Hello, my name is Ed Panosian. I'm the teacher of this course in the history of civilization, and I'd like to introduce myself and get to chat with you and set forth some of our conception of what this course entails. I hope you know that Bob Jones University is a Christian institution. Our primary concern is to train Christian young people to serve the Lord. I hope you are one of those. I hope that in the course of this study you will come to understand the meaning of God's providence in history, God's overseeing and caring for his own people, and God working out his plan in the world. Now, the approach that you have undertaken obviously has certain drawbacks and certain benefits. It has the drawback of the impersonal relationship between you and me. I won't see you. You will hear me and I will read the results of your study. But in the process, you will have to exercise a diligence and a focus of attention, which will be your responsibility. The tapes you're going to hear have been recorded in a live classroom setting situation. You were not present. A class was present, and I was trying to communicate to the class what I'm now trying to communicate to you. It's going to be important for you to realize that some kind of personal discipline is going to be necessary. You're going to have to establish a time budget. I think if you determine, by the grace of God, to proceed regularly with this course, you will enjoy it more, you will find it less a drudgery and a burden, and more a personal profit as well as an academic progress. I hope you can set aside a certain amount of time on a regular basis. You have a great deal of time in which to complete the course in theory. I hope you won't use all the time that in theory exists. I want you to proceed regularly and with a sense of personal order. And if you do this, I think you will get a lot more out of it. You're going to need that extra incentive to proceed because you're not called to order by a classroom, the ringing of a bell, a word of prayer, and a commanding context. It's going to be possible for you to sit back and listen to tapes very casually. It's going to be possible to go to sleep listening to tapes. It's surely possible to do that in a classroom. And on occasion, it is done. I try to avoid it. I try to tell you what is important enough to keep you awake, to listen, to hear. But you are human. And I'm human. And I'm sure the lectures are not always equally as interesting. But there is a mutual sense of mission and purpose that we're undertaking together. I have a great desire to communicate to you the story of God's working through men and nations in the history of the world. That's a very large subject, but there are parts of it at least that we can handle, and we have tried to handle it in a Christian context. Now that requires that I remind you of something very important. The textbook that we use, like almost any other available textbook, is not written or proceeding from a Christian set of presuppositions. If there were, on the college level, a Christian textbook for this course, I would surely use it. I would surely require you to use it. There exists no such publication that is consistently Christian and academically respectable. And for that reason, I ask you to read a textbook that is not unique in its field. It is, we believe, one of the best in its field. But it proceeds from secular, worldly, humanist presuppositions. Now, you should know that. You should not be afraid to read it for that reason, nor should you resist reading it for that reason. The content of the lectures is designed to point out differences, to present a biblical context for our study, and I hope you realize that where you, as a Bible-believing Christian, and of course there is no other kind, As you read and see contradictions between what you know as a Christian believer and what the book says, you will surely reject what the book says on those points and know that the word of God is true. Particularly as this evident in the opening chapter or so and the prologue, the preface to the book. where of course the issue of origins is presented. I discuss this matter on the tape but I want you to realize as you're reading it that it's quite appropriate to reject what you read when it is contrary to the scriptures. Make marginal notations in your book which make it obvious that what you've just read is not true. My own book is filled with expressions like humbug, baloney. This is not true. This is the author's opinion. I don't believe it. Now, the other side of that coin is the realization that where the textbook speaks on facts, even though you might not know those facts, and apparently there's some degree of truth in that or you wouldn't be taking the course, where the textbook present facts, we have not the choice of believing or disbelieving. My point is, learn what the text teaches factually, but where interpretation and presuppositions are contrary to the scriptures concerning man's origin and his nature and his destiny. You, as a Bible-believing Christian, understand those subjects better than the authors of the text. Read critically. That is constructive, and that is a good training for your life. You must learn to read in such a way, whatever you read, that you are asking, now, is this so? And what you know that contradicts it, if that is on a biblical principle, do not hesitate to retain what you know. It's going to be important for you to focus your attention. You must present an intentness because there is not the visual presence and the setting, the external setting that automatically structures this for you. Now let me say that I feel very strongly that While we present to you in the course booklet the basic outline of chapters and terms and names which are designed to help you decide within each assignment what it is you need to know, there is a uniqueness about a Christian presentation of a course which makes it not the same as would be found anywhere else. That's why I'm so concerned about your listening with care to the taped lectures. If you read the book only, and if you learned the terms only, and if you took the tests only, and if you wrote the papers only, you would have nothing different from what can be found from Boston to Miami, from San Francisco to New York. It's like bologna sausage, as the founder of Bob Jones University used to say. You can slice it in Boston or Miami, and it's the same wherever you slice it. Now, I'm not interested in communicating to you sausage that's the same wherever you slice it. I'm very compellingly interested in communicating to you a biblically consistent picture of the history of civilization. Of necessity, this is selective. It cannot cover everything. This is a survey. This is a basic six hours in two semesters, two halves of a course, a basic six-hour picture of the history of civilization. Now, upon reflection, it is appropriate to ask Well, what else is there to study besides the history of civilization? Civilization includes everything, and obviously this course is not itself a college education. I'm suggesting that this course is a survey of the many areas of human experience, and as such, it will not sufficiently major on and emphasize some of the things that you personally might be interested in. Realize that it is intended to cover broad pictures, and I hope that the result, in part, will be that you will become imaginatively interested in learning more about certain aspects of what we cover. And I surely encourage your personal investigation and private study but perhaps after you have completed this course. We want you to be accountable and there are certain specific testing and paper requirements that are clearly outlined in the booklet for you. Don't get behind, don't overly extend the chronological number of months that you technically have in which to complete this. I'm sure the benefit will be enhanced by an orderly continuation toward a goal that is projectable and that is a realistic one. These are the sort of things I wanted to say in these few minutes. I want to exhort you to diligence and regularity of study. I want to encourage you to the realization that it will come to an end. and that there will be rejoicing in the sense of completion when it is over. I am praying for you as I remember you and eager to help you toward good success. We will get to know each other rather well, at least in one direction, in the course of this study. God bless you. I hope you will pray for the Lord's leading and direction and his communicating to you understanding and insights. Please understand that the purpose of the lectures is less to tell you what you need to know for the next test than it is to interpret for you why it is important that you understand God's dealings in the affairs of men and nations.