What is History? The Biblical View of History

Throughout the current series of postings we have been working towards being articulating a complete Biblical paradigm for conceptualizing history. We have ruled out both the chaotic view of time and pure cyclicality alone as workable models. In addition, a brief historiographical survey, beginning with the Greeks, was presented which served to demonstrated that since the beginning of written history time has been articulated by either cyclical or linear constructs. In contrast to the cyclicality of the Greeks, the Christian theologian and philosopher St. Augustine used the historical realities of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to postulate a linear paradigm of history in The City of God. As a result, Augustine viewed history as moving along a line with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Despite the clear preeminence of linearism, especially to mid-Acts Grace Believers, it was further demonstrated that God was is also the author of the cyclical.

In the article Reconciling the Cyclical with the Linear, we traced the origin of seasonality in an attempt to explain the nearly universal embracing of cyclicality by the gentiles. In this study we saw how after humanity fell into sin and that Satan moved to distort the seasonal patterns God established at creation to deceive mankind into worshiping the creature more than the creator. Consequently, we concluded that God was the author of the cyclical as well as the linear.
Now having established that both cyclicality and linearism are in fact Biblical concepts, all that remains is for them to be combined into one workable paradigm. Consider the chart at the top of this posting.

The preceding chart seeks to combine linear and cyclical concepts into one complete Biblical model for understanding history. As we have said many times throughout the current study, linearism must remain the primary model for understanding history since the Pauline perspective on right division of the scripture demands it. When we speak about how God has worked in the past (time past), how God is working in the present (but now), and how God will work in the future (ages to come), we are utilizing a strictly linear view of history. Time originated in Genesis 1 and is advancing forward in linear fashion toward a prophesied end, the establishment of the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). When the Dispensation of the Fulness of Time (Ephesians 1:10) arrives the purpose for which God created time will have been fulfilled. Accordingly, Mid-Acts dispensationalists ought to be the most linear thinkers around.

Meanwhile, as time progresses towards its prophesied end, the cycles of seasonality are also turning. The above chart attempts to reflect this reality within the confines of a linear construct through the circles that represent seasonal cyclicality. As the chart states, economies expand and contract, civilizations rise and fall, and mankind vacillates between periods of rejection and reception of God’s truth. The Apostle Paul is keenly aware of these seasonal realities when he instructs Timothy to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”(1) Placing seasonal cyclicality within a linear construct is necessary because without doing so, history would never get anywhere. This is simply not an option for any mid-Acts Grace Believer since we wait with hopeful anticipation for the catching away of the saints that will occur at the end of the Dispensation of Grace. Each day that passes brings us one day closer to the rapture of the church, the 70th week of Daniel, the return of Christ in glory to set up his kingdom, and the centering of all governmental authority in both heaven and earth under the headship of Jesus Christ (the Dispensation of the Fulness of Time).

Now that we have combined cyclical and linear concepts into a single explanatory model of history, only one detail remains for the articulation of a complete paradigm. The chart presented above does not take into account the Law of Human Collapse. For accuracy’s sake, the trajectory of linear progression is best illustrated by a downward sloping line. Drawing the line in this fashion sets the Christian view of history apart from other linear progressive models discussed in previous postings. Unlike the evolutionary or Marxian views of history, humanity is not improving but finding new ways and methods to rebel against God. In Romans Chapter One, Paul summarizes how the reprobate mind works when he reports that human beings are “inventors of evil things.” For the purposes of illustration, please consider the diagram that is depectied in posting above titled Law of Human Collapse Diagram.

As the diagram suggests, Daniel Chapter 2 stands out as the premier example of the Law of Human Collapse in the Bible. In this passage, Nebuchadnezzar sees the image of a man with a head of gold, chest of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet and toes of iron and clay mixed. Moreover, the king sees in his dream a “stone cut without hands” that smashes the feet of the image causing it to crumble and break in pieces. Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and tells him that each part of the statue represents a gentile kingdom beginning with the head of gold, which is his own kingdom of Babylon. In addition, Daniel informs the king that when the “stone cut without hands” topples the image that “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.” Within Nebuchadnezzar’s dream we see the entire duration of the times of gentiles politically foretold in stunning detail. The only thing not foretold in Daniel Two was that God was going to interrupt the progression of gentile power at the ankles on the image and usher in an unprophesied period of grace and peace, namely the Dispensation of Grace. The mineral degeneration seen in each part of the statue reflects the Law of Human Collapse. Mankind has no hope without God. It is only the revelation of Jesus Christ at his second advent to establish his kingdom that stops humanity’s descent into oblivion.

In short, a complete Biblical view of history must contain the following three characteristics. First, it must reflect the God-ordained method of Bible study by adhering to linearism as its predominant explanatory model. Second, it must recognize that God is also the author of the cyclical and make room for seasonality as God’s linear plan unfolds. Third, the linear progression and imbedded cyclicality must be understood to progress along a line that is downward slopping in its trajectory, thereby taking into account the Law of Human Collapse.

Endnotes

1) II Timothy 4:2