Quoting Chuck Colson:
The concepts of human rights and liberty as we know them can all be traced back to one history-changing idea; an idea that began with God’s revelation to the Jews and was brought to the world by the Christian church.
And that’s the Imago Dei, the idea that man is made in the image of God.
In fact, it was the Christian concept of the Imago Dei that conquered pagan Rome. The Christians said that women, slaves, children, all had eternal value. Talk about revolutionary!
This belief in the value of every human eventually gave rise to classic liberalism (which emphasizes individual freedom) and to Western liberal democracy. Even the great classical liberal philosophers, Locke, Kant, Humboldt, all acknowledged the West’s indebtedness to Christianity and its principles. It’s no coincidence that the greatest document of human liberty ever written, the Declaration of Independence, states that it is self-evident that “all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.”
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Church, Faith, Family, Founding Fathers, Government, History, Living Life, Philosophy, Politics, Preaching, Worldview | Tagged: Charles Colson, Christian, Christianity, God, Human rights, Image of God, Imago Dei, Liberal democracy | Comments Off
