At the African Bible University I constantly have to remind my students that every subject studied can be understood in a God-denying or a God-honouring way. Whether it’s physics or economics or mathematics or law or music, it makes no difference. I’m trying to get them to realise that too often we’ve been tricked into believing that the secular (ie the God-denying) interpretation of the world is the neutral or normal way of looking at the world. What I’m seeking to train them to do is to ‘dig out’ and critically examine the secular assumptions that underpin so much of the process of education.
Although Uganda has many professing Christians, their education system is almost entirely based upon a secular Western model and so mostly our students come to us pre-programmed by its assumptions. Even in Christian schools – of which Uganda has many – children usually have Bible lessons but the rest of their subjects are likely to be taught with no noticeable difference from the secular institution down the road.
They’ve been tricked into thinking that the secular approach to history, science, mathematics, economics etc is a world of facts to be embraced and submitted to and that the Christian faith has nothing to say to those areas of the world. In doing so, what they’ve really done is surrendered to a view that God’s truth only applies to the ‘spiritual’ parts of life (church, prayer, Bible study) and that the rest of life is ‘secular’ ie God is not interested in it, nor does he seek to transform it. It’s a really a rejection of the doctrine of creation, which reminds us that every part of the world and how we understand it must be God-centred.
The subject I have been using as an example is history. I think that until I challenged the idea, most of my students just thought that history was learning about events that have occurred in the past ie the facts of history. Of course, history is partly about facts – eg the Second World War ended in 1945 – but how we interpret the events of history is one of the fundamental worldview questions. In other words, how we define and understand history tells us a lot about how we understand reality as a whole. It follows then that the question of the meaning of history is contested ie there is fundamental disagreement about what all that has gone before 2017 means! For Christians, casually accepting a secular view of history is tantamount to denying the gospel. Just as with every subject, we need to understand history in the light of God’s reality. It is just one piece that makes up the Biblical worldview jigsaw.
To show just how much the meaning of history is disagreed about, I have listed below some of the more commonly held (non-Christian) views. This list is not meant to be exhaustive (or academically rigorous!) but it does reveal how much difference we find and show that history is much more complex than the study of dates and events. In the UK it would be hard to find many schools or universities that taught anything other than numbers 1, 2 and 3. All these three are God-ignoring or God-denying views of history.
(1) The liberal view: history as the story of human progress.
According to this view, history is mainly measured as the march towards a humanistic paradise on earth. It would usually be measured by progress towards some or all of the following: human rights, democracy, equality of opportunity, material wellbeing for all etc. This perspective is that the world is progressively becoming a better place. In Uganda, this is very much the United Nations’ view of history (their people are here in force).
(2) The economic view: history as primarily materialistic.
Many people view history as the advance of material prosperity and judge historical development by where a nation is in its quest for economic advancement. This overlaps with number 1 and is often the economist’s view of the world. Recently a journalist and opinion writer in Australia suggested that it should be illegal for mothers to stay at home and care for their children! The reason: they are a wasted resource; they should be out in the workplace adding to the economic output of the nation. The mind boggles, but her perspective is consistent with the idea that the march of history is one of material progress. Little else matters other than that we have more holidays and bigger kitchens!!
(3) The postmodern view: all narratives of history are worthless
Since everyone’s perspective is different to everyone else’s, we have no vantage point from which to assess history and apply an interpretation that applies to everyone. Furthermore, since all perspectives and theories are self-serving, so will be our view of history. History – they go on to say – is always the voice of the victors. So in the end, our ‘history’ is just a clever tool to allow us to control others and write up the world’s story from our perspective. Much better – say postmodern historians – to study how one soldier at the Battle of Waterloo ‘felt’ about his personal situation (via his diary), than attempt to see how the Battle fitted into any larger story of history.
(4) The Islamic View: history as submission to Allah
History is an opportunity to demonstrate submission to Allah and see his sovereignty in action.
