The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Emily M. during the 2007-2008 League.
What if Jesus had Never Been Born?
A while ago, a friend and I were talking about what we were doing for school. I mentioned to her that I was reading Dr. James Kennedy's What if Jesus had Never Been Born?; she jumped a little and said, "But that's frightening!" My friend was one of the few people who understood the weight of a book of that title. What if Jesus had Never Been Born? is similar, in some ways, to Frank Capra's classic movie It's a Wonderful Life. In the movie, George Bailey gets a chance to see the world as it would have been if he hadn't been born, and he is shocked at what he sees. The movie illustrates the astounding impact of a single life, and moves us when we see how hard and unhappy other people's lives would have been without George Bailey. If we replace George Bailey with the most important person who ever lived, Jesus, and imagine the world without him, then what you are left with is a horror story.
What if Jesus had Never Been Born? gives us a look at how the world was before Jesus came. Dr. Kennedy, discusses many areas of life that Jesus changed. As Dr. Kennedy begins to describe the ancient world, we see that even the cultures that we tend to think of as civilized, such as Greece and Rome were in reality, quite barbaric. A person was of little value in the pagan cultures, as Dr. Kennedy puts it "life was exceedingly cheap." Infanticide was rampant, women and slaves were considered dirt, and the elderly were a mere burden. It wasn't until Christianity began to take hold that children and women, the elderly and the poor were thought of as valuable.
The ancient world was truly a cold, dark world; compassion was an alien idea. Why should anyone have shown mercy to a person they couldn't benefit from? Without Jesus, who tells us, "What you do to the least of these, you do it unto me," there is no reason for mankind to show love and compassion, beyond personal gain. Without men and women who love Jesus, there would be no hospitals or charities. The Roman Emperor Julian said of the Christians, ".they support both their own poor and ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us." Today it seems that charity is taken for granted, as something all people should support, and don't realize that charity is a Christian principle.
Education for everyone is also a completely Christian idea, that as Dr. Kennedy says, ".grew directly out of the Reformation." He also says that education without Jesus, ".will produce Frankenstein monsters." In pagan nations, the literacy rate has always been low, and they often don't even have written languages. Christian missionaries have set hundreds of languages to writing, in order to share the word of God. Also, for centuries, in Christian homes children have been taught from the bible. In America, almost all of the first 123 universities were established by Christians for Christian purposes. Today, as the public schools slip further and further away from God, the academics decline. Christianity and a higher standard of education go hand in hand.
Dr. Kennedy discusses many more issues than I have mentioned here, all of which are matters of everyday life that Christ changed dramatically for the good. Christ gives purpose to life and a meaning to everything we do. What if Jesus had Never Been Born? showed me how much Jesus gave to us, not only the hope of heaven, but also the hope of life on earth lived more abundantly. This book also taught me to be more wary of a nation that rejects Christ. De Tocqueville said, "Only Despotism can rule without faith." It is true, as we can see clearly from what atheism has produced in the twentieth century alone. The atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all came from an atheistic worldview. After reading this book, Jesus and his word became more beautiful to me than ever before. Jesus is truly the reason we live, because this world would be utterly hopeless without him.
