Saturday, September 22, 2012

"if any man did confess that he was Christ" - Civilization


Near Ueno, Tokyo

Civilization

What is civilization?

You might think of the Great Pyramids in Giza, but Christ Jesus never mentioned the Pyramids.

Or you might think of City Rome which Christ Jesus never mentioned, either.

Christ Jesus did not even praise Athens, though Greek was the common language among the elites in the era of Christ Jesus.

Civilization is based on great production of agricultural products that allowed for stable maintenance of a community.  The community grows with an increase of population.  And then it will need law and order.  And what can be authority for governance of the society with law and order is a religion.  And this religion should be moralistic.  In this context Judaism could be the core of civilization.

However, the Greek/Roman Civilization was established and sustained without Judaism or any other moralistic religion.  So, the Civilization was not rooted in sound ground.  It must have been destined that the Greek/Roman Civilization would be destroyed someday.  And it would be lost like the ancient Egyptian Civilization.

So many great works by ancient Greek philosophers would be lost, and so many great works and systems developed by ancient Romans would be lost.  They should have been forgotten in history.

However, with advancement of Judaism and Christianity into the region influenced by the Greek/Roman Civilization, they could survive on a sound basis in terms of morality.  As Europeans got a true religion, Christianity, its future success was promised, since they came to be able to carry out all the works of Greek/Roman Civilization into a new phase of development.

As the Greek/Roman Civilization got a new moralistic core, Christianity, it has survived into the 21st century.

So, for any emerging countries, including China and India, it is critical how they will face Christianity.  For example, the reason why Muslims cannot well adapt to the modern material civilization lies in this issue of religion.  For Muslims to be materially successful, they have to accept the modern European Civilization which was an extension of the Greek/Roman Civilization with Judaism and Christianity embeded there.

As for Japan, Japanese understanding of Judaism and Christianity is deep enough to master the European Civilization, though 99% of the Japanese people are not Christians.

But, what should be more concerned about is how well Chinese could understand Christianity.  If they cannot get over this hurdle, China could be the second Nazi Germany in the worst case.   That is a nation with great industry but with a very wrong basis for its civilization.   
  
 

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Joh 9:22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.