What is history? Is it a random accumulation of events, or does it have a specific meaning and direction? The biblical understanding is clear: history has a purpose and is moving toward the final climax in the return of Christ. Interestingly, many secular worldviews operate on the assumption that history has meaning and is progressing but, without God, fail to account for that belief.
In his magnum opus, “God, Revelation, and Authority,” Carl F. H. Henry explains the Christian view of history: “Not only does the God of the Bible reveal himself in history, but the very idea of history takes its rise from biblical religion…The Hebrew prophets knew that history is the realm in which God decisively acts and works out his purpose…Human events are therefore no chaotic jumble to which man must creatively impart some shrewd order and plan but stand inescapably in relationship to the purpose, and promise and plan of God.” All of human history will be fulfilled in the second advent of Christ.
Henry’s comments become interesting when considering the Western revolutions over the past 1000 years. Harold Berman, in his book “Law and Revolution,” identifies six Western revolutions during that period: the Russian Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the English Revolution (also known as the Glorious Revolution), the Protestant Reformation, and the Papal Revolution of the eleventh century.
Though none were perfect, two revolutions are often considered unsuccessful, and the others successful. The Russian Revolution, which pushed communism, was a dramatic failure. Though the French Revolution had successes, such as its triumph over feudalism, it devolved into violent chaos and is often considered a severe misstep.
Berman points out that all the revolutions had apocalyptic visions of the future. They were more than political; they involved a belief in an eschatological end—the idea that history was moving to a final fulfillment. Some were more secular than others, but all were pursuing the end of history.
Berman has a fascinating quote about this: “The successful revolutions were also based on a Christian eschatology.” This should not surprise us as Christians. If Christianity is true, and it is, then any revolution that attempts to usurp the divine is destined to failure.
We live in a time when most, if not all, of the institutions and values that have held the Western world together for all these years are being questioned. Not only are they being challenged, but they are being attacked with the goal of seeing them replaced. Though Western institutions are imperfect and always have room for improvement, many of those who rail against them forget the trials and errors that put them in place.
Those who hold to such Western views, especially values of Judeo-Christian origin, are often ridiculed as Christian nationalists. Nationalism, in its pejorative sense, is not Christian. It raises the nation above the law. The danger of nationalism is that it detaches a nation from other nations in unhealthy ways, becoming narcissistic by detaching from the moral, spiritual, and overlapping histories that build commonality among nations. Recognizing and valuing these values, even when they are Judeo-Christian in origin, is not Christian nationalism because these roots run beyond national borders and transcend national power structures. Law is not merely an instrument of the state; in the Western view, it also holds states and political authorities accountable.
Interestingly, the secular progressive mindset often engages in one of nationalism’s most dangerous flaws—the severing of cross-national histories and values. Though they do not draw the line at geographic borders, they draw it chronologically—viewing everything that has gone before as bigoted, oppressive, and driven by a desire for those in power to stay in control. Only they are enlightened enough to see that the world has been wrong all along. As one author put it, this can become a form of “chronological snobbery” or, more appropriately, chronological narcissism.
As they work to make progress, they believe history is moving to a desired eschatological end, but they want it without the Christian foundation that has given them many of their freedoms. However, by removing God from the equation, secularism has no way to account for the belief that history is moving toward a beautiful consummation. Without a fixed standard of truth and morality in God, they lose the ability to define progress altogether.
As Berman explains, to those who wish to use public policy to usurp the legal foundation, “‘public policy’ has come dangerously close to meaning the will of those who are currently in control.” He goes on to say that ‘social justice’ is now identified with pragmatism. “‘Fairness’ has lost its historical and philosophical roots and is blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine.” With such views, they are the ones placing the state, or nation, above the law. If they believe history is evolving toward some glorious end, they have no standard by which to define “glorious.”
God is the God of history. Abandoning Him is not only abandoning the foundation of truth, goodness, and beauty, but it is also abandoning all hope that history has any meaning at all. The good news is that, regardless of what fallen man attempts to do in his suppression of the truth, as Carl F. H. Henry said, “The final chapter of human history is not in human hands.” And for that, we can rejoice.
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 