| |
1. Jesus Christ (c. 4 BC - 33 AD). The interesting thing about Jesus’ amazing impact is that so many of his friends and foes alike misunderstood him, even to the end of his earthly life. Indeed, he died young and left a limited number of followers disillusioned. How great a teacher could he have been if everyone misunderstood him? Answer: The greatest! He allowed this misunderstanding, in
part, because his mission went far beyond understanding. His peace passes all understanding. His love went beyond mere words. The worst human predicament of all is sin and it took more than understanding brilliant ideas to tackle that problem.
Notable Quote: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Jesus Christ (Acts 20:35).
2. Muhammad (570-632). As a 7th century warlord, he acted and wrote to unite his tribes around Islam (lit. “submission“); a common religion, moral code and military mission. He wielded political as well as religious power. At age 25, he married an older wealthy widow. After she died, he took eleven more wives. Near the age of forty, he claimed that God (Allah) was speaking to and through him--calling him to spread the one true faith about the one true God. Islamic tradition claims that he was illiterate. After about ten years of preaching in Mecca, he fled north (622 AD) to Medina where he became a powerful warlord. In 630 AD, he returned to Mecca as a conqueror. When he died in 632, he ruled all of southern Arabia. Within a few generations, the Islamic empire became the largest the world had ever seen, spanning from India to the Atlantic Ocean. Where the armies of Islam conquered, conversions multiplied. The entire Byzantine empire was decimated.
Notable Quote: “Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death, Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.” Blaise Pascal (Penses), 17th century French philosopher.
3. Martin Luther (1483-1546). A gutsy theology professor who changed the world. He became an Augustinian monk in 1506 and a priest in 1507. He taught moral theology at Wittenberg and was appointed to the chair of biblical studies in 1512. A restless spirit accompanied his drive to feel justified before God. He posted 95 objections to Roman Catholic teachings and practices in 1517. In particular, the buying and selling of God’s favors (Indulgences) outraged him most. His “95 Theses” caught fire and the Reformation of the church began in earnest. In 1521, Luther was called on the carpet at the Diet of Worms for his writings and given a safe chance to recant. He stood by his writings. To protect him, a friend “kidnapped” him and hid him in the Wartburg castle where he translated the Bible into the vernacular German tongue, then a gutsy thing to do. God gave life to Luther at a time when free thinking was not safe. Once the reformers dared to think freely in theology, others began to think more freely in other subjects, like philosophy, science, art, music, economy, politics and so on. The changes Luther sparked planted seeds for the achievements of such thinkers as Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Rembrandt, Locke, Bach, Newton and others. Without the Reformation of Christian theology that Luther inspired, the Enlightenment era would not have followed (in my view) and the modern world we live in would not yet be.
Notable Quote: “Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a begging.” Martin Luther (1483-1546), Table Talk.
4. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). He was born fatherless in England on Christmas Day in 1642, the year Galileo died. He supplied the unified theory (encompassing laws of motion, gravitation, light, sound, space and time) that set science on its rising course. He thus sparked the scientific revolution. He fostered four scientific revolutions--in mathematics (inventing integral calculus), in optics (inventing
the reflective telescope), in mechanics (discovering three laws of motion), and with his grasp on gravity. He contributed to the advance of thermodynamics (the study of heat), acoustics (the study of sound) and astronomy. Newton believed that the beauty and regularity of the natural world could only "proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." He said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done." He actually devoted more time to Scripture than to science. He said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."
Notable Quote: “I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy, playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself, in now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered before me.'' Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), his personal estimate of his life’s work.
5. John Locke (1632 - 1704). Philosopher who laid the basic ground for constitutional democracy. He was also the founder of British empiricism. Locke was born to Puritan parents of modest means. Educated at Oxford, he became a friend to Isaac Newton. Much of his life’s work was in opposition to the excesses of authoritarianism and superstition. He was a profound influence on America's founding fathers as well as many religious leaders (like Alexander Campbell). In his Letter Concerning Toleration, he argued that the state should not interfere with the free exercise of religion. He held that governmental authority is derived not from divine rights but from the consent of the governed. He sought a liberty rooted in law and believed in the principle of the separation of powers. Human beings have natural rights--to life, liberty and property. Governments exist to protect those rights. His influence on the U.S. Constitution was enormous. In 1683, he was compelled to move to Holland after he came under political suspicions, returning to London in 1689. In 1695, he wrote The Reasonableness of Christianity, a search for the essence of Christianity. He sought a Christian core to which all reasonable men can lay hold while leaving the factions behind.
Notable Quote: "It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth." John Locke (1632-1704), Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
6. Buddha (563 - 483 BC). Prince Siddhartha was born around 563 BC in southeast India, near Nepal. He
lived in a luxurious palace and at the age of 16, married a 16 year old cousin. After the birth of his first son at age 29, he abandoned his family and his life of luxury and devoted himself to the search for enlightenment. As a penniless wanderer, he came to believe that extreme asceticism was the pathway to true wisdom, but loosened that notion later. At 35, he claimed to reach enlightenment while sitting under a fig tree. For the next 45 years he preached his philosophy throughout Northern India. The key to overcoming strife was to eliminate craving by following the Eight-fold Path (see below). So, Buddhism emerged out of Hinduism but it lost ground in India while its torch was taken up more brightly in Japan, Tibet and in parts of China. There are some 350 million Buddhists on earth today, including a host of Hollywood celebrities.
