How Christianity Saved Civilization

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on a wonderful book he’s currently reading — How Christianity Saved Civilization…And Must Do So Again, by Mike Aquilina and James L. Papandrea. In the middle of the third century AD, the Roman Empire was not much older than the United States is now, and there are myriad parallels. The Roman economy was in dire straits — experiencing uncontrollable inflation, multiple wars, spending money on bureaucratic niceties and military expansion, suffering rampant unemployment and underemployment. Children were viewed as liabilities and routinely aborted, with infanticide deplorably common. Christians were hated for their perceived rigidity; and pagan Romans justified their intolerance of Christian virtues by calling the Christians intolerant. But eventually, the authors show, the Church overcame persecution and transformed the Roman Empire. The point of the book is that the Church of the 21st century can and must overcome the Great Awokening. How? The Church can overcome the new paganism just as Christianity overcame the old paganism of the Roman Empire by Christians refusing to deny the faith and by being willing to risk earthly comforts for eternal verities by faith working through love. Truth has triumphed in the past, and Christianity remains the only hope for transforming the world.

See Mike Aquilina and James L. Papandrea, How Christianity Saved Civilization…And Must Do So Again (need link to CRI donation page)