If Christ were born today.

I recently finished a book by Bill Myers entitled "Eli".  It's a quantum physics/alternate universe story with a Christian twist.  The main character finds himself transported to an alternate reality where the Messiah had not yet been born.  The story really caught my attention.  Finished it in two days.  But it did make me ponder a few deep questions concerning our world in which we live and the only reality you and I have before us.
The author raised the question what it would be like if the Messiah were born today.  What would it be like if Jesus (or "Eli" as he calls Him) were born right here in the good old USA? The story is filled with a pleasant mixture of modern-day images and the old-world stories we know.  For example, there is a modern-day feeding of the 5,000 using McDonald's burgers and fries (which made me hungry), the raising of a woman's son where the minister and the funeral director objected to opening the coffin.  Even one of Eli's followers lost a brother but later was raised to life (of course, after getting a permit to open the grave).  It really was a charming blend of the old story in a new setting.  But as charming as the story was, I was bothered by the assumption that the United States would still exist even if the Messiah had not yet been born.

Lets just stop here a moment and consider what caused the United States to become a colony in the first place.  What was it that drove people across the Atlantic?  They were looking for a land where they could practice their faith without government influence.  They were groups of what?  Christians who were tired of living in a land that enforced a different form of Christianity.  And considering that almost every article of the Constitution reflects Christian teachings, would this nation, as we know it, truly exist?  I seriously doubt it.  I doubt you and I would even recognize this world.  I almost wonder if the world would even exist.

Considering the social and ethical standards found in the great empire of Rome just prior to the first advent of Jesus, I suspect the wars, the famine, the corruption, and the lust for power would have devoured humanity.  I almost wonder if humanity would have survived another 2,000 years had Christ not come.

I don't think we realize the influence Christianity has had in this world.  I don't think we realize the difference the Holy Spirit has made.  When Christ ascended, ten days later the Spirit came, filling and transforming the group of people who had been following Jesus.  And He, the Spirit, working through those early believers, transformed this world.

Because of the Church (a body of believers filled by God's Spirit), this world was suddenly turned right-side up.  Because of the Spirit dwelling in the hearts of Christians, there were tremendous advances in social justice, in health care, in benevolence toward the hungry, the naked, and the widow.  People began to care for one another.  People started doing for others as they would have them do for themselves.  People laid aside their own selfish ambition and vain conceit, and considered others as more important than themselves (Philippians 2:3-4).  Because Jesus came and ascended, and because the Spirit came and remained, there was and continues to be a sharp contrast between what is right and good and holy, and that which is wicked and vile.  So I'm pretty convinced that if Christ had not come when He did, this world would not be the same as it is today.  

When you think about the Holy Spirit, please do not think of Him as someone less than Jesus.  He is equal to Christ.  It is only His role that is different.  Jesus came to offer His life as a ransom for many.  The Spirit came to transform the world through those who have been redeemed.  He came to make this world a better place by working through the Church.  And He also came to hold back evil.  It is the Spirit which restrains the Man of Lawlessness.  And He (the Spirit) will accomplish this until the day He is withdrawn from the earth (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). 

I'm pretty sure Christ came exactly when He was supposed to, and not just because of the prophecies of Daniel (see Daniel 9:25-26), but because I seriously doubt the world would have lasted much longer without Him.

Let us then submit ourselves to the work of God's Kingdom.  He is transforming this world through His believers.  And, most importantly, He is making this world a better place in which to live by His Spirit working through the hearts of people like you and me.