The Old World method of measuring human value was, and still is, by the group. Whether tribe, clan, city-state, color, ethnic, or gender, the Old World, ancient and modern, measures human value by the plural-unit. Individuals had no value of themselves but only as they were part of a collective.

When Y’shua Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Temple at the Holy of Holies parted from the top down. The individual believer in the congrega- tion had, for the first time, a face-to-face, one-on-one relation with his Creator. The Creator, Himself, had validated The Individual for the first time. Thus, The Individual became the cornerstone for later human value measuring systems: socio-political, philosophical, religious, educational, economic, etc., henceforth and forever. Western Civilization, America, civil Rights, Law, democracy, etc., all sprang from that single event. (Greco-Roman ‘democracies’ were 95% slave throughout their entire histories.)

Many social systems attempt to borrow ideas of “democracy” without the basic premise in The Individual. Such a system is only superficially and temporarily ‘democratic.’ The cornerstone of democracy is The Individual, and the cornerstone of the value of The Individual is Y’shua Jesus! It is not possible to have one without the other.

[It is interesting to note that all value measuring systems are based on the single unit of the system. (Ex: Number, Time, Distance, Weight, Heat, Money, Angle, Volume, etc.)]

Only humanism makes the abusive error of measuring human value by the plural unit and building social structures, relations, and institutions thereon. Such systems can only be abusive because in reality there are ONLY individual persons. Groups or collectives are merely convenient verbalizations about individuals – they are not reality.

I have yet to see a ‘group.’ All I have ever seen are individuals.Have you ever seen a group, or is it a verbalization; a verbal ‘convenience?’ Reality is only in the individual. And, such a validation never derived from a human source without the initiative of the Creator. Today, wherever Jesus is rejected, the group or plural-unit is still the basic way of measuring human value – and human non-value!

Thank you, Lord God, for revealing your validation of each individual person. Thank you for creating each person uniquely, in Your image, and calling each one to a courageous ascension by Y’shua Jesus, who said,”I AM the Way,…”

Never again need a person lack self-worth, feel inferior, or envy another person and join a ‘group’ to feel valuable. YOU are the only YOU in the history of the planet! Praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and His ‘Son of Man’ Y’shua Jesus.

References:

Exodus 25-30, 40
Hebrews 9
Matthew 27:51
Mark 15:38
Luke 23:45

James Fletcher Baxter is a Marine Veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Baxter retired in 1986 and performed missionary work, worked as a movie extra and is currently webmaster of Man, The Choicemaker.