History: man-made or God driven? Pt. 2.

One night many years ago one of earth’s greatest kings Nebuchadnezzar, d. 562 B. C., had a dream. The dream was so disturbing that he called all his wise men and demanded that they not only tell him what he dreamt, but that they tell him also what the interpretation was!

        Wow, this was draconian! Not only did this monarch demand that his counsellors foretell the past, but they must also be able to foretell the future by interpreting the dream for the dream was about the future! Is this possible or reasonable for any scientist? The king thought so. He thought so because his counsellors were esoteric scientists who dealt with all the branches of knowledge including metaphysics. So he concluded that they should be able to relate what he dreamt and also the meaning of his dream. One may read the story in the Bible in Daniel 2. Secular history also attests to the existence of this king and his conquest of Judah, in the land of Israel.[1]  While the Bible book of Daniel 2 gives an accurate pageantry of the empires of Babylon through to the empire of Rome and to the fall of earthly civilizations, some may ask the question, ‘but is that history?’ Of course at the time when Daniel accurately predicted the future it was not yet history, however, because the Bible predicted events which are now genuine history, one can correctly conclude that the Bible with its predictions is also a historical book. Werner Keller puts it succinctly when he reasons, because “Cuneiform tablets discovered at Mari on the Euphrates were found to contain Biblical names” and the “narratives of the patriarchs which had been for a long time regarded as merely pious tales” they were therefore “unexpectedly transferred into the realm of history[2]” and now all can see that the Bible is itself is historical.

        So to the query above as to whether biblical predictions fall in the realm of history, George Shankel in his work God and Man in History raises the idea as to whether there are determinants to control human action and to give direction to history?[3] Before WW1 men thought that we were in a golden age of peace as Isaiah 2:4 said: “nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore.” Anyone who thought and spoke differently was called a prophet of doom. But “WWII shattered the hopes of humanity and men and women looked to the future with foreboding, and thinking men and women wondered whether we are near the biblical end of history.[4]” In light of such pessimism what would a Christian philosophy of history look like?

        Is there room for a God-centred philosophy of history? Is God actually directing in the affairs of history as Abraham Lincoln said in his second Inaugural Address, “the Almighty has His own purposes[5]”? History can of course be written from a Christian or Godly (even ‘godly’) perspective or from a secular, evolutionary perspective. Although not evolutionists, the Greeks saw history as cyclical, a concept which originated with Hinduism. This is one of the two worldviews that nations adhered to. The Hindu worldview developed through man’s use of his reasoning ability. He noticed in nature that you have spring, summer, autumn and winter continually; the sun repeatedly rose in the east and set in the west; and water came from the ocean, formed into the clouds and fell back to the earth and returned to the ocean via the rivers.

        Humans were hardly different, they are born, grew old, died, and were born again. Hindus reasoned that humans that were born and eventually died actually came back again like the seasons, like the sun set and sunrise, and like the water leaving the ocean and eventually returning to the ocean. The Hindus called it the transmigration of the soul or reincarnation. This is the cyclical worldview of history and is found in many eastern and ancient religions. Some European religions that co-mingled with nations of the east[6] incorporated that belief into their beliefs.  This is a very ancient concept but, in this worldview we can see the trappings of the great original from a biblical perspective: God made life and the world beautiful and without evil and sin; however, mankind sinned and all life on earth inherited death for the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), but God offered pardon, restoration, and the renewal of humans and the earth.[7] And all who accepted this offer will live again, not immediately after they died, as the Hindu original which morphed from this truth said. Even Jesus re-iterated this original concept when he said: “John 11:25-26 I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

The second worldview of history which is really comes first, is the concept of creation, life, death, and the future; this is the Judeo worldview (this is the same for those religions that follow Judaism, like Christianity and Islam), and this worldview is that history is linear. This biblical worldview offers hope, assurance, and restoration in the end. From my perspective the Linear worldview of history has more checks and balances to sustain its creditability than the Hindu worldview or any of its modified worldviews. In the linear worldview we have history at its beginning, its progress and its culmination. Since this worldview shows the purposes of the Almighty, we of necessity must include prophecies, predictions, and the interventions of God in the affairs of mankind as detailed in the Scriptures. Previous articles have elaborated on these actions of God. When we look at today’s history in the making, we find that it is not ad hoc or nebulous, although it might appear so, but it does seem to be as Lincoln observed above, moving according to the purposes of the Almighty. Interestingly, a snippet of God’s purposes is seen in the text, Revelation 11:18, where God says that “the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and to destroy them which destroy the earth.”

        God will not allow humans to destroy the earth with injections, wars, pollution, nor will He allow a ‘take over’ of the earth by an elitist group or a religious consortium who would like to inaugurate a fourth industrial revolution feudalizing the mass of humanity under them. This view that God will not allow a ‘take-over’ of the world by an elitist or religionist group can be seen in the text, Revelation 18:1 where it says, “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.” This text is telling us that God will control future events, not elitists nor those religionists. No lockdowns, masks, or distancing will prevent this text from being fulfilled. In fact the next verse goes on to state, (Revelation 18:2), “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” This text actually turns the tables around and gives a sharp warning to all humanity to refrain from their rebellion against Him and return to Him that He might save them. This is the work of God’s servants, and none or nothing can stop them.

