Six Reasons Why Jesus Still Matters in a Secular Age

Lots of surveys in recent months indicate growth in the number of “None” Americans, those who claim to have no religious faith. And government at many levels and on multiple fronts increasingly displays a hostility to religious faith and expression.

But even as the Western world becomes more secularized, Jesus is impossible to avoid because, as J. Warner Wallace explains brilliantly and comprehensively in his latest book, Person of Interest, Christ is the single most influential individual who ever lived.

Here are six reasons why that is so that Wallace offers in a recent Fox News piece, based on his book:

• Jesus matters because he inspired more literature than any other person in history. More books, scripts and screenplays have been written about Jesus than anyone else. His story has so captured the human imagination that “Christ figures” have been written into non-Christian literature.
• He matters because he was the catalyst for the visual arts, inspiring painters and sculptors in every generation, genre, style and nation. No one has affected the arts like Jesus.
• He matters because he has been the topic of more songs, hymns and symphonies than any other figure in history. Jesus’s followers innovated and changed the nature of music forever, and musicians and singers in every musical style continue to sing about him.
• He matters because his teaching set the standard for moral reform and initiated a worldview that led to the flourishing of education. His followers established monasteries, cathedral schools, and ultimately universities that continue to educate people to this day.
• He matters because he established a worldview that encouraged exploration and motivated his followers to investigate the natural revelation of God, resulting in an explosion of scientific discovery, the scientific revolution, and an unparalleled history of excellence in the sciences.
• He matters because his influence on spiritual seekers and religious thinkers is so overwhelming that every major world religion either mentions or merges him into their theological system.

I’ve read Person of Interest and I can assure you it is full of facts that you quite likely do not know that demonstrate just how incredibly influential Jesus Christ remains to this day. His birth is well-worth celebrating, regardless of your view of the faith based on His life, death and resurrection.

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