WilliamBaptiste.com | Website: WilliamBaptiste.com/christianunityindiversitycentral
William Baptiste’s Donum Veritatis – The Gift of Truth Ministries (founded 2007)
CHRISTIAN UNITY IN DIVERSITY CENTRAL
Helping Today’s Divided Christians to Think about Christian Unity Like the Undivided Early Church Lived It “So That the World May Believe”
Jesus’ only explicit command was this: “A new command I give you: Love one another … By this all men will know that you are [Christians], if you love one another” (John 13:34-5). Jesus prayed to His Father “that all [Christians] may be one … so that the world may believe that You have sent me … May [Christians] be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me.” (John 17:21,23)
Jesus explicitly linked the world’s belief in Him to the unity of His followers. So, it behooves all Christians to spend some time and effort thinking about and working towards restoring the Undivided Early Church of the First Millennium’s Christian unity in diversity among different but united “Sister Churches” of East and West (which is William Baptiste’s scholarly special interest; and he has personal experience and theological training in Eastern and Western Christianity, Protestant and Catholic).
Christian Unity in Diversity Central was the first of William Baptiste’s Donum Veritatis – The Gift of Truth Ministries, launching in 2007. For it William Baptiste was invited 3 times to the Ecumenical Springtime of Faith Foundation Rome Summits (Protestant and Catholic Christian leaders meeting in Rome with Vatican officials – William was the first Eastern Rite Christian invited) for being considered “one of the dynamic Christian leaders building the New Springtime of Faith” (at the Summit in 2012 William Baptiste delivered an update on Eastern/Western Christian relations and the work already done towards the healing of the first, “Great Schism” of Christianity, between Christian East and West in the 11th Century, 500 years before the 16th Century Western Schism of the Protestant Reformation (with its fragmentation of Western Christianity into tens of thousands of Western Christian denominations, while Eastern Rite Christianity remains only dozens of different Churches, unified in only a handful of Church Communions).
Having a heart for Christian unity “so that the world may believe” as Jesus prayed for Christians, William Baptiste from 2004 to 2025 has been working on the below Common Creed of Christianity, of which he explains:
This below “common creed” encapsulates the core of the Gift of Truth God gave to the world for its salvation. It encapsulates the essential or fundamental Christian teaching of all the Ecumenical (worldwide) and other major Councils of the Undivided Early Christian Church. Councils which both the Catholic Church (in its over 20 Western and Eastern Rites or ‘Sister Churches’ or Patriarchates united under the Head Pastorship of the Pope – the Roman Catholic Church is only the largest of these) and the Eastern Orthodox Church (in its 16 ‘Sister Churches’ or Patriarchates more loosely united in the very beautiful Byzantine/Greek Rite Christian worship under the honorary head pastorship of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) consider to have established the irrevocable norms of Christian faith in the early centuries of Christianity. And it also encapsulates all the details of the early 20th Century “Fundamentals” tract series which began the Protestant Fundamentalist movement as well as the details usually included in the many conservative and Evangelical Protestant creedal “statements of faith” (the early 20th Century Protestant Fundamentalist and Evangelical movements were “doctrinally conservative,” orthodox responses to the huge “doctrinally liberal” or unorthodox trend within the earlier Protestant “mainline” churches). The below common Christian beliefs are the wonderful, life-changing, saving truths of Christianity which “turned the world upside down” in barbaric times and transformed the ancient world with God’s Love, laying the historical and logical foundations for all the later Human Rights and democratic freedoms which developed nowhere else in the world but in Western Christian Civilization – common truths which still make Eastern and Western, Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, and Conservative/Evangelical Protestant Christians (and “Messianic Jews” and “Hebrew Catholics” and the now tiny, heavily persecuted Assyrian Church of the East – which in its heyday had successful very early missions in China) brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus and most certainly instruments of God’s salvation in the world (despite our misunderstandings and disagreements over some of our different secondary doctrines, differences which each side sees in the light of the below common fundamentals we are already agreed on, meaning our differences are never as big as they seem). This vast Common Core Christian Faith must be acknowledged before we ever discuss our differences, so we may discuss them fruitfully in family love. And on the basis of this vast common faith currently divided Christians in the West must work together in family love to preserve human life, religious freedom, and democracy itself which are all seriously threatened since Christianity was rejected as Western Society’s “moral guide.”
