What if Jesus had not risen from the dead?
For years I have been a fan of alternative history – those fictional books which start with a premise such as “What if the South had won the Civil War?” or “What if Hitler had been assassinated in the 1920′s?” and then projects the “future” after that event. One of the values of these exercises is that it allows us to see how pivotal certain events in history are. So what about the most pivotal event in all of human history? What if Christ had not risen from the dead? What would the world look like?
- Most obviously, with no Resurrection, there is no Christian religion. Jesus is rejected as a failed Jewish prophet, for his most famous prophecy – that he would be raised on the third day – never came to pass.
- The Jewish Temple is still destroyed in 70A.D., and the Jewish people – God’s chosen people – are a small, persecuted minority with little influence in the world.
- The Roman Empire falls, but there are no Christian monasteries to keep Western civilization alive and we are living in a post-Barbarian, pagan, world.
- The calendar does not read “2011,” but instead is based on the foundation of the barbarian conquest. It is currently the year 1560.
- Concepts such as care for the poor, tolerance of other beliefs and mercy to criminals are absolutely foreign concepts to us all. Rule by the strongest is all that matters. There are no hospitals or soup kitchens or food pantries.
- There has been no scientific revolution, as no one in the West sees the world as the one God’s creation. Technology today is still at the level of a millennium ago. The “new world” has yet to be discovered.
Most importantly,
- The whole world has no hope of escaping from their sins. Most people have no concept of an afterlife in which their bodies will be gloriously raised and in which they will be united to a loving God for all eternity. Darkness reigns.
Praise be to God that, in the real world, His Son defeated death and raised gloriously to life on the third day. He is risen!
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What a fantastic post. I wish I had something funny or witty to comment but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed this!
Obviously Christianity as we know it would not exist, but before we draw your conclusions, I think we need to ask, is this a world where Jesus was still the Son of God? If so, I think need to look at the question about Christianity’s existence a little differently. If Jesus is God (A conclusion, I obviously affirm), and he was not going to rise from the dead, it seems to me, he would not have made the prophecy that he was going to rise.
But if Jesus never predicted he was going to rise, then perhaps his followers would still have tried to preach in his name after his death (Just like the followers of John the Baptist that did not accept Christianity did), and Christianity of a different sort would have formed. One could still have a Christianity where Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. We don’t have the promises that Easter entails, but we might still see ourselves as somehow reconciled to God by Jesus’s sacrifice. Still it is a very different Christianity. In this potential time line, things develop somewhat similarly to how they do in our world… Though perhaps with more emphasis on the grimmer aspects of Christianity.
Now, lets assume, for the remainder of this post, that we approach the subject from the idea that Jesus was not divine and that like you posit, Christianity essentially died with him. What does the world look like?
Well you are probably correct about the destruction of Jerusalem; the date might have changed, been postponed or moved up, but the Jewish Revolt probably would have occurred and Rome almost certainly would still win. That does not, however mean that Judaism is an obscure sect with little influence in the world.
In our world the Khazar Khaganate developed which essentially became a Jewish empire in the 7th or 8th century and remained a power on the shores of the Black Sea for a couple of centuries. But this was an empire that was ultimately put under pressure by Christian Byzantium, Pagan Rus and various Turkic Tribes (I can’t be sure, but I imagine Islamic by the time the Khazars fell.
Now if there is no Christianity, there probably is no Islam. Without Islam or Christianity, and with a strong Khazar state, perhaps Judaism plays the role that those other two faiths did in our world. In an attempt to emulate the success of the Khazars, other states, opposing the pagan Byzantium adopt Judaism… or maybe Zoatrianism from the Persians. Either way, it is possible that a mono-theistic world view, with something like our view of good and evil might come to dominate even in a world without Christianity.
This is excellent.
I hope this post becomes as popular as your “Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet.”
I wish I was able to come the Theology on Tap on the second but I don’t get back to Maryland from Florida until the 11th.
Happy Easter, He is risen!
Cheers,
Charles
Enjoyed both your alternate future and the one added by Maryland Bill. Of course, absent the Resurrection of Jesus and the development of Christianity, no monasteries or abbeys exist to copy the ancient learning, no Vivaldi, no Kepler nor Mendel nor Mendelayeff; and no internet nor Weblogs such as this. Thank you.
TeaPot562
we could also ask this: What if Mary had said No?
Interesting post.
I have to call out a few things, though. Hospitals were in existance in Rome well prior to Jesus. Æsculapius had a temple in 291 BC in Rome where healing was performed.
Similarly, the scientific revolution probably still happens. Galileo’s theories would have probably been accepted faster without the Church, don’t you think? Charles does make a good point about the retention of the theories through copying the manuscripts, though.
uh, there may not have BEEN a theory of Galileo. Wasn’t Copernicus a priest? It was his theories Galileo was promoting. The Church has had an awful lot to do with university education.
I believe that you are short changing the wisdom of God. This was not a fluke but a planned happening programed and produced by God. He chose to enter the earth as a mortal which is the only way that anyone (including God) can enter the earth. Jesus was a mortal and God as well.
Anytime you play “what if” you are demonstrating am lack of faith in the one who created you………
Jay, with respect, I think you are taking this in the wrong spirit. Sometimes looking at counterfactual history (as Alternate History is sometimes referred to), is a very good way for giving you an appreciation for what actually did happen.