The Doe of the Dawn: A Christian World View. . .

THE HOPE OF HISTORY

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. --- Is. 51:1-2

These lines indicate that when the prophet ministered to his people exiled in Babylon he preached the hope of history. He goes on to assure them that “the Lord will comfort Zion” and he will “make her wilderness like Eden,” but such hope was based upon what God had already done in history. “Look to Abraham” he tells them, pointing out that Abraham was but one when God called him, but now his children are a nation with a great destiny. The hope of history!

We all have some kind of view of history, or a philosophy of history, even if it be as crude as Henry Ford’s “History is bunk” or as fatalistic as “History repeats itself.” In this essay we are saying that a responsible view of history, one rooted in God’s revelation, is vital for a Christian world view. Indeed, the Creator of this universe is to be honored as the God of history and as a history-making God. He is the arbiter of history, supervising and over-ruling human events so that his ultimate purposes will prevail.

I say ultimate purposes because it is evident that many things that happen are not only contrary to what the Creator intends but temporarily thwart his will. Evil often triumphs over good, whether in institutions, nations, or individuals, but the hope of history is that ultimately God’s eternal pur-poses for us and the universe will be realized. “He watches over his word to perform it,” as one of the prophets puts it, or he is “in history” to make sure it comes out right. One who has read the end of a bock and knows that it all turns out all right does not have to be disturbed over events in the earlier chapters. The hope of history is not that we have read the end of the book, but that our heavenly Father has written it!

Part of what I want to say is reflected in the words of a college student who told his counselor that he wanted to study history. “History of what?” asked the counselor. The student, a bit confused by the question, replied that he did not want to study the history of anything in particular, just history. In like manner we are not looking at the history of anything in particular but at history in general, which may defined as all that has happened and is happening, which relates to all that will happen.

So we distinguish between history --- all that God, angels, demons, man, animals and insects have done and are doing --- and historiography, or written history, which is only a scant account of what has transpired. When Jesus said, “My Father works even until now and I work,” he was talking about history, only a small part of which is ever chronicled. While we value what is written, our larger view involves all that God and man have done, are doing, and will do. There is little or nothing that we can know about most of what has happened in our universe and universes beyond, but it is important that we realize that the unknown events are part of history.

One’s view of history has often affected the course of human events. Karl Marx’s economic interpretation of history has inspired several revolutionary movements and has captured the minds of upwards of half the world. Marx’s theory, known as dialectical materialism, holds that economic factors determine the course of history and that class conflict is the pivotal factor. Class conflicts affect production of goods, which in turn affects the social process. Changes in the social process in turn affects class relations, and so an evolutionary process of tensions goes on and on, which is the idea of dialectical, until the perfect socialistic state evolves.

The Marxist sees five stages in the process. Four have already appeared and the fifth, the “classless society” or pure communism, is on the horizon. Society has already passed through the system of primitive communism, the ancient system of slave labor, the system of feudal serfdom, and, because of recent Communistic revolutions, society is now passing through the stage of industrial capitalism with its doctrine of self-interest. So, according to Marxism, the world is presently divided into two economic classes: the bourgeois or the capitalists, and the proletarian or the wage-earning workers. This causes the exploitation of the workers, and the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Because of the built-in motive of self-interest, the capitalists resist any change to the system, Marxism charges, and so the way out is “the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions,” as Marx put it.

Herein lies the danger of Communism. Even by theory it is an oppressive system, imposing its will upon all who will not conform, and by any means within its power. Communists are always stirring up unrest and conflict, for they are sure that this will move society toward that ideal state that follows the rule: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” To accomplish this the individual must be sacrificed for the good of the state, and what is morally right is what promotes Communism. And it is materialistic in that it sees history as strictly determined by economic forces with no God at the controls.

It is wise for us to realize that Communism is a way of looking at history. To those of us who believe in God history is the working out of a divine purpose. To the Communist there is no God and no divine purpose, and no place for faith except in the blind, driving forces of dialectical materialism and a philosophy that might makes right. Communism will do anything, including the murder of innocent people, to promote or defend its cause. It demonstrates that the way we view history is very significant indeed. A nation that recognizes no power at work except the arbitrary forces of an evolutionary process has no basis for a moral conscience.