Notable Quote: “This Ayrian Eightfold Path, that is to say: Right view, right aim, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right contemplation.” Buddha or Gautama Siddhartha (563 - 483 BC).
7. Paul of Tarsus (c. 4 AD - 64 AD). He authored more New Testament books than anyone; up to 13 of the 27 books. He was born both a Jew and a Roman citizen. He became a zealous Pharisee, trained under Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He became obsessed with hatred for the early church (Acts 26:1) and he ravaged it as a zealous persecutor of “the way.” Then, as he explains it, he met the Risen Lord on a road to Damascus and was changed forever. It changed the course of Christian history as well. Paul became the greatest missionary who ever lived, planting new Christian churches all over the first century Mediterranean world. His passion to reach Gentiles strengthened his grasp of a faith not rooted in race, blood, class, rigid rules, privilege or surface credentials. When he turned his face toward Jesus, he turned his back on the role of persecutor and became the persecuted. His ongoing impact as a letter-writer to churches is vast, as was he impact on the development of Christian theology. He helped transform Christianity from a Jewish sect to a world religion. His influence on Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin was inestimable.
Notable Quote: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Paul (Galatians 5:13).
8. Moses (13th century BC). Prince, shepherd, prophet, judge and leader of men. For a man who was “...very humble, more than any other man on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3), his impact was vast. He had a way of finding trouble, even as an infant. There was a bounty on Hebrew baby boys in Egypt so Moses’ mother hid him in the bulrushes by the Nile river. Found by Pharaoh’s daughter, he was raised as an Egyptian. At age 40, he fled Egypt, fearing for his life. He spend 40 years in Midian as a foreigner (raising two sons) and at the age of 80, he was charged by God, through a burning bush, to lead His people to a land flowing with milk and honey. But the most powerful man on earth stood in Moses’ way. After ten plagues, Pharaoh relented and the Hebrew slaves were allowed to go. Moses’ mission took 40 years and he died at 120 on the brink of the promised land. The first five books of the Bible (The Torah) are attributed to Moses. More than anything else, Moses was the great intercessor! His life shows that leadership calls for prayer more than for any other quality in man.
Notable Quote: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.” (Hebrews 11:24-25).
9. C. S. Lewis (1898-1963). He was an atheist scholar who became not only a believer but the best apologist for Christian belief in his century. He was unquestionably among the most influential writers of all time. When he was 9, his mother died of cancer, despite his impassioned prayers. His schooling led him to look at God as an enemy. In 1917, he entered Oxford as a student and never really left,
except when he fought in World War One and was wounded. He converted to theism in 1929 and to Christianity in 1931. Such authors as George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton kindled the embers of Lewis’ eventual conversion. That fire never went out and it burns ever so brightly to this day. Later in life (1956), he married Joy Gresham, a New Yorker who became a Christian through Lewis’ work. She died three years later of cancer and he died three years after that on the same day Kennedy was shot in 1963. Lewis is often cited as the main reason countless believers came to believe in the first place. Many a skeptic has been won over by Lewis and his writings, and he has helped many believers to make their case well for Christian faith. His classics include The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Abolition of Man, Till We Have Faces, and many more--25 in all.
Notable Quotes: "Whatever claims reverence risks ridicule." C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love. Also, “Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.
10. William Tyndale (1494-1536). 500 years ago, the Bible was unavailable in English. Tyndale changed that. He graduated from Oxford in 1515 where he mastered Greek and Hebrew. He refuted the claim that only the clergy were qualified to read and interpret the Bible. This caused him much hardship and hunger. Exiled in Germany, he translated the New Testament into English in 1525 and 15,000 copies
were smuggled into England. Before that, the only Bible tolerated in England was a 4th century Latin translation. Tyndale’s NT was the first translated into English from the original Hebrew and Greek, and the first ever printed in English. He did not complete the Old Testament, but he was the first to translate anything from Hebrew into English. Church authorities were not able to burn all the smuggled Bibles but they eventually saw to it (through betrayal) that the translator himself was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1536. Had he remained a Catholic priest and left the Bible alone, he would no doubt have been canonized as a saint. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” Most of the King James translation (1611) was basically lifted from Tyndale’s work. The same is true of the Geneva Bible used by the Pilgrims and Puritans. Tyndale’s translation sparked a rapid rise in literacy in England. Without this literate populace, Shakespeare would have had no great audience for his masterpieces.
Notable Quote: “If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” William Tyndale, debating a clergyman.
Honorable Mention:
George Washington (1732-1799). Placed principle over ambition.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895). Advanced germ theory & preventative inoculation.
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC). His scientific knowledge was encyclopedic.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616). Great British playwright.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Astronomer, advanced the scientific method.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965). Hitler’s foremost foe.
Adam Smith (1723-1790). Scottish philosopher, innovated economic theory.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931). Prolific inventor.
Euclid (c. 330 - c 260 BC). Greek mathematician, father of geometry.
Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468) invented the printing press.
|
|
