God and History

Mark Dunagan
12/19/10 - Sunday Morning

History:
Savior Or Schoolmaster?

Believers in both Testaments are warned about putting anything before God (Exodus 20:3). 1 Corinthians 10:14 puts it this way: "flee from idolatry". Hebert Schlossberg reminds us that all idols belong either to nature or to history, that the whole creation falls into those two categories and there is no other place to which man can turn to find a substitute for God. "Any idol that is not an artifact of the natural world is an artifact of the social world" (Idols For Destruction, p. 11). Have you ever considered that "history" itself can become a false god as well as any idea, pleasure, or statue?

What is History?

I think the most simple and accurate definition of the history that I have heard is this: "History is what comes between creation and the final judgment". Another description is that the arena in which providence and judgment meet the obedience or rebellion of man - this is history. History, then, is intended to be instructional, or in other words, a "moral". There are many inaccurate theories concerning history, views that place history on a level with God, still in reality, it is simply the record of man's moral choices, good or bad.

Schlossberg observes that complex ideas, like all ideas, do not remain the exclusive property of intellectuals. Many people who don't have a clue about the origin of a particular idea or way of viewing reality, and who have never gone to college or read a particular book will put any given idea into their own words. The above expression is an example of how the common man words a particular view of history. He or she will simply say something like, "We can't turn back the clock". This is the type of response that Christians often hear when they talk about how bad things are becoming in our society. When people don't realize is that when they say, "We can't turn back the clock", they are saying that historical trends cannot be challenged or resisted - which basically declares the trend to be all-powerful, and by doing so divinize the status quo. The other problem is that the idea "We can't turn back the clock" is a given in its literal meaning, - yet anyone who has read history, can see this statement in reality is obviously not true. There are plenty of examples of cultures that did in essence "turn back the clock." Cultures have moved back and forth countless times from democracy to authoritarianism, from high hemlines to low hemlines, from moral permissiveness to strict morality, and so on. Anyone who has studied their Bible equally knows that turning back the clock is not only possible, it is commanded and has been achieved countless times:

• "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it" (Jeremiah 6:16).
• Men like Hezekiah and Josiah were very successful in moving nations back to God (2 Kings 18-21 and 22-23).
• The work of Ezra and Nehemiah can also be accurately described as turning back the clock (Nehemiah 9:2)
• Even in the short history of the United States there have been a number of times that the clock as been turned back.

The First Great Awakening, a huge religious revival happened in this country from around 1725 to 1750. The Second Great Awakening took place from 1800 to 1840 and was sparked by the American Restoration Movement and a return to New Testament Christianity. The Third Great Awakening happened from 1880 to 1910.

We Can Turn the Clock Back

I reject the idea that once a nation starts on a course it can't return to God, because such an idea would say that specific individuals cannot change (2 Peter 3:9), that Christians have no influence in this world (Matthew 5:13-16), and that God Himself is wrong because He says nations can change (Jeremiah 18). I do not think that Jesus would have ever called His people "salt" and "light" if resistance is indeed futile, and the flow of history was one direction and all-powerful.

"Inevitable Progress"

This is not merely the hope that things get better in the future, but the firm conviction that progress must take place. This makes history a Savior, it is the belief that "everything will work out", and that all the answers to whatever problems we are facing as a society will be simply found in the future. This view equally justifies whatever changes are taking place in the culture as "progress" and most "changes" are viewed as always good and positive, for the new is always better. I can see how people get caught up in thinking that history will simply provide our deliverance, because there has been just enough positive progress to make this view look believable. If I concentrate on thinking about technology, medicine, and certain living conditions in certain parts of the world, then it looks like we are better off than our ancestors. Yet I'd have to live in a bubble over the last 20 or 30 years to continue thinking this way. Clearly, many Empires have come and gone. Inevitable progress did not take place in South America, Africa, or Egypt. Even in recent times, England, France, Germany, and Japan are no longer the powerful forces they once were. Even technology does not improve everything, for appliances might be prettier and more sophisticated, yet they don't last as long as the old ones. The new generation might not have the work ethic of the old one. People's dedication to their commitments, like marriage, is waning. We seem to lack old-fashioned values, like self-control. Socially we are not succeeding. Man's character is not improving, rather we see exactly this: "For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy..." (2 Timothy 3:2). Added to this passage we could equally observe:

• "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

The above verse reminds us that the theory of "inevitable progress" is not only false when it comes to nations, it is false when it comes to religion or morals as well. Too many churches seem to justify their changes by simply believing that whatever they are doing in the present must be superior to what was done in the past. It is the idea that "right" is a moving target, propelled by people's feelings. Things were wrong yesterday, but tomorrow who can say? Schlossberg comments, "A society that cannot tolerate a judge beyond history will find that it can learn to tolerate anything else" (p. 37).

• The Old Testament is littered with Empires that did not continue to move toward progress, but instead fell: Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistine, Canaanite, Amorites, Hittite, Assyrian, Phoenicia and Greece.

"The Pendulum Swings Back and Forward"

Let us resist the temptation to comfort ourselves by saying that one extreme will automatically be corrected by a shift to the other extreme in a generation or so.

• The pendulum does not have a mind of its own. It takes real people making real efforts and real sacrifices and preaching God's truth in order for things to move back to stability. There is no mindless cycle at work here, rather, people must repent and determine to live better (Jeremiah 18:8) in order for true progress to be made.
• The pendulum does not always return. Assyria fell, so did Babylon, and so did Judah, God's own people! "Until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy" (2 Chronicles 36:16). Even after Josiah's reforms, God noted, "However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath with which He anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manassah had provoked Him" (2 Kings 23:26).

The Real Cause of a Nation's Collapse

Often historians themselves will miss the real cause. For example, if one studied Israel in the Old Testament and concluded that they fell to the Babylonians because of economic, social, political, and military causes, one would be wrong. All the prophets said that the nation was destroyed because God's judgment had fallen upon Israel as a result of their unfaithfulness to God (2 Chronicles 36:16; Jeremiah 19:3-9). This was true of both Israel (2 Kings 17) and Judah. Therefore, the "causes" that the historian often cites are not the real cause at all, they are merely the effects. Historians often make this mistake because of their commitment to exclude God from the equation, they think that "history is the whole show", rather than realizing that, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14:34), and "God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and that He sets over it whomever He wishes" (Daniel 5:21). This is the bigger and more accurate picture.

The Good News

• History is not Lord, God is. History is not to be idolized, the future is not our Savior, yet at the same time, we should never regard history as trivial or meaningless. It is important, but not all-important. It has much to teach us, but is not the final voice of authority - scripture is. History may impose some limitations on what we can currently do, but it does not control is. It should be respected, but not worshipped. Actually, history only has value when viewed from a Christian perspective, because it is a record of man's obedience or rebellion to God - and the lessons that need to be learned for the next generation (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:12).
• We are not on an endless or meaningless cycle. While there are many familiar cycles in history (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11) - there is a termination point, not brought on by a bleak exhaustion of resources, over-crowding or the dying of the sun, rather it is a final meeting with the Creator in Judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10).
• Christianity is based in history. It is not a collection of cleverly devised fables (2 Peter 1:16). The apostles had to beeyewitnesses of a historical event (Acts 1:22), Jesus was born (Luke 2:1-2) and started preaching (Luke 3:1) at a definite time in history. When Samuel charged Israel to remain faithful to God (1 Samuel 12) or when Stephen preached (Acts 7), both gave a history lesson. Let us gain the wisdom this schoolmaster has to offer.

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net