I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Worldviews in Conflict

By Thomas M Parsons
Part 4: History

Some people assume that every worldview has the same view of history. After all, history is the past; it has already happened. It cannot be changed.

But the truth is that the facts and events of history are interpreted by the worldview of the interpreter. Why did this event take place? What significance did it have? These are questions raised by students of history, and answered by the worldviews they hold.

"Using technology wisely, we can control our environment, conquer poverty, markedly reduce disease, extend our life-span, significantly modify our behavior, alter the course of human evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new powers, and provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for achieving an abundant and meaningful life." (Humanist Manifesto II)

This statement indicates the idealism of Secular Humanism and reflects its view that history is the continuing story of the dominance of human beings on this planet and their search for a better world for themselves and their children. Humanism takes an optimistic view of history in that it sees history as the striving of humankind for a perfect world, a "heaven" on earth, if you will, although humanists would no doubt reject that wording.

Humanist historians are challenged by the frequent wars and outbreaks of violence in the world, since these tend to denigrate their basic concept of the goodness of human beings and their ability to right wrongs peacefully and create an earthly utopia. In fact, in 1933, humanists were quite optimistic when they assembled in Chicago and wrote the first Humanist Manifesto. They saw humanism as the only logical means available to human beings to "face the crisis of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability." The Manifesto also stated the humanists’ goal of "a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good."

Then came World War II. The Korean War. The Viet Nam War. The rise of Islamic terrorism. The War on Terror. Random and senseless shootings in public places like schools and malls. All of these things tended to put a damper on humanistic optimism concerning the history yet to be written. And yet, with these events now thoroughly embedded in the historic records, humanists continue to see history as the story of mankind’s long, slow advance to the perfect society.

Secular Humanism, because it denies God’s existence, cannot attribute any historical event to God. All of it must be seen as the work of humans, and as the work of natural, not supernatural, forces. Biblical Christians, on the other hand, see history much differently.

A Biblical Christian worldview sees God at the center of all of history. A Biblical worldview sees history as the unfolding of the story of God’s relationship to His creation. History includes creation, the fall from perfection, death and decay as the results of sin, God’s intervention in history to provide redemption for mankind through His own Son, Jesus Christ, and the eventual return of Christ to this earth to reign over His own earthly Kingdom.

A Biblical worldview understands that there will be "wars and rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation" because Jesus said this would be the case (Matthew 24:6). Because of the Bible’s insistence that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), Bible Christians know that the world is never growing into an earthly utopia because outside of Christ, human beings have no way to squelch the raging sin that resides within them. Where the humanist sees history as an up and down line that tends to go up more than it goes down, Bible believers see history as an up and down line that tends to go down more than it goes up. Humanists like to be called progressives because they see history as advancing upward, making progress toward humanism’s goal. Bible Christians are realists; they understand the reality of the human sin nature and the tendency of human beings to make the wrong choices apart from God.

Bible Christians generally view the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas as a good thing because he brought with him knowledge, medicines, technology and the Christian faith to people who lacked all of these things. Likewise, the historical spreading of America from its beginnings on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to eventually reaching the shores of the Pacific is viewed by Bible believers as a good thing because it also meant the gospel of Jesus Christ was taken to new peoples who had never heard of the grace of Christ available to them to redeem them from sin.

Secular Humanists generally regard these events as bad things. Columbus, they say, brought diseases for which the native peoples had no immunity. He and others like him also brought ideas and philosophies that tended to corrupt the native peoples’ simple and pure lifestyles. Humanists claim that the motivation for this movement across the continent was greed for land, for power, and for religious selfishness and domination.

Since at one time, history books tended to reflect in a very general sense a Bible-based viewpoint, and now they tend to reflect a humanist-based viewpoint, humanists have been busy rewriting history books to reflect their view that religion destroys, corrupts and causes violence and wars and fears, and impedes the inevitable flow of mankind upward to an earthly utopian society. While Biblical Christians agree that religion often is divisive and the cause of violence, they also insist that Biblical Christianity is the only truth that exists and that, in obedience to Christ, they must "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).

In summary, humanists put man at the center of and as the driver of history; Biblical Christians put God in that powerful position, even to the pointing to the word itself: His story.

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