Taken from William Baptiste’s book THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: Reintroducing Christianity to Western Civilization Built on It “So That the World May Believe.”
Introduction for Non-Christians and Introduction for Christians
Both of Whom Need to Re-align Their Perception of Christianity with the Historical Facts of Christianity’s Vast and Vital Historical and Logical Contributions to Not Only to Western Freedom but Also to Western Science
Honestly Acknowledging the Foundations of Western Civilization’s Freedom:
The Common Creed of Christianity Includes and Supports The Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy
(Principles Which Since the 4th Century Became Embedded into Traditional Western Values Until the ‘Free West’ Started Taking its Freedom For Granted and Started Rejecting these Traditional Western Values in the 1960s – The Neglect of Which Has Led Naturally and Logically to Today’s Accelerating Loss of Freedom to ‘Creeping Totalitarianism’)
Introduction for Non-Christians: Today many non-Christians – and even secularized Christians – are highly critical of Traditional Christianity, but usually without even knowing just what it is they criticize – and without having any idea of how vitally necessary Traditional Christianity is to Western Human Rights and freedoms, both to their origin and to their continuation. Whether non-Christians personally agree or disagree with any of the particulars in the brief Common Creed below, after reading these 10 Articles of Common Christian Faith at least they will know what Christianity is, so they will no longer criticize Traditional Christianity from lack of knowledge the way ignorant and uneducated bigots do. Hopefully they will become educated enough, even if they remain non-Christian, to at least properly respect Christianity for its unique and vast historical and logical contributions to modern Human Rights and Democracy and International Law (and Modern Science). This is minimally necessary for Free Democracy to last long-term on its foundations, which are both (Judeo)Christian and Pro-Life. This Common Creed of Christianity is meant to let non-Christians (and secularized Christians) know just what Christianity actually is (dispelling their misconceptions) and just what it has done for them. Traditional, Historic Christianity with its enlightened principles has given them their human freedom from servitude to the government, and their Human Rights and Freedom of Speech, all of which are being gradually lost in the West today specifically because governments no longer properly respect Christianity as the source of the Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy introduced into the West by Christianity, which are found in the Common Creed of Christianity below. (There is no Free Democracy as we know it without Human Rights. And there are no Human Rights as we know them without Christianity. That is just History).
Introduction for Christians: The Common Creed of Christianity was developed from 2004-2025 (by a qualified Theologian and Undivided Early Church Professor trained in both Eastern and Western Christian theological traditions) to help Christians from different traditions fruitfully work together as the Undivided Early Church of East and West did, in a mutually enriching Christian unity in diversity, for the good of all humanity infinitely loved by God, on the basis of their vast Common Christian Faith. At the same time the Common Creed of Christianity presents to both Non-Christians and Christians that Common, Traditional Christian Faith in terms of its foundational and immediate relevance and importance to everyone’s Human Rights and Freedoms (and even to Modern Science – meaning Christians should be confident and bold in engaging the greater culture for Jesus Christ). The Common Creed of Christianity has been made in order to help halt the “Creeping Totalitarianism” accelerating worldwide at least since 2015 (including but not limited to many attacks on religious freedom and general freedom in the author’s country and globally) – and in order to facilitate Christian witness and evangelism by making clear to all (Christian and non-Christian) how foundationally important Christianity is to both Western Freedom and to Western Science – and therefore deserving of at least the respect even of those who do not (yet) embrace Christianity, who all still benefit tremendously from Traditional Christianity precisely because of its immense contributions to the very foundations of Human Rights, Free Democracy, and even to Modern Science itself. May this tool give us Christians the boldness and wisdom we need to effectively engage the greater culture for Jesus (we can even say, “You should consider giving your life to Jesus, because without Him, you wouldn’t even have Human Rights – and we can prove it!)
THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: 10 Articles of Common Christian Faith
The Solid Basis for the Christian Unity in Diversity Humanity Needs Both to Maintain Human Rights and Freedoms While on Earth and to Live Eternally in Heaven
10 Articles of Common, Traditional Christian Faith Describing the Vast Common Beliefs of (Eastern & Western) Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, and (Western) Conservative/ Evangelical Protestant Christianity (and ‘Messianic Judaism’ including “Hebrew Catholics”; also The Assyrian Church of the East)
On the basis of this Common Christian Faith Christians can most credibly & effectively together guide Western Civilization into not losing its Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms (nor losing its Scientific and Medical Integrity) which depend historically & logically on Biblical, Judeo-Christian principles.
While the precise wording or academic theology varies among Christian denominations and schools, in essence most Christians are united in the following tenets of the Core Christian Faith or “Common Creed” of Christianity, which are usually assumed by most Christians or referred to explicitly in some form in most ancient and most modern Christian “Creeds” or “Statements of Faith.”
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
1.The One God, Creator and Orderer of the Universe (all things seen and unseen), who “is Love” (1 John 4:8, 16), mysteriously (beyond merely human comprehension) exists eternally as a Trinity of Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, it may be said that Parenthood, Childhood, and the Bond of Love which binds them are “in” God’s very Being, God’s very Existence (and is not family the very essence of Love?). Note that “God is Love” is the ultimate foundation of the below Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy which Christianity introduced into the West. Note that the universe being created and ordered by an intelligent orderer, and not ultimately random and undirected, is the starting point and First Principles of all Western Science. The ancient Greeks acknowledged as the first scientists got this key notion of the universe as an ordered cosmos (not random chaos), which was therefore worth studying and looking for patterns of order (a sign of intelligence), from their exposure to the older Jewish Bible (Christian Old Testament). Modern Science was logically built upon these Biblical First Principles by devout Christians who developed the Pure Sciences and the Modern Scientific Method in the Christian universities of Christian Europe, the world’s first stable long-term community of scientific scholars. (For more details see Chapter 4 of the author’s book THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: Reintroducing Christianity to Western Civilization Built on It “So That the World May Believe.”) Wherever an ordering intelligence of the universe was not assumed as First Principles, the Pure Sciences never developed.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
2.God created humanity, both “male and female,” equally “in the Image of God” (Genesis 1:27, from the very first chapter and page in the Bible). Both male and female humans equally have an eternal rational spirit, like God, which allows them to be adopted into God’s Family (see below). Note this is the origin (the historical and logical starting point) of the Equal Human Preciousness without exception which grounds Human Rights and Democracy.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
3.God created humanity “in God’s Image” intending to have a loving family relationship with humans described in the Bible as adoption (Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:4-7), such that:
1) every human life without exception is supremely and equally precious to God and therefore
2) all humans must be FREE from all government coercion in matters of speech/ thought/ religion/ belief in order that they may FREELY seek and hopefully hear and find this wonderful truth about human existence, that all humans are equally precious to God. Note these two “Pro-Life” principles Christianity introduced into the West – equal human preciousness, no exceptions and the necessarily following freedom of speech, thought, religion are The Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy which are the implicit underlying historical and logical foundations of all modern Human Rights, International Law, and Democratic Freedoms, which understandably developed only in the traditionally Christian West (For more details see Chapter 5 of the author’s booklet THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: Reintroducing Christianity to Western Civilization Built on It “So That the World May Believe”). These new Christian ideas opposed the previous norms of totalitarian government which set religious policy (violently policing what humans may or may not believe) and government holding the power of life and death over all humans. Note that personhood, charity, hospitals and universities were all developed by Christians for the purpose of expressing or serving the vast dignity of all humans made “in the Image of God.”
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
4.Humanity lost its original relationship with God, the Trinitarian Creator who Is Love, through sin (anti-love), but God the Eternal Father so loved humanity (John 3:16) that He made reconciliation possible through the Incarnation (enfleshment) of God the Eternal Son in Jesus Christ through Mary’s Virgin Birth, making Jesus fully God and fully human, able to make Atonement for the sins of all humanity, which He did by dying on the Cross (Under the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate), being buried, and rising from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures, so that humanity can be forgiven and saved (and find human fulfillment) through Jesus Christ.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
5.We humans acquire this forgiveness from sin and salvation unto eternal life through, drawn and empowered by God’s Grace, our turning away (repenting) from sin (anti-love), accepting what Jesus has done for us and coming into loving, saving relationship with Jesus (and His Father and His Holy Spirit) through belief and baptism, as Jesus taught (Mark 16:16: “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”). Those who “believe and are baptized” receive the indwelling of God the Eternal Spirit and so become supernaturally adopted children of God (see Romans 8:14–16, Galatians 4:4–7)and become members of the one Body of Christ the Church (which may be described as God’s adopted family, both on Earth and continuing in Heaven).