A less offensive view was that of Oswald Spengler, who saw history in terms of the rise and fall of nations. In his Decline of the West he examined the causes of the decay of ancient cultures and concluded that the same influences are at work in the West: the rise of great cities wherein life is artificial, fast, and shallow; the evil influence of big money; man becoming a slave to the machine; imperialism and absolute government; tendency toward race suicide; skepticism. And so, he concluded the West is decaying.

The believer can agree with Spengler that we cannot afford a superficial optimism, and that we must face up to the signs of decay in our social order. But Spengler sees the decay of nations as inevitable. There is no hope of history. If the decay of nations is a certainty, then the rise of the kingdom of God upon earth is a living hope. We believe the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of Christ in God’s tomorrow.

There are other interesting views of history, such as Albert Schweitzer’s ethical view that “the will to live,” which pervades all living things, calls for a “reverence for life” as the only possible standard for a civilization. He too saw the “suicide of civilization,” mostly in the growing disrespect for thinking and for an ethical world view, and in our narrow, superficial specializations. Industrial progress meant little to Schweitzer if it meant a neglect of the enhancement of man’s moral energy. But Schweitzer did little to reach beyond man’s own inner resources to those fountains of renewal that come only from the Creator. Any world view that holds that somehow man can save himself can no more be trusted than a broken tooth.

Then there is the cyclical view of history, which has been called “eternal recurrence” or described as history repeating itself. As seasons move in cycles so does history. The Eastern religions apply this view to reincarnation in which every individual life is seen as a succession of lives existing repeatedly in limitless time. This view is prominent in India today, where everything is seen as eternal and repetitious, and where the transition of life is conceived as a transmigration or as a perpetual wheel of rebirths.

A Christian world view, on the other hand, sees each soul as distinctive, as created in the image of God, and that if an individual experiences another birth it is a spiritual birth that comes from above. Such a faith finds meaning and purpose in each person, which is lost in the Indian concept of reincarnation. With such a view one soon finds no meaning to life and a barren fatalism snuffs out any hope for tomorrow.

The hope of history is a theme of Scripture. “In the beginning God. . .” sets the tone. We can believe that the God who started all this in such a glorious way can and will bring it to fruition with even greater glory. As the spiritual puts it, He’s got the whole wide world in his hands!

The theme of the hope of history goes even deeper when Scripture pictures God upon his throne, saying, Behold, I make all things new. The Creator is continually renewing all his creation, whether man, animals, plants, the earth, and down the road is the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven to bless a redeemed mankind.

What a blessing it is to be a part of all this! The faith we hold is a historical faith, more so than any other world religion, in that it is based upon actual events in history, especially the life, death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah, whom we believe to have been Jesus of Nazareth, who was a human being like us, who grew up in the hill country of Judea, not unlike the way we grew up. History! Jesus was there just as we are there, a figure of history. But he was more than that. He became the superintendent of history. It is now all in his hands, and he will see it through.

This kind of thinking was too much for the apostle Paul, who set forth a substantial philosophy of history in Romans 9-11, where he says in essence that in due time God will do all that he has promised, including the “bringing in” of the Jews. But he will do it in his own way and in his own time. It was “In the fullness of time” that the Christ came, Paul reminds us in Gal. 4:4, and in Rom. 11:25 he talks about until, a strong historical word, “until the full number of Gentiles come in.” Then Israel will be saved. There was clearly the hope of history in Paul’s faith.

But still it was too much for him, for he concluded his view of history with: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

It is a good place to stop --- and to start --- in our hope of history. --- the Editor

Christians, of all people, should not be surprised that the historical process is deeply ironic. Redemptive history, after all, is one story after another of God turning the intentions of men, good and bad, to his own better and wiser purpose. Joseph’s brothers intended to kill him, but God deflected this evil to the rescue of an entire people. “You intended to harm me; but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:30). From the monarchy, which Israel had erected in defiance, God raised up the house of David in whose seed all nations would be blessed. In history’s ultimate irony death and hell were crushed at the cross even as they exulted in momentary triumph. --- from The Search for Christian America, p. 154