Poythress Redeeming Our Thinking about History

A God-Centered Approach
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4335-7147-3
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 256 Seiten

Why Is It Critical for Christians to Study the Past? How does knowledge of the past shape Christians' views of God, Christ's redemption, and humanity as a whole? In his new book, Vern S. Poythress teaches Christians how to study and write about the past by emphasizing God's own command to remember his works and share them with the next generation. Readers will explore concepts such as providentialism, Christian historiography, divine purpose, and the 4 basic phases of biblical history: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. By learning how to appropriately study history, believers will begin to recognize God's lordship over all events and how even minor incidents fit into his overarching plan. - Excellent Resource for Seminary Students, Pastors, and Historians: Poythress explains how to write about history, understand God's divine purposes, explore history in the Bible, and more  - Applicable: Teaches readers how to glorify God by recognizing his deeds throughout history - Biblical and Informative: Outlines 4 phases of history and connects them to Christ's redemption

Vern S. Poythress (PhD, Harvard University; ThD, University of Stellenbosch) is Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he has taught for four decades. In addition to earning six academic degrees, he is the author of numerous books and articles on biblical interpretation, language, and science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Poythress, Vern S.

Leseproben

1

The Importance 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.

The Rejection of History

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.

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.

Deuteronomy 6 commands the people of God to remember and especially to teach their children:

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. (Deut. 6:6–7)

Take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deut. 6:12)

You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. (Deut. 6:16)

When your son asks you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.” (Deut. 6:20–25)

The theme continues in the next chapters of Deuteronomy:

You shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. (Deut. 7:18)

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness. (Deut. 8:2)

Psalm 78 (like some of the other psalms of remembrance) also commands the people to remember and learn from history:

We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children. (Ps. 78:4–6)

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)

The gospel is not focused on personal psychology—words or techniques to make us feel good. It does not primarily come to us in the form of a manual for living or a series of guiding questions for better understanding ourselves. It is not focused on religious ritual. Benefits of various kinds do come to those who have received reconciliation with God. But the gospel, the good news, announces events that happened in the past, in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is about events, events in history. To believe the gospel means to hear about and then believe things about events in history. Specifically, we have to believe that God raised Christ from the dead. God calls us to trust in Christ because of what he accomplished. God commands us to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15; Acts 17:30–31). By implication, God commands us to pay attention to history. History is indispensable in the Bible and in the Christian faith.

The New Testament...