Christianity and Judaism are unique among the world’s religions because they are rooted and grounded in history. Christianity declares that history is holy, consecrated by the very incarnation of Christ. In Jesus Christ, God the Son entered His own creation and fulfilled and transformed its history. In what more meaningful way possible can God take an interest in the unfolding of human history? (Phil. 2: 5-8) Our calendar is divided to this day by His historical advent.

Christianity is founded upon a very specific set of historical claims. Christians confess that Jesus Christ lived a morally sinless life, perfectly loving His Father and obeying God’s moral law on man’s behalf. He performed miracles of healing, demonstrated power over nature, cast out demons and proclaimed the most sublime truth ever to grace the lips of man. Then Christ died on the cross, suffering the penalty man deserved. He was buried and physically rose from the dead after three days and visibly ascended into Heaven. If any of these historical claims are not true, then Christianity is a lie and we are still in our sin. (1 Cor. 15:14)

The historicity of the Bible has been contested for centuries. Much of the criticism directed toward the Old Testament was made before the modern science of archaeology. Many persons and locations mentioned in the text were either disputed or denied by critics. But modern archaeological discoveries have only served to verify the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. While many questions may remain unanswered, to date there has been no discovery that has contradicted the biblical accounts.

Other important things that make the Bible unique among all the other documents from antiquity is the shear number and accuracy of its sources. Arguably the most significant archeological discovery of the past hundred years was in 1947 at Qumran by the Dead Sea. A complete scroll of the Book of Isaiah dating back to before Christ was found. The earliest extant manuscript prior to the discovery was written in 980 AD. Critics of the Bible had postulated that biblical texts were corrupted over time and therefore unreliable. The Qumran text of Isaiah was copied some 1,000 years prior yet it was virtually identical with the later one.

In Search of the Historical Jesus

The New Testament is the best, most well attested to document from antiquity. Although we don’t have the original manuscripts, there are thousands of copies of manuscripts and fragments that can be used to verify our text. We have fragments of John’s Gospel that date as far back to the AD 50s.

The New Testament was not written centuries or even many decades after the fact. The whole New Testament has been judged by prominent archeologist William F. Albright to be written not long after the death of Christ by eyewitnesses. Some suggest the whole New Testament was complete before AD 70, due to the lack of any reference to the fall of Jerusalem.

There are other extra-biblical historical sources that confirm the existence of Jesus Christ. Josephus, a Jewish historian, refers to Christ in his “Antiquities of the Jews” written around AD 93. Tacitus, a Roman historian who wrote around AD 112, mentions the existence of Christians. No credible historians now deny the historicity of Christ, though they may deny He was divine. The “Jesus Seminar” is trying to reconstruct the historical Jesus based on their humanist assumptions, but no one any longer seriously disputes if Jesus existed.

The Bible is very specific in its reference to historical names and places that are easily verifiable. Simon Greenleaf, an expert on the forensic laws of evidence, argues that the Resurrection would hold up in court based on the laws of evidence and the eyewitness testimony contained in the New Testament. Over five hundred people, in addition to the Apostles, witnessed the Resurrection. (I Cor. 15:6; Acts 1:3)

The transformative power of the resurrection is very evident in lives of the Apostles. From a fearful, group of discouraged disciples who saw their dear friend and teacher die a horrific death, they were dramatically changed into emboldened, impassioned witnesses of the Resurrection. According to church tradition, all but the Apostle John died for their unwavering testimony that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

History Has Meaning

Although the Bible contains poetry, visions and timeless axioms, the Bible is not merely a collection of abstract, metaphysical propositions or mystical visions and speculation. It is rooted in the fact this world was created by God, fell into sin and is now being redeemed through Jesus Christ in and through history.

Any hard distinction between sacred history and secular history is completely artificial. God is at work in all things bringing ultimate, eternal glory to Himself and everlasting good to His people. No one can or will frustrate God’s greater purposes. History is moving inexorably towards that final Day of Judgment and the complete restoration of all things. (Acts 17:31; I Cor. 15:24-29)

When, by God’s grace, man aligns himself with God’s historical purposes his action takes on an affirmative, eternal significance. When man continues in sin and resists God’s plan, his life is reduced to vanity and he eternally damns his own immortal soul.

Even though in history man experiences suffering Christians know that it’s not the result of chance or fate. Rather, they trust that their loving, heavenly Father is working His inscrutable purposes towards His ultimate ends: His glory and His people’s good. We know that any present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that God has in store for all those who are in Christ. (Romans 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:11-18)

Until the End

A linear view of history with its beginning and end is taken for granted in the Western world. This is rooted in a Judeo-Christian worldview. Prior to this, the classical Greco-Roman world believed history was cyclical and repeatedly revolved over and over again.

The biblical narrative does record cyclical patterns in Israel’s history. Times of spiritual faithfulness and covenant keeping were followed by complacency and covenant breaking. Then God would chasten and bring judgment that led Israel back to faithfulness. But, the Old Testament narrative was constantly moving forward from promise to fulfillment until the coming of the Messiah and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

History is not locked in some endless, meaningless circle. History is like an ascending spiral staircase. There are recognizable cyclical patterns because man’s nature does not change and God deals with man according to his unchanging moral law. Yet history is moving forward towards God’s ordained goal. Christ is working out his greater purposes as the reigning King of all the nations of the earth. (Rev. 1:5) Ultimately, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. (Phil. 2:10) In the meantime, it is the privilege of the Christians on earth to co-labor with Christ in the advancement of His kingdom until Christ returns or calls his people home to Heaven.

