C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
How would you construct a biblical philosophy of history?
[Edited on 8-2-2005 by webmaster]
[Edited on 8-2-2005 by webmaster]
Biblical Philosophy of History
- Thread starter C. Matthew McMahon
- Start date
- Status
sastark
Puritan Board Graduate
(You are just full of questions today, aren't you? 
)
I would start "In the beginning", with creation. You cannot construct a biblical philosophy of history unless you start with a biblical, six day creation (and yes, I know
).
After establishing that God created all things, and that all was very good, you must then acknowledge that sin entered creation.
Lastly, God has made provision for the elect to be saved from sin.
So, all of history has three parts to it: First, God created all things perfectly. Second, sin entered the world. Third, God has provided for a salvation from sin. All of history is the outworking of these three things.
[Edited on 8-2-2005 by sastark]
)I would start "In the beginning", with creation. You cannot construct a biblical philosophy of history unless you start with a biblical, six day creation (and yes, I know
). After establishing that God created all things, and that all was very good, you must then acknowledge that sin entered creation.
Lastly, God has made provision for the elect to be saved from sin.
So, all of history has three parts to it: First, God created all things perfectly. Second, sin entered the world. Third, God has provided for a salvation from sin. All of history is the outworking of these three things.
[Edited on 8-2-2005 by sastark]
New wine skin
Puritan Board Freshman
Seth, I agree with you and think you did a great job with your statement.
C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
How does ALexander the Great fit into that idea?
Puritanhead
Puritan Board Professor
David Noebel has a nice section on the Biblical conception of history in his book Understanding the Times: The Religious Worldviews of Our Day and the Search for Truth (ISBN: 1565072685)
RamistThomist
Puritanboard Assessor
For the orthodox Christian who grounds his philosophy of history on the doctrine of creation, the mainspring of history is God. Time rests on the foundation of eternity, rests on the foundation of eternity, on eternal decree of God. Time and history therefore have meaning because they were created in terms of God's perfect and totally comprehensive plan. The humanist faces a meaningless world in which he must strive to create and establish meaning. The Christian accepts a world which is totally meaningful and in which every event moves in terms of God's purpose; he submits to God's meaning and finds his life therein. This is an excellent introduction to Rushdoony. Once the reader sees Rushdoony's emphasis on God's sovereignty over all of time and creation, he will understand his application of this presupposition in various spheres of life and thought.
(Summary of Rushdoony's book, The Biblical Philosophy of History)
(Summary of Rushdoony's book, The Biblical Philosophy of History)
sastark
Puritan Board Graduate
Alexander the Great played a very significant role in redemptive history (which is another name for all of history, really). He established the Greek empire. This is significant for many reasons, some of which are:
- The Greek Empire conquered the Medio-Persian Empire, a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, especially Dan. 2
- Numerous other biblical prophecies were fulfilled because of Alexander the Great's actions. For example the abomination of desolation, Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a Greek, desecrated the Temple, in fulfillment of OT prophecy.
- The Greeks had a policy of forcing whatever peoples they conquered to learn the Greek language. This set up a single language throughout the known world, so that when the apostles were sent out into the world to preach the Gospel, they only needed to speak one langauge: Greek! (of course, this is a generality. Not everyone in the world spoke Greek, but it was the "lingua franca" of its day). This also allowed the entire NT to be written in one language.
And that's just scratching the surface of Alexander the Great's contributions to redemptive history.
VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
Seth, you answered very comprehensively! Very well done!
I think that this is helpful too, "Time and history therefore have meaning because they were created in terms of God's perfect and totally comprehensive plan."
I think that this is helpful too, "Time and history therefore have meaning because they were created in terms of God's perfect and totally comprehensive plan."
VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
History = His Story
RamistThomist
Puritanboard Assessor
I have always found the Confession's language referring to "secondary causes" to be quite helpful in dealing with this stuff.
C. Matthew McMahon
Christian Preacher
One must make a distinction between historians who observe and collect a limited number of facts, and the true significance that history has on morals and ethics, not to mention ultimate reality. Men like Karl Marx and Bertrand Russell give history no significance, and humanity no significance, at all. Life is meaningless. The best one can do (without actually defining the word "œbest") is to shoot himself in the head and to end his meaningless life rather quickly (which neither Mark or Russell did strangely enough). One must come up with an answer to the question "œWhat must be true if history and humanity are to be meaningful?"
Since God controls history, history has meaning. God will bring this "œhistory" to an end someday where the law God gave men to live by will judge everyone. God not only controls history, but He also acts in history and sent His one and only Son to come and redeem a portion of fallen humanity from sin and hell. This gives history meaning. It is objective history. But this does not prove history has meaning, rather, it simply asserts that it does.
How do we prove history has meaning?
Since God controls history, history has meaning. God will bring this "œhistory" to an end someday where the law God gave men to live by will judge everyone. God not only controls history, but He also acts in history and sent His one and only Son to come and redeem a portion of fallen humanity from sin and hell. This gives history meaning. It is objective history. But this does not prove history has meaning, rather, it simply asserts that it does.
How do we prove history has meaning?
RamistThomist
Puritanboard Assessor
Short hand, by asserting that all facts are covenantally related.
SmokingFlax
Puritan Board Sophomore
"How do we prove history has meaning"
Maybe it's just that Van Til's position is finally sinking in for me but it seems that to argue that history doesn't have meaning results in a world where NOTHING can have meaning...therefore rendering the meaningless history position not only absurd but a violent assault on reason itself. It seems to be a step towards barbarianism in my estimation.
Do I reach too far here?
Maybe it's just that Van Til's position is finally sinking in for me but it seems that to argue that history doesn't have meaning results in a world where NOTHING can have meaning...therefore rendering the meaningless history position not only absurd but a violent assault on reason itself. It seems to be a step towards barbarianism in my estimation.
Do I reach too far here?
toddpedlar
Iron Dramatist
It's for this reason that my wife and I are so excited about beginning the journey of homeschooling our children. Abigail, our oldest, will be 5 in November, and we are beginning her formal schooling this week. As we have considered curricula for history, we have chosen a combination of materials that integrates Bibilical and Church history into all teaching of world history. How can we do otherwise?
Unbelievably, some professedly Christian curriculum sellers unnaturally lobotomize their history, and teach the progression of world events *without* inclusion of events in the church... if (and I say IF) they do
church history at all, it's a small unit that is done by itself. Nothing wrong with a focused study of church history, but I simply cannot understand why any Christian company would advocate rending asunder what God has put together.
Todd
Scott
Puritan Board Graduate
Historians always have a perspective they bring. In contemporary history, you often find things like a Marxist view of history (which interprets history in terms of class and economic struggles), a feminist view of history (which interprets history in terms of sex relations), a racial view of history (could be either from perspective of showing racial oppression negatively -- ala current academia, or positively, ala mistaken groups who advocate racial superiority). There is no neutral interpretation of history, as I imagine we agree.
So, developing a Christian interpretation of history and how God works in it is so easy and straightforward that I don't think it needs further elaboration.
So, developing a Christian interpretation of history and how God works in it is so easy and straightforward that I don't think it needs further elaboration.
- Status
