As covered, with the development of the free market, ideas became the most valuable assets. Those who had valuable ideas were a small percentage of the population, but the opportunity to invest in them, and thereby profit from them, was open to all. Multitudes in “the free world” did just that. This caused more wealth to spread to more people than ever before in history, and in the most organic and natural way.
Of course, these developments were not limited to America, but the freedom in America, and the security provided there for private property, ultimately made America the economic and financial capital of the world. People from all over the world started investing in America, causing the value of American assets and businesses to increase. In time, much of the wealth being created in America was invested in other countries, and the free market became a world market.
Just as the spreading of the gospel had followed the trade routes in the first century, with America becoming a center of world trade in the 19th and 20thcenturies, America also became a center for world missions and Christianity. However, the expression of Christianity in America was different than in any other place in many ways, just as its government and economy were different, and these were all connected.
The center of influence of Christianity had moved from Jerusalem west. Each place that it rested for a time added some of its cultural influence to the faith. For this reason, it became a saying: “In Jerusalem the gospel became a religion, in Athens it became a philosophy, in Rome it became an institution, in Britain it became a tradition, and in America it became an enterprise.” There is truth to this. A study of how these influences were both good and bad can help us understand much about the present state of Christianity and our times.
If this pattern of the center of world Christianity moving west continues, we can expect the next center of influence for the gospel and missions to be in Asia, then back to the Middle East and Jerusalem where it originated.
Each temporary center of influence for Christianity added both good and bad things (we are not talking about the core biblical truth of the gospel), but they also added their own cultural influences to church life, missions, and the expression of Christianity to the world. For some of these, such as Athens and Rome, some of their influence began before Jesus walked the earth.
For example, Alexander the Great’s motive for conquest was to spread the Greek language and culture to the world. He was so successful at this that the Greek language became a common language in the world just in time for the birth of Christianity. This paved the way for the fast spreading of the gospel in the first century as The New Testament was written mostly in Greek, and Paul, the “apostle to the Gentiles,” preached in Greek.
The word “apostle” was derived from a Roman word and concept. A Roman “apostle” was the leader of a fleet sent out from Rome to take the culture, laws, and officials to the lands conquered by the Empire. These also carried Romans who would be colonists in those lands to help them adapt to the ways and will of the Empire. When Jesus used this term for His leaders, they understood that they were to carry the culture and government of His kingdom, and plant spiritual colonies (churches) in the lands He sent them to.
There were many other smaller centers of the advancing gospel that had a major impact on what Christianity has become. These would include places like Wittenberg, Germany; Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland; Scotland, and others. Learning about these and honoring them is also a way that we can honor our fathers and mothers in the faith. They all had an influence on shaping the expression of Christianity in America.
John Calvin, the French/Swiss reformer, is known as “the father of modern democracy,” and his teachings had a significant part in the development of our Republic. Those of John Knox, Luther, Zwingli, Zinzendorf, and others also contributed greatly to what America became.
We can learn much about ourselves and who we have become by studying these, but none of these places of influence for what Christianity now is were the New Jerusalem, or the kingdom of God. We need to honor them, but also have a higher vision of the ultimate city that God is building. This city has been the ultimate vision of every true sojourner since Abraham.
All of these places, including America, may not be that city, but they are all a part of the great highway that Isaiah prophesied would be built to prepare the way for the coming kingdom of God (see Isaiah 40). As we see the highway that has been built, we can better understand the work still needing to be done that is our part.
Just as the first-century church in Jerusalem came under attack from influences that sought to compromise the crucial truths of the gospel, such as those seeking to bring the church under the law of Moses, each of these other temporary “capitals of the gospel” were likewise attacked by bad influences from their cultures.
Just as there are still “spiritual Pharisees” seeking to bring the church under the yoke of legalism, all of these other evil influences from these other centers are likewise still constantly trying to pervert the faith. It can help us greatly to resist them when we see the roots of them in history.
A main reason for publishing these Briefs is to obey the commandment to honor our fathers and mothers. It is also to have an overview of where we have been so that we can better know where we are and where we’re going. To date, we have only begun to sketch an outline of this map. As we proceed, we will add more detail, and the picture will get much clearer.
The further we go, the more fascinating and exciting this map will get. This is because it is composed of some of the most interesting and exciting people and events in all of history. These were your fathers and mothers, and the stories of what they did for The King, and for us, make them worthy to be honored.
We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.–Thomas Jefferson
It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. –Alexander Hamilton
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© 2020 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved.
