heaven to come here.

     God's only Son left heaven!

The pre-mortal Jesus lived in heaven before he was born on this world and returned to heaven after his resurrection. This “heaven” already existed before this universe was made, which means it is a realm that exists external to this universe (either another universe or something else we cannot even conceive).

“For the bread of God is the bread who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. . . 38 God sent me down from heaven to do what he wants, not what I want.

50 All who eat this bread from heaven will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread that I give for the life of humanity is my flesh. . . 58 This is the bread from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate manna and died, whoever eats this bread will live forever. . . 

62 What if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” (Holy Bible: John 6:33,38, 50-51, 58, 62)

“He who comes from above is greater than all others. Those who come from the earth belong to the earth and can only speak of earthly things. He who comes from heaven is greater than everyone else. 32 He tells them of what he saw and heard, yet no one believes his testimony!” (Holy Bible: John 3:31-32)

     Jesus came from God the Father.

     Thank you, God, for your Son!

     Jesus was sent by his Father.

     Thank you, O Holy One!

The pre-mortal Jesus came from the Father (who dwells in “heaven”) when he became human. Jesus was not a thought but had an actual existence as the only “Son of God” who was also “God” by nature before becoming human.

“Jesus then told them, ‘I am only going to be with you for a bit longer, and then I am going to the one who sent me to earth. 34 You will look for me but will not find me. You cannot go to where I am going.’” (Holy Bible: John 7:33-34)

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me because I came from God. I am not here on my own accord—he sent me.’” (Holy Bible: John 8:42)