America has always been a liberal progressive society. (I use the word "liberal" in the classic sense of its meaning.) Americans have a moral impulse to improve society and be the shining city set on a hill. From its earliest days America has been host to a variety of social movements. Early American church people campaigned to abolish dueling and to reform prisons. They also worked to end lotteries (several states raised funds through lotteries) and to outlaw abortion. Abortion was an issue in early America. Abortion was only allowed because medical technology was not advanced enough to discern that a preborn child was a genetically distinct human being. Abortion was outlawed in all the states by the mid 1800s.

Early American Christians lobbied most famously for the abolition of slavery. All of the social reform movements were driven by Bible believing Christians. Christians were the political liberals of the time. Over in England the evangelical Christian Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809 - 1898) was head of the Liberal Party and as Prime Minister worked to free Ireland and other lands from colonialism's grip. All of these social progressive movements were led by Christians. Few secularists were involved. In those days secularism, as a faith, was professed by very few people. Christianity reigned supreme in the hearts and minds of the social reformers.

The early church had also engaged in social reform. In ancient Rome after the conversion of Constantine, Christians lobbied for prison reform, abolition of the gladiator battles and they adopted babies that were left exposed to die. In the medieval period Christians formed the first universities in the modern sense and Christian Europe was the first continent to abolish slavery.  

Modern thinkers tend to take the moral reforms of the last 2,000 years for granted as if such sweeping changes happened by accident. People alive today don't have much of an idea of what it was like to live in ancient pagan Rome or Greece. The unbridled brutality of pagan life was recorded by the ancient historians such as Tacitus and Herodotus. Even the writings of Plato and Aristotle depict ancient Greek society's leaving babies exposed to die and many other such atrocities. Ancient Greece and Rome were more than half slave. They obtained slaves by conquering surrounding nations and taking people captive. Wars of aggression were the order of the day.  

The Romans forced the Slavic peoples of eastern Europe into slavery to such an extent that even their name "Slavic" became the word for slave. The pagan tribes of Europe were similarly barbaric and practiced not only slavery but also human sacrifice. A chapter in Arthur Koestler's book The Thirteenth Tribe describes life among the pagan tribes of northeastern Europe. The brutality was mind boggling. Things began to change for the better when the peoples of northeastern Europe converted to Christianity in the tenth century.  

This brings us to the social progressives of our own 21st century. Secularists who work for social change appeal to a vague political correctness as moral guide. Secularists work for "progress" which largely runs counter to Bible based morality. For instance they consider it "progress" to allow a woman, up to the ninth month of pregnancy to have her baby partially delivered and killed by a doctor using a sharp instrument to penetrate the baby's skull. That type of brutality is similar to the ancient pagan Roman practice of infanticide. That is not social progress but is social regress. It is turning the clock back to the social conditions of ancient pagan civilizations. The acceptance of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle is another reversion to the practices of ancient paganism. Some have said that ancient Greece was one-third homosexual.  

 There are now more than a million abortions per year in the United States alone. The culture of death has spread from abortion to doctor assisted suicide to euthanasia. The social acceptance of fornication and adultery has led to widespread family breakdown and fatherlessness. Family breakdown and father abandonment was also a feature of the ancient "great" civilizations. "Greatness" was measured by the ability of a civilization to conquer surrounding peoples and seize their land.  

Communism can be considered a form of secular fundamentalism. Communists seized power in Russia in 1917 and in China in 1949. Together these secular communist states not only suppressed Christianity and other religions but also caused the deaths of over 70 million people in their quest to build a secular utopia. Their brutality was worse than that of the ancient pagan societies!  

Secularists often laugh at the social agenda of Christians and say: "You're trying to bring back the 1950s!" On the contrary however it's the secularists who knowingly or otherwise seek to turn the clock back all the way to the brutality of the ancient pagan civilizations.   

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2009 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given

DEFENDING THE FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world. The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel. All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given. To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button. *Security: Write the characters in the image above (Case sensitive)