Why Does History Matter to Christians?
The Rejection of History
Is history important? Should it be important to Christians? What is a Christian view of history? And how should Christians study and write about history? We want to explore these questions.
Some strands in modern Western culture want to forget about history. One strand of the culture says that the new is always better. So, allegedly, we have nothing to learn from the past. Is that right?
It is true that new technologies and gadgets may be better than the old ones. But that does not mean that human nature is getting better. Are our hearts any purer than those of the previous generation? Are we more righteous than the people who lived in the Roman Empire? Are we free from greed, selfishness, lust, envy, and pride? To think that we are in every way better people than in the past is a sign of arrogance.
In addition, new gadgets or trends will not satisfy the deepest desires of human hearts. If, as the Bible indicates, the deepest need of humanity is for fellowship with God, the craving for the newest things within the world will never give ultimate satisfaction.
A second strand of Western culture urges us to ignore the past because we deserve instant gratification. We become impatient with the learning process. In our impatience, we refuse to pay attention to history or to study it. We think that our desires of the moment are enough to guide us in decisions. But this urge for instant gratification is a sign of immaturity. It is childish. It is sinful. We have this urge because we, like human beings before us, are sinners. The urge is strong because many people have become mature in their bodies but remain childish in their hearts and desires. Their parents never disciplined them properly, or they rejected that discipline.
Redeeming Our Thinking about History
Vern S. Poythress
Vern S. Poythress offers a providentialist approach to understanding history, giving Christians a strong, biblical foundation for recognizing God’s lordship and studying the past.
Children want things now. But if they do not mature, their childish foolishness leads to disaster.
One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,
but a fool is reckless and careless. (Prov. 14:16)Desire without knowledge is not good,
and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. (Prov. 19:2)
We cannot trust these impulses of modern Western culture. Who can we trust? We need to see what the Bible says about history. The Bible is the word of God,1 so it gives us judgments that are faithful for all time. What does the Bible say about history and the knowledge of the past?
God’s Commands Concerning the Past: Old Testament
God says that history is important, and it should therefore be important to us. In the Bible, God commands his people to pay attention to what happened in the past. He tells us to remember the past, to learn from it, and to tell the next generations about it:
Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, “Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.” And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. (Deut. 4:9–11)
When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. (Deut. 4:25–26)
To you it [the deeds of the exodus] was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. (Deut. 4:35)
The larger context in Deuteronomy 1–5 reinforces these verses by its repeated emphasis on what God did in the past to bring the Israelites to the place where they now are. It contains a summary of much history; in chapter 5 in particular, it includes a remembrance of the time when God gave the Ten Commandments.
God’s Commands Concerning the Past: New Testament
We see a continuation of this concern for the past in the New Testament. The New Testament often presupposes that we already know about what God did in former times in the Old Testament. It concentrates on telling us what God has done more recently, in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The four Gospels are books of history, the history of the life of Christ. The gospel, the good news of Christ, which is at the heart of the New Testament, is about history. Here is a crucial summary of the gospel:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor. 15:1–8)
Instruction in History
The New Testament, like the Old Testament, affirms the importance of instructing children in the Christian faith: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). This includes instruction in the Old Testament. God’s commandments to parents in the Old Testament continue to be commandments for us in the New Testament era of the history of redemption. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are incorporated into the stream of the history of the people of God. We become heirs to the promises made by God in the Old Testament (2 Cor. 1:20). Christ is an Israelite, of the line of David (Matt. 1:1–16). When we are in Christ, we become part of the spiritual people of God. First Corinthians 10:1, addressed to a church with Gentiles as well as Jews, speaks of the people of Israel as “our fathers.” Spiritually speaking, the Israelites have become our ancestors, and the Old Testament patriarchs are our patriarchs, our spiritual fathers. We stand in a line of historical continuity with them. Their history is part of our history.
In sum, we must pay attention to God’s deeds in history. And we teach our children to do it. We do it because God commands us to do it. If we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we do it also because of inward motivation from the Spirit. We see that the record of God’s works is good for our souls.
Why is it good for our souls? We may not know all the reasons why. Through the Holy Spirit, God works to transform us in ways that are deeper than what we see. The Holy Spirit uses the Bible in this transforming work (John 17:17).
Though there is mystery in the work of the Holy Spirit, we can observe at least some of the ways in which the history of God’s deeds empowers us to grow spiritually.
Reading history in the Bible expands our view of God.
Ways in Which History Serves Christian Growth
First, reading history in the Bible expands our view of God. He is not a God who entered the scene of history yesterday. He has been working for ages and ages. He is the everlasting God (Ps. 90:1–2). He was faithful to individuals and generations before us (Pss. 105; 106; 107; 145). He is wise beyond imagining. His power is displayed in creation and in his miracles. His wisdom and truthfulness are displayed in the consistency of his plan for redemption as he works from age to age.
Second, reading history in the Bible expands our view of Christ and his redemption. God gives us pictures of redemption in the Old Testament. These are anticipations and foreshadowings of the climactic redemption that comes in Christ. These anticipations include acts of redemption in history. God saved Noah and his family from the flood (Gen. 6–8). Through Joseph, God saved his people from famine (Gen. 50:20). Through Moses, God brought the people out of Egypt. These acts of God in history foreshadowed the great act of God, when he sent Christ into the world. Christ redeemed us from sin, death, and the power of Satan. The Old Testament records deepen our appreciation for who Christ is and the meaning of what he has done.
Third, reading the Bible expands our view of humanity. God’s record in the Bible shows humanity both in acts of righteousness and acts of wickedness, in integrity and sin, in courage and cowardice, in wisdom and foolishness, in faithfulness and treachery, in purity and impurity, in kindness and cruelty, in help and oppression, in life and death. The history in the Bible shows us a variety of personalities and cultures, united by the reality of a common humanity. We are all made in the image of God; we are all fallen and in need of redemption.
Each of us is unique, but all of us can see analogies between our lives and the record of what others did. We can learn about ourselves and also about others. We acquire wisdom.
Proverbs says that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; Ps. 111:10). Wisdom grows as we pay attention to the instruction of God himself, and then the instruction of those who were wise before us. But it can also grow through paying attention to life. Proverbs itself invites us to look at examples in life (see, for example, Prov. 7:6–27).
History gives us innumerable cases to study, which enable us to explore human nature. We learn about human nature and about ourselves as human beings. We may ask, “What would happen if human beings were to make a crucial decision to go to war or to surrender, to travel or to stay in one place, to lay up resources for the future or to consume them now or give them away?” We learn by seeing what happened as a result of this or that decision recorded in the historical records of the Bible. We learn what it means to obey God or disobey, to do our duty or neglect it, to act with integrity or selfishness, to live life wisely or foolishly.
Finally, reading the history in the Bible leads to praising God and glorifying him. This praise of God is the goal of human existence. Knowledge of history contributes, because if this knowledge is healthy, it increases our love for God and our praise of him. We see God working. We see his wisdom, power, kindness, justice, compassion, and mercy—we see all his attributes. To understand God rightly also leads to growth in our love for him. We praise him specifically when we learn about specific ways in which he has worked in the events of history.
History, then, is important and vital. It is vital because God says it is. We can also see that it is vital when we see some of the benefits of studying it.
Notes:
- See John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010); and Benjamin B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1948).
This article is adapted from Redeeming Our Thinking about History: A God-Centered Approach by Vern S. Poythress.
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