CROSSroad of History

first published Sunday, August 26, 2007

History is the account of past events, their causes and results - it is all that has been preserved or remembered about God and mankind. That which occurred prior to recorded history, we refer to as pre-historic. Of that we know little and guess much, but regarding historical times, we know much, largely because of the efforts of those we call historians. Historians use written accounts, oral accounts, and artifacts for evidence as they attempt to learn and share the truth - the story of what really happened and what people and events were really like. Any historian is bound to an oath of honesty to discover and share history as it really occurred as best they can and not have truth changed or molded in any way to fit into his or her biases or prejudices. Bias means being influenced by a particular point of view and prejudice means "judging before" - before all the facts have been looked at and honestly recorded. World history includes all of recorded history and is the hardest to study and learn because it includes roughly 7,000 years - Some historians devote their lives to studying one person, one event - even one day in time - We will attempt to learn of 7,000 years in one school year! Obviously, we can't learn it all - our goal will be to learn as much as we can of the most important and interesting so that we will be inspired to learn more and more and apply the lessons we learn to our lives today. God told His people to share the past so that they might always remember His goodness and their need, His glory and their sin, His power and their weakness, their hate and His love. God values the study of history so much and His world so much that He came to this earth - He intersected history Himself! - he met mankind at the cross-road of history 2,000 years ago and calls every man and woman to look back to that place and meet him there! I hope you enjoy our journey this year - it begins centuries before that crossroad, but in a place that is very familiar to many an American soldier today - the cradle of civilization....