        As we look to the future in these times of apparent total confusion of a man-made, so called pandemic, in times of the bloodshed and carnage caused by a dithering US government, God offers better days ahead. One popular author puts it this way: “It is with an earnest longing that I look forward to the time when the events of the Day of Pentecost shall be repeated with even greater power than on that occasion, see the Acts of the apostles 2:1-5. The apostle John says, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory [Revelation 18:1]. Then, as at the Pentecostal season, the people will hear the truth spoken to them, every man in his own tongue. In visions of the night, representations passed before me of a great reformatory movement among God’s people. Many were praising God. The sick were healed, and other miracles were wrought. A spirit of intercession was seen, even as was manifested before the great Day of Pentecost. The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel, are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers.”[8] That, my friends, is God’s projection of the direction the earth will take and no human or governments will be able to stop it. Please read more of this in the book, Last Day Events, by E. G. White, it can be purchased off Amazon books and is published in several languages. You will be greatly rewarded.

        Let us conclude with a brief look at progression in history (a view of events as they turn into history). C. H. Dodd, et al, noted that in their book, The Kingdom of God and History, “The cyclic theory of history was adumbrated [faintly described] in Platonism, and made into a dogma by the Stoics, who postulated an endless series of cycles of time, each ending with a general conflagration, and beginning afresh with a ‘rebirth’.[9]” Please notice that even in the cyclic worldview there is the promotion of progression although it is kept in the background. In this worldview one progresses continually via death and rebirth until one becomes ‘one’ with Brama. The Greeks took this cyclic theory and gave it limited progression until they reached equanimity (a balance, equilibrium) of spirit by a withdrawal of life. In light of this Grecian, pessimistic worldview of history we can understand the rise of groups like the Stoics, Epicureans and the Skeptics.[10]  While on the one hand the cyclic worldview of history leads to the lowland fogs of pessimism, the linear worldview leads to the sunlit hights of a restored and everlasting kingdom.[11]

        Progression in the linear worldview of history means that after the first chapter of life slipped into history due to disobedience of the rules of life through death, the second chapter is the present. In this chapter which will soon be history, God is sounding the warning to every individual on earth to recognize that He is in control of world events. The elitists will not kill off humanity with bio-weapons and injections and take control the world; satan and united religion under the leadership of the Vatican (the hidden leader is of course satan himself) will not succeed in subjugating the earth; humans will not destroy this earth which they are well capable of and will do if left to themselves; read it, as shown above, in Revelation 11:18. This passage outlines three objectives of the return of Christ to earth, 1) to judge the dead (and the living, see Revelation 22:12);[12] 2) to give the gift of eternal life to every to everyone who accepted his offer of pardon and restoration; and finally, 3) to destroy those who destroy the earth. From the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden to the date when Jesus returns to earth for His people will be earth’s sad and final history of sin and rebellion. And this history will forever be vanished and remembered no more.

        Revelation 21:4 assures us: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” I can therefore say with certainty, my friends, hang on, the best is yet to come! The most beautiful and sublime part of history will be our future history, the Bible give us this wonderful promise: ^“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9, Isa. 64:4. Therefore, we can define human history as the divine shaping of human destiny from the beginning through the present and finally, the future.

        I leave you my dear friends with these words of comfort, while human history may appear to be a ‘tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing,’[13] when, however, the curtains are drawn wide we see that the redeemed “will share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God’s handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation-suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from the least to the greatest, the Creator’s name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed,” at last, “The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all flow life and light and gladness throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare, that God is love.”[14] Hang on, my dear readers the best is yet to come!

[1] John Bright, A History Of Israel, London: SCM Press Ltd, 1972), p. 343, Chap. 9.

[2] Werner Keller, The Bible As History, tr. from German by William Neil, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books), p. 21.

[3] George Edgar Shankel, God and Man in History, (Nashville, Tenn.,1967), p. 12

[4] George Edgar Shankel, pp. 12-14

[5] March 4, 1865, (Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address – Lincoln Memorial (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov))

[6] Spaeths.net/worldviews.htm. See also: Glenn S. Sunshine, Why You Think The Way You Do: The story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home (Zondervan Academic, 2009).

[7] Genesis 1-4, 6.

[8] Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, (Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Ass., 1992), pp. 202-203

[9] H. G. Wood, The Kingdom of God and History, Chicago: Clark & Company, 1938), p. 18

[10] George Edgar Shankel, p. 33

[11] George Edgar Shankel, p. 37.

[12] Revelation 22:12: And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Revelation 22:12

[13] William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

[14] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, (Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Ass., copyright renewed 1939), 677-78

If you have any comments or questions please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.

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