Yale University’s Dr. Philip Schaff, who truly was an ornament to that school, wrote massive volumes on history and surveyed the entire course of human progress on this planet. Having done that from the beginning to modern times, he came to this conclusion:
The most momentous event in the history of this world was the coming and birth of Jesus Christ; and since that religion represents the highest and holiest and noblest aspiration of men, the introduction of the Christian faith has been the greatest boon mankind has ever known. It divides all of the history of the world very decisively into B.C. and A.D.
Schaff recognized that Jesus Christ was the only man great enough to divide time in half. Not only did Christ’s coming split history—into B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord)—but it changed the world. There are some people who have changed various parts of the world, various segments of it, and some of those segments have never been the same since they practiced their art. However, Jesus Christ changed the whole world. He made all things new. Let’s look at some of the areas in our world forever changed by His influence.
Christ’s influence can also be traced to science. Not only was the father of modern science, Francis Bacon, a Christian, but the scientific method and most of the branches of science—including antiseptic surgery, bacteriology, chemistry—were given to the world by Christians.
Jesus Christ has changed the world forever. No one has accomplished more good for this world than He.
Have the Master’s hands, which have touched this world, touched you? Has He made you new? Has your sin been washed away? Christ can make you brand new today. He died on the Cross to take away your sin. He paid the penalty you could never pay, and He offers freely the gift of eternal life to those who will trust in Him.
Adapted from Dr. Kennedy’s sermon, The Man Who Divided Time in Half.