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
6.In Jesus’ literal Resurrection from the dead and Ascension into Heaven. (“Seated,” in His Human and Divine Nature, “at the right hand of the Father,” in the words of the Nicene Creed, the 4th Century Christian Creed which is considered normative for Eastern and Western Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Anglican/Episcopalian and many major Protestant Christian denominations – that is, most modern Christians still adhere to that Nicene Creed ancient creedal formula which contains much of that which is in this “Common Creed of Christianity”).
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
7. In Jesus’ future return in glory and judgement and the bodily resurrection of all the dead in a never-ending Kingdom.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
8. In the tenets of traditional (Judeo)Christian morality. Such as “You shall not kill;” nor steal, lie, Covet, commit adultery etc.; described more thoroughly in the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7), among other passages of Scripture which show us how to be loving and so how to please the God who is Love. thus demonstrating practically that despite our human weaknesses we are children of the God who Is Love, in a gradual lifelong process of growth in maturity in love which may be called Sanctification or growth in holiness. This is a lifelong spiritual growth process admonished by the Bible – “for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’ ” (1 Peter1:16); “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) – which Individual imperfect Christians engage in according to their capacity and motivation but with access to God’s empowering Grace to assist them to do better. Abba Father (Aramaic for ‘Daddy’ God – see Romans 8:14–16, Galatians 4:4–7) is patient with us, His beloved adopted children, and will meet with us and encourage us in gradual growth in our love for and trust in God, gradually helping us mature as Christians as we spend time with God daily in prayer.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
9. In the logical and loving limits of traditional Biblical, Judeo-Christian sexual morality with its Pro-Life Family Values which undergird free democracy and also best serve the scientific, biological needs of the human species: sex sensibly reserved for lifetime loving marriage between an adult human male and female who are naturally emotionally bonded by their sexual union to form a stable human Family in which they as mother and father (a female and male role model) raise the human children naturally produced by their sexual union to emotionally and physically healthy human maturity in loving human families which are the building blocks of caring human societies. this Biblical sexual morality is essential to Human Rights: History demonstrates that only if the Sexual Process is thus considered precious not cheap are the humans produced by that process considered precious not cheap. Note that even scientifically, biologically speaking, the fact that sex is pleasurable (which is the factor that tempts immature and irresponsible humans to engage in it without any thought of its natural, biological consequences of generating the next generation of the human species) is biologically ordered to emotionally healthy family life. Even without higher spiritual considerations, simply the pleasure of sexuality in humans is meant to biologically, emotionally (as well as spiritually) bond sex partners as an exclusive couple – for the ultimate (even simply biological, but still very important) purpose of forging the sex partners into a loving family wherein any children naturally produced by their sexual union will be raised in a stable family home where the children produced by sex have the best possible chance of growing up into a physically and emotionally healthy human adulthood. This naturally family-oriented purpose for the pleasure of human sexuality is even the underlying reason for the great jealousy that naturally afflicts even most of those who immaturely and irresponsibly engage in sexual relations without sex’s natural purpose of generating the next generation of human children in mind. So many cannot stand the thought of the person they had sex with having sex with someone else, precisely because sex is biologically (as well as spiritually) ordered towards bonding sex partners as a permanent loving couple, for the ultimate purpose of raising the next generation of the human species to a healthy maturity! Marriage is in any case the cross-cultural normative context of human sexual relations throughout the world and throughout history, precisely for the scientific, biological reasons listed above. But Christianity’s enlightened principles have proven to make marriage even more fruitful for the good of the entire human species. Preciously made humans of the Christian West who believe sex is precious not cheap, and reserved for marriage, gradually but logically over