As Holland studied Roman or Spartan culture, and its brutality, he noticed that it exuded a morality that was not his. Christian influence on Western civilization is so profound that it has come to be hidden from view.
The Romans might have the rule of the world; the Greeks might have their philosophy; the Persians might claim to have fathomed the dimensions of truth and order; but all were deluded. Darkness covered the earth, and thick darkness was over the nations. Only once the Lord God of Israel had risen upon them, and his glory appeared over them, would they come into the light, and kings to the brightness of dawn. For there was no other god but him. Marduk had commissioned a further act of creation. ‘I will make man,’ he had declared, ‘who shall inhabit the earth, that the service of the gods may be established, and their shrines built.’ Humanity, molded out of dust and blood, had been bred to labor.