Have you ever marveled at today’s world? Consider some of the wonderful characteristics of modern civilization, such as, human worth, equality between men and women, compassion and charity, efficacious health care, empirical scientific knowledge, universal education, and dignity of work.

You might ask, what is so special about these things? Well, if you lived in the days of the Roman Empire some two thousand years ago, the above qualities would have been very special.

The Roman Empire that dominated the world during Christ’s time displayed very different cultural traits. For example, human life was not valued; human beings had no intrinsic value other than to serve the purpose of the state. The culture was a male chauvinistic system in which women had no rights. There was no expression of compassion and charity, no organizations to help in times of dire need. Health care practices were based on superstition and therefore ineffective; furthermore, there were no hospitals or medical clinics. Empirical scientific knowledge was nonexistent because empirical research was not valued and therefore not practiced. Education was limited to males from wealthy families; there were no educational institutions. Work was disdained; it was below the dignity of Roman citizens and relegated to slaves.

Now do you feel blessed?

But this begs another question—how did the transformation happen? How did civilization move from the oppression of the Roman culture to the blessings that we enjoy today?

Charles Murray sought the answer to this question and reported his findings in his book  Human Accomplishment. Murray researched three thousand years of human history seeking to uncover the factors that facilitate human accomplishment. He discovered three key factors needed by any culture: first, belief in personal destiny; second, belief in personal responsibility to fulfill one’s destiny; and third, a culture that supports personal destiny. His initial assumption was that human accomplishment would be evenly distributed among all worldviews, but he was wrong. According to Murray, a self-professed agnostic, these three factors occur almost exclusively in cultures that embrace a biblical worldview.

Murray’s conclusion is not surprising. In fact, he could have saved himself considerable time and money by simply looking at Scripture, which reveals the reality that alignment with God facilitates blessings and rebellion against God leads to judgment (see the above text). Human advancement is a great blessing, but it only comes through obedience to God, that is, individuals and organizations fulfilling their destinies in alignment with a biblical worldview.

Therefore the transformation of the civilized world from a repressive Roman culture to today’s prosperous culture happened through the labors of men and women fulfilling their divinely ordained destiny in the context of a biblical worldview.

Here is your business tip. The key to human advancement is alignment with the will and ways of God. Therefore to build healthy growing organizations, management must build with workers who are each doing what he or she is called to do in accordance with a biblical worldview. And management must set a supportive context that enables the workers to reach their potential, which then facilitates human advancement. To do this, management must make the Bible the handbook of their organizational philosophy, values, principles, and practices. Everything in the organization must be grounded in and aligned with the Bible.