Secularism

Humanism of the early Twentieth Century was brimming with optimism. History was inexorably evolving onward and upward towards humanist utopia. Then came the reality of World War II and grizzly decades of communism’s inhumanity.

Contemporary humanism claims to be more realistic about the future and more restrained in their optimism about the inevitability of the perfection of man and society. But, based on their evolutionary assumptions, they default back to the theory of the inevitable upward trajectory of history over time. Rational thought and morality are ascending. Just as life evolved from simple to complex, evolution demands progress.

Secularism ultimately diminishes man and his individual rights. Man is no longer considered the special creation of God and is reduced to accidental stardust existing on an insignificant dot in the universe. Because there is no God there is no creation, fall or personal redemption in Christ.

This raises the question of whether or not man’s actions are meaningful. Humanists argue man is merely an evolved animal biologically determined to respond to his environment and society by evolutionary impulses. Yet, they argue man can and should act to transform the environment and social institutions. So, they argue for conflicting principles: biological determinism and human responsibility. This leads to a naïve sense of optimism and a false sense of purpose.

Humanism argues that evolving ideologies drive history. Christianity may have been fine for a season in man’s evolution, but now it has lost its usefulness. Theism must be jettisoned in the face of the complex realities of today. An elite group of men will emerge having evolved in to their own. These enlightened leaders will become man’s savior by creating humanist paradise. Some think technology will greatly aid and accelerate this inevitable, evolutionary advancement.

Marxist History

Historical materialism is the Marxist philosophy of history. Man is a social being and his material social experiences control his sense of self, not individual self-consciousness. This is based on the idea there are evolutionary material laws that drive progress in the world, i.e. dialectical logic.

Economic conditions ultimately define and control the individual’s overarching reality. A society’s laws, courts and government are all organized around existing economic situations. The laws of dialectical history will drive the struggle between the classes and prove history is moving towards a communist, one-world utopia.

Primitive communism led to slavery that yielded to feudalism. That progressed into capitalism that eventually must become communism. Therefore, man ought to advance the unstoppable flow of history by taking matters into his own hands by any means necessary, including violence between the classes and revolution. Man is only meaningful if he is a revolutionary who takes his place in class warfare as part of the proletariat.

The Marxist view of history is like a fixed boxing match. The result is never in doubt regardless of how hard man cheers. The unbreakable laws of the dialectical logic will defeat capitalism.

Postmodernism

History does not exist for the cynical postmodernist, only fictions in the service of an agenda. Because there is no ultimate truth, there is no objective history. History is only what we make of it. Objective history with facts that correspond to reality is impossible. Thus, the historian is left to his subjective bias and opinion. He is inextricably bound by his own circumstances that control his perspective.

Radical anti-historians see claims to historical facts are really attempts to acquire power for a particular group. Knowledge (or pretended knowledge) is power. History is merely a power play for a political agenda for a favored victim class. Revisionist history is a postmodernist’s duty. They must rewrite history to provide propaganda for an activist agenda.

Only social minorities can write valid history about their own class because no one from the outside the group can extricate themselves from their own culturally conditioned cloud of prejudice. Of course, the oppressed groups own prejudice is virtuous because they are victims. Books that are known to be historically invalid are still assigned at liberal schools and universities simply because it attacks politically correct targets, i.e. capitalism, the military, WASPs, etc. Victimology and ideology trump facts.

Postmodernism does not see any meaning to history because there is no goal to life. There is no purpose or destiny, only evolutionary chaos and chance. Postmodernism will not indulge in the sentimental optimism of secularism or Marxism. Man must face the reality of his own futility and embrace it.

New Age Mysticism

New Age mystics are convinced that man is evolving towards perfection. This upward trajectory is driven by the “god-force” of the universe. Eventually history will arrive at “planethood,” the realization that all are “one.”

Religion is evolving, too. Old religions, especially Christianity, are considered too restrictive and exclusive. New Age religion is modern and enlightened, free and inclusive, except of course of older religions. They are out of sync with the modern age and must be shunned.

Eventually, all men will evolve and embrace their godhood and be united with the universe/god. The world will evolve to the next level when man realizes there are no distinctions, no time or history, only the eternal now. Even though they assert the coming New Age is inevitable, New Age mystics are urged to hasten its realization by trying to enlighten the backward people who hold to traditional beliefs. In this way, man becomes a kind of co-creator within evolutionary history. This is simply Hindu metaphysics with an evolutionary twist.

Islam

Islam has a view of the eventual dominion of Islam over all of humanity. Jihad is the means by which Allah advances Islam. Because Allah wills Islam to be the dominant world religion, it cannot be otherwise. All non-Muslims live in the house of war (Dar al-harb) and are to be subjugated and dominated by Muslims. All good Muslims must participate in Jihad. While there may be a relatively few overtly violent Muslim terrorists, many more Muslims render material and emotional aid for their efforts.