centuries of Western Christian Civilization developed Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms appropriate to their equal human preciousness without exception which is still championed today by the Pro-Life Movement; while cheap humans cheaply made by cheap “sex for pleasure” (instead of precious and exalted “sex for marriage”) can be legally killed and typically serve a greater, totalitarian State, as in the ancient pre-Christian West which was typified by unrestricted sexual practices, Pro-Choice Legal Abortion to kill the unwanted humans produced by immaturely and irresponsibly engaging in nature’s way of generating new humans without any intention of doing so; and totalitarian State government which held the power of life and death over humans who were considered cheap not precious just as the sexual process which produces humans was considered cheap not precious. Today’s Pro-Choice ‘Creeping Totalitarianism’ undermining Free Democracy is specifically rooted in the return of unrestricted, immature and irresponsible sexual practices since the 1960s Sexual Revolution; which created demand for the return of Legal Abortion to kill the unwanted humans produced by immaturely and irresponsibly engaging in nature’s way of generating new humans without any intention of doing so; Legal Abortion legally eradicated the Inherent Human Right to Live which is the historical and logical foundation of all the Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms which developed only in the Christian West since the 318 AD criminalization of abortion (and infanticide) due to Christian influence; thus today, officially Pro-Choice political parties in power, specifically to support “abortion access” without anyone complaining about humans being killed, have been passing anti-democratic laws and policies taking away normal democratic Freedoms of Speech, Expression, Assembly, Conscience and Religion of peaceful Pro-Life Human Rights Advocates and of Pro-Life doctors who follow the ancient non-killing Hippocratic Medical Tradition that doctors do not kill. It was in response to such Pro-Choice ‘Creeping Totalitarianism’ now rapidly accelerating in this author’s country since 2015 that this Human Rights Scholar was motivated to develop the new HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR LASTING FREE DEMOCRACY book series from well-established facts of Science, Logic, and Human Rights History. Because this author actually gave a eulogy at the funeral of a peaceful elderly Equal Human Rights for All Humans advocate who died while awaiting unjust trial after being arrested twice just for being a “known Pro-Lifer” carrying signs reading ““FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND RELIGION. NO CENSORSHIP” and “GOD SAVE OUR CHARTER RIGHTS.” Any Human Rights advocate (including a Human Rights scholar like this author) can be arrested and jailed in this author’s country (in its capital city; in its most populous province; and other provinces which copied this totalitarian law) even just for saying “killing humans is wrong because Human Rights are for all humans” wherever it is most pertinent to do so (within up to 150 meters/500 feet of a human-killing abortion facility). The return of ancient, pre-Christian unrestricted sexual practices in the Sexual Revolution brought the return of ancient, pre-Christian Pro-Choice Legal Abortion, which is now in the process of bringing the return of ancient, pre-Christian totalitarian Pro-Choice government. Legal human-killing abortion throughout history has always gone hand-in-hand with totalitarian government, specifically because if humans do not even have a legally recognized Inherent Human Right to Live because they can be legally killed by abortion, there is no compelling reason for such Pro-Choice governments to recognize a right to vote, or to speak freely, or any other rights. It was specifically the oppressive totalitarian Extremist Left (Atheist) Soviet Communist Party ruling (Atheist) Russia (later the (Atheist) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)) which in 1920 was the first political party in modern times to legalize abortion – followed in 1934 by the oppressive totalitarian Extremist Right National Socialist German Worker’s Party (commonly known as the Nazi Party, under Adolf Hitler from 1921-1945; not Atheists, but the top-level Nazis were occultists following the occultic mythology of the Aryan Master Race which they used to justify legalizing human-killing by abortion, euthanasia, and genocide in the Death Camps). Both the Extremist Left (Marxist) Soviet Communist Party and the Extremist Right (Fascist) Nazi Party despised Democracy and did not believe that killing humans is wrong. Of course, any legal human-killing such as abortion and euthanasia (the Nazis were the first to legalize both) is inherently politically extremist and depends on the rejection of the Pro-Life Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy which Christianity introduced into the West.