(5) The Eastern view: the very idea of history is meaningless
Since there is only one reality and the goal of existence is to realise that oneness and be immersed into it, we have to move beyond time and history. In the end both time and history are illusory anyway. Buddhism, Hinduism and New Age thinking fit with this paradigm.
(6) History is irrelevant
“History is just one damn thing after another” Henry Ford!
Some Key Components of a Biblical View of History
So as Christians, how are we to develop a God-honouring approach to history? Below are the things I teach my students when we seek to put together a Christian worldview. Lots of things could be added, but I find that these points give a basic framework:
(1) History is not meaningless. It is not reversible, not repeatable and not cyclical. Time is the creation of God.
(2) History has a beginning (Genesis 1:1) and it will have an end (Matt. 24:30-31; 35). History is linear. It moves in a line from Point A to Point Z.
(3) It is through the march of history that God is revealing His character and purposes. In this respect, history is a meaningful sequence of events leading to the fulfilment of God’s purposes for humanity and the revelation of His character.
(4) In the process of history God will demonstrate His authority over all His rivals, He will triumph and be seen to triumph by all. So we may be assured that God is the One in control of history and it is – in the final instance – serving His agenda.
(5) The Bible is a book of history. Events occur “in time, space, history” (Francis Schaeffer).
When studying history, one of the things that it is difficult to do is establish which events should have significance attached to them. This is where Scripture is vital as it ascribes significance to events that are pivotal in world history: creation, fall, Noah’s flood, the call of Abraham and the revelation of God to the Hebrew people, the exodus, the giving of the law, the witness of the prophets, exile, return from exile. Especially significant is the sending of the Son of God into history. The four gospels are historical accounts of his birth, words, miracles, trial, death, resurrection and ascension. The church is being established in real history. One day, the Son will return on a particular day in history and bring judgement on those who reject his rule. He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth where God’s people will live with him forever. The goal of history is that everything and everyone be placed under the rule of the Father.
(6) History has a centre, a pivotal point in human history. That event is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His actions reverse the direction of the human race; the old Adam is dead; the new Adam lives. The cross means the death of the old race and the resurrection is the beginning of a new one. The resurrected body of Christ is the first piece of a soon to be resurrected universe. All events in history must be interpreted in the light of Calvary and the empty tomb.
(7) So, following on from points 5 and 6, we can say that in all the chaos and ugliness of history there is a meaningful story. The God who knows the end from the beginning is aware of and sovereign over the actions of mankind. Time is not purposeless and meaningless; it is taking us to a destination.
(8) History is a conflict. Although one day all things will be subject to The Father (1 Cor. 15:28), this has yet to happen. This means that history can also be seen as the process of God subduing all His enemies and redeeming a people for Himself. In any assessment of history, the church must be central. It is through her that God is revealing His wisdom and plans for the future.
(9) History itself is a form of revelation. That is, not only does God reveal himself in history, but the very sequence of events is revelatory. They disclose the meaning of life. In the final analysis, Christ is the Lord of history. It is His story.
(10) To those who say that there is no one interpretation of history as all serve power interests, the Christian answers that the one true interpretation of history has been given to us by God. Hence, the interpretation is not marred by our own narrow and self-serving perspective. It is one that we can trust.
Let me finish with an ironic example of how different perspectives on history matter so much. The Roman historian Tacitus (54-117) wrote the following comment while writing on the first 50 years of what became the first century: “All was quiet in Judea”. This is the most worrying thing about the secular view of history: it’s likely to miss the things that matter most! For the Christian, those years in Judea were far from quiet: the land was visited by the Son of God and the world changed forever.
So that’s some comments on history from a Biblical worldview perspective. But it is only meant to be one example of how the Christian Faith speaks to every subject taught and every area of life lived. As believers, it is essential that we expose the secular God-denying assumptions behind every subject taught and rethink them in the light of a God-honouring perspective.
First published on Challenging Thinking on 2017-03-29. Reproduced here in the CWT essay archive without style or semantic changes.