America abolished slavery, criminalized racial discrimination, ended western colonialism and
elected a black President because its founders built the nation on “truths” that “all men are
created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights (including) . . .
“liberty.” Human equality is not an observable, scientific fact. If reasoning is the rationalization
of vested interests, then how did a slave owning elite come up with ideas that hurt their vested
and evolutionary interests? How could these unprovable ideas inspire battles that changed
history in morally positive directions?
Chapter 1, “A Saint, a Bear, and a Book” celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Swiss
Reformation which began in 1519. A brief history of the Swiss city of St. Gallen becomes a
reader’s gateway into the world created by the Bible.
Chapter 2, “A Dream That Changed the West” explains why St. Paul’s dream of a Macedonian
man, became the most important event in Western history.
Chapter 3, “Can Freud’s Creator Communicate?” tackles the tough question, can the divine
Spirit reveal truth to the human spirit? Or, are all our dreams, visions, intuitions, and
revelations produced by our unconscious minds?
Section 2 “The West: Losing Its Soul”
Dr. Mangalwadi helps the reader appreciate the past by looking at the West’s current
confusion, conflicts and cultural collapse.
Chapter 4, “Losing Soul, Logic, and Language” reviews the West’s intellectual history from
Descartes (“I think, therefore, I am”) to Derrida’s deconstruction of the “self” as an artificial
linguistic construct. Did the Enlightenment’s confidence die so that brain chemistry (logic and
empirical experience) can know truth without revelation? Were the Greeks right that human
words (logic and language) cannot be trusted without postulating “logos” (supernatural Word,
Sense, Thought, Idea, Form) as the foundation of all reality?
Chapter 5, “Marginalizing the Center: The Church” explains the serious cultural consequences
of the decline of the first institution created by the Bible. The Church was the womb that
birthed the modern world; her milk nurtured civilization.
Chapter 6, “Law and Liberty: Did Rome Put the Law Above Caesars?” reminds readers that
armies and popular demand did not compel emperors to limit their authority under law. The
freedom-generating idea of the rule of law came from Church Councils. They concluded that
the Messiah was not a man who became God. He was the eternal God who became a man to
restore to the sons and daughters the kingdom they had lost. The Messiah was the King,
therefore, all kings and judges are subject to His law, that is His word.
Chapter 7: “Bloodshed for Tolerance” asks the question – why has the postmodern West gone
back to tolerating immorality and fake news, while suppressing virtue and truth. Intolerance
was a part of Europe’s DNA which declared a public figure innocent and then crucified him. His
followers shed their blood to win the West for tolerance because they believed that citizens
belonged to God, therefore the state could have no authority over their souls.
Section 3: New Kingdom: New Sovereigns
Jesus Christ stirred up a Roman colony, Israel, by proclaiming that God’s Kingdom had come. His
audience understood the 'Good News’ to mean that Daniel’s prophecies made six centuries
earlier, were about to be fulfilled. They experienced Rome’s beastly Empire as Satan’s kingdom.
They expected the Messiah to become the “cornerstone” that would demolish a diabolical
empire and make the oppressed a great nation — a blessing to all the nations.
Chapter 8, “Why Didn’t the US Become an Empire?” traces the Bible’s role in curing the West of
its political cancer called “Empire.” Holland and Switzerland were the first to free themselves
from the “Holy Roman Empire.” They inspired British colonies in North America to become a
sovereign “nation.” The United States of America went on to become a great nation that helped
liberate colonies from European imperialism. Liberated colonies adopted the Bible’s Jewish idea
of nation, and after WWII the USA re-organized liberated colonies under the umbrella of the
United Nations (UN), not United Empires.
Chapter 9, “How Did ‘We the People’ Become Sovereign?” explains the development of the
West’s unique idea of “Popular Sovereignty.” Emperors did not make citizens sovereign. Nor did
a political scientist cook up a compelling theory. Kingship of all believers was a theological truth
taught by the Bible. The Bible revealed that God created Man (male and female) to govern the
earth as His children. Disobedience made man a slave to sin and Satan. The Messiah shed his
blood to ransom sinners and restore to them the lost authority of sonship. Sons sit on thrones,
managing their father’s kingdom. This biblical seed blossomed during the Scottish Reformation.
The Enlightenment didn’t invent freedom. It simply renamed it “Democracy.”
Chapter 10, “Chancellors, Presidents, Prime Ministers: Who Redefined Leadership?” explains
why nations are no longer governed by Emperors. German speaking nations are ruled by Chancellors, America-inspired nations by Presidents, and former British colonies are served by
Prime Ministers. The Bible changed the political vocabulary, redefined leadership and gave rise
to new titles and offices.
Section 4: Words That Built Nations
Cultures differ because they are fruit of different ideas. If “Thou shalt not steal” is not God’s
commandment, then nothing prevents a state to collectivize agriculture and industry. A ruling
elite seeks to control businesses and services – not just education, banking and medicine but
they want control of mining, media, transportation, even hotel management. The rulers rob
citizens of motivation to create wealth. There is no organ in the human body called the
‘Conscience.” Therefore, those who believe that truth comes only through physical senses
consider “soul” to be a religious fiction. They dismiss freedom of conscience as a myth, instead
of honoring it as a right and responsibility. Ideas are formulated and communicated in words,
therefore, section 4 looks at the Bible’s impact on economy, literature, media, and
industrialization.
Chapter 11, deals with the “Economy of the People, by the People, for the People.” It looks at
the roots of modern economic miracle that began with a run-away nun, Katherine von Bora.
Along with German reformers she gave to Western Europe a new breed of religious and civic
leaders. The chapter goes on explain economic freedom through the birth of the Stock Market
in the Netherlands and Insurance in Scotland.
Chapter 12, “The Oracles of God and the Literature of Man” Dr Ashish Alexander looks at early
Indian novels. He serves as the Head of the Department of English and Foreign Languages in
SHUATS, a university in North India. The essay explains why, beginning with John Bunyan’s
classic “Pilgrim’s Progress”, the Bible became the matrix of a global literary revolution that
liberated the masses and empowered the weak and the vulnerable.
Chapter 13, “From Prophetic Press to Fake New” Dr. Jenny Taylor, an expert on the rise and
decline of the British press, recounts the case of William Thomas Stead. Her essay explains how
the Bible made a scribe’s pen was more powerful than a knight’s sword. Fake news is an
inevitable consequence of a culture that has lost the philosophical foundation for a belief in
truth.
Chapter 14, “The Secret of Swiss Industrialization” Mangalwadi returns to study Switzerland.
How did this isolated, landlocked, resource-poor country, which never colonized another
nation, become the world’s most inventive culture? Eighty-five percent of Swiss industry
developed in Reformed Swiss Cantons because the Bible is the secret of Switzerland’s success.
Conclusion:
Chapter 15, Can The West Be Renewed? Almost all western languages are products of Bible
translation. The Bible gave meaning to words, thereby, shaping the western mind and mores —
the habits of the heart. A generation without familiarity with the Bible and its impact on
culture, has lost the definition, meaning and intent of the words used to speak meaningfully to
one another. The West has lost the traditional basis for agreeing upon simple words such as
male, female, husband, love, marriage, family, and divorce as well as terms that express
complex ideas such as nation, borders, citizenship, justice, liberty, law and human rights.
Fascism amputated Germany’s soul, the Bible, which gave meaning to German words and
worldview. The whole world had to pay the price of Fascist arrogance. History could repeat
itself in America but need not do so. A new Great Awakening is possible, in fact necessary. This
Book Changed Everything is a brave intellectual attempt to restore the inspired foundations of
the modern world.