Traditional Christians, whether (Eastern or Western) Catholic, Eastern/Oriental Orthodox, or (Western) Protestant/Evangelical, believe:
10. In the inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures (the Bible) which testify to all these things.
Note it is especially reasonable for Christians to believe this, that the Bible is a book (technically a collection of ancient books) that is inspired by God who created the universe and inerrant (without error, at least in the original manuscripts in the original ancient languages) because all modern Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms, and all modern Science and Technology, are historically and logically built upon enlightened First Principles which the West learned from the Judeo-Christian Bible. Modern Science and the Modern Scientific Method were pioneered specifically by Christian religious believers in the Christian universities of Christian Europe, the world’s first ongoing stable community of scientific scholars, the premier figures of “the Scientific Revolution” being particularly devout Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, (see Chapter 4 of the author’s booklet THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: Reintroducing Christianity to Western Civilization Built on It “So That the World May Believe” for more details) who developed Modern Science and the Modern Scientific Method logically upon Biblical First Principles such as the universe being an ordered cosmos – with an Intelligent Orderer or Creator God – and not an ultimately random, undirected chaos. Modern Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms and International Law to protect humans wherever they are also developed only in Western Christian Civilization, primarily developed by devout Christian social reformers, both Catholic and Protestant (see Chapter 5 of the author’s booklet THE COMMON CREED OF CHRISTIANITY: Reintroducing Christianity to Western Civilization Built on It “So That the World May Believe” for more details) seeking to have Christian principles like equal human preciousness governments are obligated to protect and the Inherent Human Right to Live better put into practice in human societies. Christian principles which are rooted in the Bible’s testimony that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8) and so “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13) because humans, “male and female,” are made equally “in the Image of God” (Genesis 1:27). The Christian New Testament further testified that regardless of race/nationality, sex/gender or social status, “slave or free,” humans were “one in Christ Jesus,” equally loved by God and precious to God who made all humans; and that masters of slaves (slaves made up 1/3 of the Roman Empire at the time) should remember that before God slaves and their masters were equal.
The immense and unparalleled fruitfulness of the Bible, worthy of respect by all for its enlightened principles which undergird all Western Science and all Western Freedom, remains regardless of any challenges to the Bible’s inerrancy. But in fact, the Bible has also long withstood many past ultimately unsuccessful attempts to seriously challenge or undermine the Bible’s inerrancy. 19th Century doctrinally liberal Protestant Christianity questioned whether the Bible was wholly inspired by God and incapable of error (or inerrant), as traditionally affirmed, on the basis of some seeming contradictions between the Bible and science or history. Some late 19th Century Catholic “modernist” scholars took up these Liberal Protestant objections to the Bible’s inerrancy and in response Biblical inerrancy was soundly reaffirmed for all (Eastern and Western) Catholic Christians by Pope Leo XIII in 1893. Leo noted that a helpful ancient Christian principle (from the 4th Century Saint Augustine) is that Scripture is without error in all it intentionally affirms. Some critics of the Bible had accused the Bible of making errors in science. Though Scripture may occasionally incidentally use “scientific” terms common to the period in which it was written which were necessary for the original readers’ comprehension, in such cases the Scripture, a religious text, no more intends to affirm a scientific truth than a newspaper today which declares what time the sunrise will be intends to affirm that the sun moves around the Earth and is therefore said to “rise.” The pre-Copernican terms of sunrise and sunset remain in common usage because they usefully describe the appearance of things relative to our Earth-bound position, even though they do not describe the now well-known scientific reality that the Earth moves around the sun (and spins daily on its axis) and the sun is technically not “rising” at all. Biblical literature making common use of common terms is not an error. Other seeming problems with the Bible’s inerrancy disappear once one recognizes the literary form or genre (including poetry) a particular Bible passage was written in, and in many instances, later historical or archeological finds have proven the Bible historically accurate in places where some critics had previously accused the Bible of being historically inaccurate. In the meantime, legions of scholars for many centuries up until today (including those in the same Christian universities of Christian Europe that developed Modern Science from Biblical First Principles) have marveled at the amazing and sophisticated thematic and theological unity of the Bible, even though it is a collection of many dozens of books written over thousands of years by about 40 authors from different times, cultures and languages – evidence of a single guiding Divine Intelligence working through (“inspiring”) the about 40 human authors over millennia. The demonstrably magnificent fruitfulness of the Bible in also providing the solid foundations and First Principles of both Modern Science and Modern Human Rights and Free Democracy further argues for the acceptance of the Bible as a uniquely important book worthy at the very least of great respect worth ordering Civilization upon regardless of any further considerations! Politicians do not strictly have to become Christian, for Christianity by its own principles cannot be forced on any person; but politicians who want Free Democracy and Human Rights (and Scientific and Medical Integrity) to last must at least respect the Bible and the Judeo-Christian religious Tradition as the Source of all these wonderful things. This at least has been amply demonstrated in this author’s HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION FOR LASTING FREE DEMOCRACY book series. Traditional Christians (and intellectually honest scholars) like this author will further attest that the Bible as well is most certainly worthy, if any book is, of being further recognized, in Faith that Empowers, as formally “inspired” by Divinity.
