Understanding Christianity: Faith, Purpose, and Transformation

Christianity has not brought us to the this pretty pass I agree with him that we are brought to a pretty pass the world as it is tonight is the pretty past to which he refers and there we are in entire agreement but he says you see that it's Christianity who's brought us to this in other words the international tension tonight is due to Christianity the bombs are being made war is being prepared for because of Christianity Christianity has brought us to a pretty pass you see the argument. [00:11:56]

I assert that there is only one answer it is because the human race has failed to listen to and to practice the message of Christianity it is indeed the exact opposite it isn't Christianity that's brought us here it is the refusal of men and women to listen to it to practice it to live by it and to pin their utter Faith to it now you see that is the case put forward by the Bible from the very beginning its whole argument is this that all troubles in life stem and come out of this one initial trouble man's refusal to live according to God's way of life. [00:12:57]

Christianity has been the most civilizing and uplifting force that this world has ever known look at this phrase that you get in these gospels the Common People heard him gladly they' never heard anybody else gladly the common people you know didn't get much from socres and PLO and Aristotle they couldn't follow them you can't follow the great philosophers without knowing their terms without understanding something of their method all their dialectic and their brilliant it demands reason and understanding and knowledge in you the common people never got anything from them. [00:23:19]

Here is the thing above everything else in this world that has raised the common people here is a message that has opened the minds and the understanding of people to whom the great of the world did nothing whatsoever to give this is sure fact again I'm not here imagining these things I'm giving you facts which you'll find even in your secular history books the whole course of history has been changed by the coming of Christianity the whole history of Asia was changed by it the history of Europe was changed by it the coming of the Apostle Paul to Greece the Philippi was one of the greatest turning points in the whole of his. [00:24:29]

Where have your hospitals come from there were days there were times when there were no such things as hospitals and people just suffered and died like dogs where did your hospitals come from they came from Christianity the oldest Hospital in London in this country is St bol's Hospital sorted by a man called reer in the 12th century and he was a Christian priest all your hospitals have come from this despised rejected Christianity which is such a failure that it only leads us to this pretty pass but where have your schools come from where does the educational system come from who began to teach the poor people the answer is still the same it was the Christian Church. [00:25:32]

Christianity cared for the poor men and women gave up their lives and possibilities of great wealth and advancement in order to care for the poor for their bodies for their minds for their illnesses they gave them money they gave them food all these charitable institutions have originated in the Christian church now my friends it's about time people begin to realize that you see we're living in this welfare and we say the state does this that and the other now go back into your history and remember that when there was a time when the state did nothing and the only institution in the world that cared for the well-being of men and women was the Christianity that is despised and dismissed and derided as a failure. [00:27:25]

What led to the abolition of slavery Christianity William wilers and William wilers LED that movement not because he was just a member of parliament but because he was a converted Member of Parliament because he'd become a Christian there was a time when will William wilbos was not a Christian he was a very able man he was a member of parliament but he spent his night dancing in the balls going the social round of London but suddenly his whole life was changed by the despised Christianity that never does anything and that only brings us to this pretty pass and it was immediately and directly as the result of his conversion and and his new life that he began to lead in the agitation for the abolition of slavery. [00:28:39]

Christianity has never promised to improve and to reform this world never I defy you to give me a single statement in this new testament which indicates that Christianity's never promised to make this world a better place never did you realize that my friend it has never said that it's going to reform the world and improve the World by its teaching it has never promised to educate men up to decent living it has never offered itself as a moral nor an ethical nor a political system never there's not a word to that effect in the whole of the bible. [00:31:30]

Christianity has never promised to abolish War now we're living in days when we've got to put these things very plainly you see this man writes to the paper because he says look at the war here we are preparing for war ready to use the bombs the end the world's going to be blown up Christianity has brought us to this Christianity is fail to stop us coming to this that's his argument well now my reply is that Christianity has never promised to do that what says somebody but this is inconceivable I thought that Christianity was this Noble idealistic message which teaches men to love one another and to shake hands instead of hitting one another to banish all their bombs and all their armaments and we all live in peace together. [00:31:56]

Christianity never could make such a promise it's the exact opposite of all it teaches but come let me put it positively that is what Christianity hasn't promised to do what has Christianity promised to do well it's quite clear this is its message let me summarize it for you as I close what does this book say well it tells us that God has got a great plan for this world and that God has already put that plan into operation that it has been carried out in the past that it is being carried out in the present and that it is going to be carried out in the future God it says has got a plan for this world it is his world he made it he still owns it he hasn't abandoned It Bad Evil though it is God hasn't finished with it God has got a plan for this world and he's going to carry it out. [00:39:56]

He came primarily to deal with us as individuals and to save us out of this Lost World this is how he put it the son of men he said is come to seek and to save that which is lost what's he talking about well he's talking about individuals he always talked about individuals you see it's the critics who talk about Christianity they're always talking about Christianity something objective something which is going to deal with World conditions social conditions condition of Nations so a man writes his pompus letter to a newspaper and says Christianity has brought us to a pretty pass can't you see the fallacy he's thinking of everything outside himself Christian it ought to abolished War Christianity ought to make these bombs impossible Christianity ought to make the world a better place and he doesn't say a word about himself doesn't seem to think or to realize that he's got any problems in his own life. [00:41:37]

The message is that whatever may happen to the world that you and I as living beings and souls can be put right and Christ came to save me the Son of God Who Loved Me says Paul and who gave himself for me AB would you say that's being selfish why don't you deal with World conditions my friend nothing can be done about world conditions I've already told you that your problem should be this how can you escape being involved in the final cataclysm that is going to bring destruction on this world at any moment that's your question these atheistical philosophers who are talking so much at the present time they're beginning to tell us that probably we haven't got another year to live none of us that's what one of them said last Sunday all right I think he's probably wrong even in that but let's take it for granted that he's right what's the point therefore of you are asking me to make statements about International relationships and situations surely what you ought to know is this if I've only got another year to live if the end of the world is coming then if the whole thing's to be blown up what happens to me then where am I going what's my destiny do you know anything about it that's the message of Christianity. [00:44:59]