What has the Bible done for the world? Christianity led to the end of murder of slaves in the coliseums of the Roman world, the beginning of healthcare for the masses and education for the common man. It brought an end to the slave trade and slavery itself. It brought workers’ rights through Lord Shaftesbury, and child protection agencies, like the RSPCC by William Wilberforce and other Christian leaders. Christianity also birthed the Civil Rights Movement with the leader being the preacher Martin Luther King Jr. and the end of Apartheid in South Africa, thanks to the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

The Bible in addition has had a major impact upon all European languages, adding words, spelling, grammar and shaped what we say - the phrases, our idioms, and the Christian names of people, places and organisations. Great authors like C.S. Lewis and freedom fighters like John Knox were also inspired in the Christian tradition and helped change our world.

Christian leaders like Elizabeth Fry, inspired by the Bible, fought for prison reform and the first Workers’ Union was set up by a Christian preacher and his friends, fighting for fair pay, better working conditions and a day of rest.

Modern democracy is in huge debt to non-conformist Christianity, from Magna Carta with its Christian author, to the Rev. John Ball, the first great leader of a mass revolt, to Cromwell who ended the absolute rule of the Monarch and Christian parliamentarians who fought for the right for all to vote. In the U.S., Rick Warren said, “It was Christians who helped abolish slavery, achieve women’s suffrage, lead the civil-rights movement and drafted the Bill of Rights.”

Without the Bible, the story of Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and other nations would be totally different. The same could be said for modern Africa, where 60% of the people are Christian and a large majority of the states are now Christian. In Africa, it was Dr. David Livingstone, the missionary who worked to end slavery and introduce Christian values to much of the continent. He is one of the world’s greatest explorers and humanitarians.

In addition, Christian leaders in their fight to end the slave trade set the template for all modern campaigning, and mass education was a significant step towards the people calling for democracy and human rights.

In the field of science, many of the founding fathers of many areas were Christians, with a devout belief in the God of the Bible and the same is true for the leaders of the Industrial Revolution, which shaped the world we live in. Michael Faraday was a scientist and evangelical Christian whose pioneering work changed the modern world, in that he helped give us electricity and the founder of the Greenwich Observatory that gave us the world’s first great star map, was of course a preacher as well. Many of the people who put man on the moon, working in NASA, were also believers.

The Bible in addition shaped politics, which gave us laws that protected the common man, as the Bible’s teaching on the equality of all men shaped our civilisation. Then missionaries spread these values around the world, turning entire nations into new realms to be shaped by the Christian message.

Today churches still provide clubs for young people, for the elderly, mothers and toddlers clubs and a deep sense of community in a broken world. They are also fighting for a better world - being a key force behind Make Poverty History and other campaigns. In 2005, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, “...churches are among the most formidable campaigning organisations in history” and “...faith communities have always played a significant role in social action in Britain - in education, in welfare, in support for so many of the most vulnerable and needy in our society.”

What has Christianity has done for the world? The answer is all around us, from the laws that protect us, to the principles that guide us. It has shaped every area of our lives, yet because its influence is so huge, we take its heritage for granted and forget that Christianity was the source of this civilisation!

The story of what the Bible has done for the world is huge, and to consider it more, discover the book, ‘How Christianity Made the Modern World.’ Go