Streams of History

Streams of history begin in the fountainous headwaters of God's sovereign power and perfect wisdom, yet flow through time upon the currents of human thought, ideas, and actions.

Society itself is built, humanly speaking, upon the basic belief system or worldview that prevails. To understand the present and prepare for the future, one must look to the past to learn the lessons taught by the sage and the statesman, the king, and the priest.

The ancient Greeks attempted to construct meaning and purpose through the exaltation of the city-state, the 'polis.' Indeed, the brilliant philosopher Socrates, when given the option of death or exile from his beloved home of Athens, chose death. Ultimately, however, the ideals and needs of the polis proved insufficient as a foundation upon which to build.

In the ancient direct democracy form of government, too many voices created confusion and compromise rather than singleness of purpose and a devotion to the common good. A multitude of ideals, attitudes, motivations, and forms, but foundations composed upon the shifting sands of selfishness, circumstance and situation - finite, chaotic, and impersonal...relative, mutable, and transient.

Greece was a glorious culture and endured for a time, conquering much of the world, not militarily, but in terms of her culture and ideals; however, ultimately she succumbed to the weakness of an inadequate foundation.

The Roman world adopted the glory of Greece and made it her own, procuring and amplifying the form of direct democracy to develop a republican system of representative rule; emulating the wonderful cultural and intellectual forms of art, science, philosophy, mathematics, and knowledge unto increased human accomplishment; incorporating the religion of the anthropomorphic 'deities' into mythic and far reaching proportions.

For Rome, all of this proved, as it did with Greece, to be insufficient in terms of establishing a lasting, moral platform upon which to build a society of free men. Without a commitment to the four fold pillars of absolute truth, individual freedom, universal equality, and the concept of the equal value of each person, the unalienable, incontrovertible rights of man are impossible to uphold and advance.

Such blessings unto mankind come only from the heart and mind of the Infinite and are applied from a Personal God to every living person. Finite man exalting self and impersonal, ethereal, relative concepts of right and wrong will never suffice. As with the ancients, when the absolute, personal, unique God and His Truth are ignored or denied, the society will apply to itself the title of the gods and thus make themselves the final arbiter of truth. In so doing, the eternal concept of 'right makes might' is abandoned and replaced with the tyrannical philosophy and oppressive foundation of 'might makes right.'

Indeed, the Roman Republic was replaced with an authoritative empire. Julius Caesar and the emperors to follow established themselves, and were accepted, as 'dictators for life.' The emperors declared themselves, and ruled as, gods on earth, deserving of worship as lords of all.

Christianity was born under this finite, humanistic, and tyrannical system, yet flourished and eventually prevailed as that worldview which has impacted the world and established truth, morality, and freedom more than any other entity in human history. The followers of Christ have been attacked, mocked, persecuted, and murdered for two millennia. This is so because every society tends toward the selfish, the corrupt, the finite, and the impersonal. Those in authority see the absolute teachings of Christ as a threat to their 'absolute'power and the individual sees them as a threat to their 'absolute' autonomy and personal sovereignty.

Placed in this position of living on earth among those who hold, from Protagoras, that 'man is the measure of all things,' the follower of Christ is bound by his belief in the absolute, the infinite, and the personal - in an allegiance and an obedience to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords alone. A Christian cannot rightly worship or acknowledge any other as Lord or deny the reality of the one true God; hence they are seen and sacrificed as enemies of every state, entity, or individual who would foolishly and arrogantly oppose the Sovereign One of history.

What Francis Schaeffer stated concerning Rome still holds true, "Christians were killed because NO totalitarian state or authority can tolerate those who have an absolute truth by which to judge that state and it's actions."

Rome ultimately collapsed, as does any such state, falling in decadence, selfish power, and apathetic weakness because it too had no sufficient base with which to support the burdensome weight of human selfishness and relative truth. Christianity, on the other hand, grew and flourished despite intense and even satanic opposition, because it's foundation is absolute, infinite, and all powerful, able to hold any weight and support, in freedom and liberty, an enduring and ever rising moral, ethical, and societal structure.

As Schaeffer again noted, "The strength of the Christian worldview rests on God being an infinite-personal God and His word being absolute and true for all. God has spoken in ways people could understand" and placed all of mankind, every person, whether prince or pauper, male or female, rich or poor, slave, or free, under the absolute precepts of eternal truth. "Thus, Christians not only have a knowledge about the universe and mankind that people cannot find out by themselves, but they have absolute, universal values by which to live and by which to judge the society and political state in which they live. And they have grounds for the basic dignity and value of the individual as made in the image of God."

The fundamental supports for the founding of America were these eternal supports, derived from the infinite Word and the very nature of it's Author. Our declaration of freedom was one which declared independence from an earthly monarch not worthy of allegiance because of his abuse of the unalienable, God given, rights of man. In effect, the American experiment was one which established, as much as humanly possible, individual and national freedom independent of the power of man and dependent upon the power of God.

In what could have been a purely political statement of separation and grievance, the founders placed a staement of eternal truth and everlasting ideals that were sacred and undeniable, self-evident because of the laws of nature and nature's God. The right to life, the right to liberty, the right to the opportunity to pursue and fulfill one's purpose and potential unto blessed happiness, and the recognition of the equal value of every human life can only be based upon these eternal adages of right by the all sufficient power and wisdom of God, not upon the thoughts and ideas of man and his inadequate power.

Sadly, this nation is exchanging the truths of God for the lies of men, such a sure foundation for the cracked and ever decaying foundations of humankind. If this transaction is not halted, and if America does not repent of her greatest sin, forgetting God, her lampstand will be removed and she too, like all of the inadequate, humanistic empires of old, will fall.

May we learn the lessons of history and hear the voice of conviction within that is calling us, like the prayers of the prodigal's patriarch, back to the safety and security of the only sure foundation of freedom, the heart of the Father of all. May God raise up millions to hear that call, so that this current generation might return to the true foundation and build again, a structure designed to bring praise, honor, and glory to God and blessings to all mankind.