I was watching in the night visions,
and behold, One like the Son of Man,
coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought Him hear before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and
glory and a kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and His kingdom the one which shall
not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13-14
Setting things straight so as not to get lost in this essay on history. I am not attempting by these blogs to prove the existence of God. God exists, and God is sovereign over all creation. His Son Jesus Christ is our Savior for all those of the family of God. This foundation is the basis for all that is written. History is here outlined and we by study of history can see the grace and sovereignty of God.
I have covered
two different types of philosophers, the pessimist, and the optimists. The
pessimist sees no progress in history and sees life as a series of cycles that
are superimposed upon each other leading to the decay of a nation. The
optimists are humanists who while seeing the world with eyes for people, their
needs, their welfare, values, and dignity, have at the base this ethical theory
that rejects the importance for a belief in God. The see progress as a series
of contradictions that are reconciled until an Absolute Spirit, (note: not God)
is developed. Man is king and the one that is the determiner for their lives
and history. Optimists will accept modern Biblical criticism, and they accept
the theory of evolution. We have seen men such as Hegel, Karl Marx, and how
their form of optimism has affected, even to the point of shaping the world;
not in a good way.
The third group
of interpreters and philosophers are the pessimistic optimists. I personally
fall into this group as do those who ascribe to the truth of Scripture as the
infallible and inerrant word of God. We agree with the pessimists who determine
and emphasize the failure of unregenerate man, yet we see through Scripture,
God’s divine revelation to man, grace, and we are optimistic concerning man’s
future. As an optimist we can approach history as one who seeks through
Scripture the glory of God in the historic process. We see history as a process
of conflict between good and evil, God and the Devil. This conflict man can be
seen to be helpless apart from the grace of God. We see in history the work of
God by His Son Jesus Christ upon the cross as the final guaranteed of the
eventual victory of the divine plan for man and earth.
In Augustine’s
(354–430 A.D.) book; The City of God, we can find a defense from an
early church father and an explanation of Christianity. His is an excellent
illustration of this pessimistic/ optimistic interpretation of history:
The
glorious city of God is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son
Marcellinus ( a friend of Augustine)suggested, and which is due to you
by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who prefer their own
gods to the Founder of this city,––a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view
it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as
a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed
stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, expecting
until “righteousness shall return unto judgment, and it obtain, by virtue of
its excellence, final victory and perfect peace. A great work this, and an
arduous; but God is my helper.[1]
Augustine’s conception of
God, history and the fate of man was ascribed that creation is the work of the
sovereign God who created all things. Augustine’s view of history, unlike men
such as Hegel, or Marx, who favored that man is the beginning and the final
determiner of life and history, he argues by encompass within his scope of
history the whole of man. Augustine agues that the course of human history
proceeds to and from the Cross. This Authentic Biblical Christians have
determined from Scripture and agree with Augustine. From the cross flows divine
grace and is operative in the Christian church. The church is the visible body
of the invisible God and of His Son Jesus Christ. Christians with this divine
grace operating in them are strengthened so that they will and are able to
engage on the side of God conflicts of evil until history reaches its
cataclysmic consummation with the return of Jesus Christ.
There is an artistic element
involved in interpretation. Why? The interpreter must seek to be artistic as
possible in his presentation of the facts. This element has not been stressed
enough in this modern day and with modern historians, the element of being
artistic and interesting in their literary presentation of history. Not to be
allegorical, not to embellish the facts, rather to present them in such a way
as to make them interesting and readable, desirable to be known.
The three forms
of philosophical interpretation have been outlined but I do not want to just
present a dreary academic exercise, a simple remembering of facts. I will give
much thought and I hope you too, as to its value to the Christian.
For He taught His disciples
and said to them,
"The Son of Man is being betrayed
into the hands of men, and thy
will kill Him. And after He is killed,
He will rise the third day.
Mark 9:31 (History)
Continue To Walk In Faith, No Matter What!
Richard L. Crumb
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