CONCLUSION:
These 10 Articles of Common Christian Faith entering the West with the 1st Century advent of Christianity and embraced by the West starting in the 4th Century gave individual humans the means to their greatest possible human fulfillment and happiness in Family Love both on Earth and eternally in Heaven; and gave human societies the Foundations for Modern Human Rights, Modern International Law, and Modern Democracy – and even Modern Science, developed by devout Christians in the Christian universities of Christian Europe from Biblical First Principles (even Modern Science depends historically and logically on the universe being an ordered cosmos with an intelligent orderer as in Article 1 above, and not a random, undirected chaos!). The vast, practical fruitfulness of this Common Christian Faith for humans individually and collectively is WHY Christians today are by far the largest and most diverse group of humans on the planet, with 2.3 billion Christians who come from nearly every other group of humans, Christians found among nearly every national/ racial/ ethnic/ cultural/ language group, social class, gender and ability or disability.
The surest path to the destruction of Free Democracy which was historically and logically built upon the above Christian and Pro-Life principles is the current and growing ignorant Pro-Choice and anti-Christian bigotry and illogical “Bulverism” that dismisses Christian ideas out-of-hand as “having no place in the public sphere” when in fact Traditional Christian Pro-Life Family Values include and support the absolutely essential Foundational Principles of Human Rights and Democracy (and when in fact the Modern University System itself literally grew out of the Medieval Cathedral Schools, both solidly rooted in the ancient typical Judeo-Christian scholarly and academic pursuit of the objective, Honest Truth in all its forms – which made universities solidly rooted in (Aristotelian, Scholastic or Thomist) philosophical Realism, the underlying objective philosophical worldview which grounds all Science, Logic and Technology, which is opposite to the underlying subjective philosophical worldview of philosophical Relativism, which emphasizes feelings over facts and which underlies every threat to Free Democracy and Science from Extremist Left Marxism/Communism/Socialism to Extremist Right Nazism/Fascism to today’s “officially Pro-Choice” political parties (who love the human-killing abortion first legalized in genocidal Extremist Marxist Russia in 1920 and next legalized in genocidal Extremist Nazi Germany in 1934) passing anti-democratic laws against normal democratic Freedoms of Speech, Expression, Assembly, Conscience and Religion. In this author’s country such totalitarian laws have been passed in as little as 8 days. How much less freedom might we have next week? This author personally delivered a eulogy at the funeral of a peaceful, frail elderly Equal Human Rights for All Humans advocate who died while awaiting unjust trial after being arrested twice in my nation’s capital just for being a “known Pro-Lifer” carrying signs reading “FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND RELIGION. NO CENSORSHIP” and “GOD SAVE OUR CHARTER RIGHTS” – in protest against a new totalitarian law against Free Speech passed in the legislature in only 3 weeks! How much less freedom might we have next month?
Such continued lack of respect for Christianity as the source of democratic foundations (while continuing to follow the evil (and ultimately anti-scientific, Relativist-not-Realist) totalitarian Soviet Marxist (1920) and Nazi (1934) precedents of de-criminalized human-killing abortion, which legally eliminates any legally recognized Inherent, Equal, Inalienable Human Rights) is the surest way to ultimately end Free Democracy. Christianity is deeply embedded in the very foundations of all the things we like most about our Western Civilization – our Science and Technology and our Human Rights and democratic freedoms. Anyone who would still make the absurd claim that Christianity is somehow “irrelevant” to modern society seems to have no idea just what the word “relevant” even means.
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