I would ask you to turn to First Chronicles, chapter 29. First Chronicles, chapter 29, verse 11. We're beginning a series on the rise and fall of the American Republic. I have subtitled this a theological interpretation of America's history with a view towards developing a critical analysis of our nation's current political, social, cultural, and educational crisis. We will be looking in this series at various epochs of America's history, but we will spend much time in the area of the very nature of the revolution, the war that took place within this nation between the states. what is noted in history as the Civil War. Some refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression or the War for Southern Independence. I want, though, to deal in this first part of our series with a Christian philosophy of history. And this first sermon dealing with our purpose for developing a Christian philosophy of history. 1 Chronicles 29, 11, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Shall we look to the Lord our God? Father, we ask that You would bless us now as we come to study Thy holy Word and Thy hand in divine providence. We ask, O God, You would bless us as we come with understanding and wisdom and insight. And so, Father, we ask that You would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to receive. That which Your Word and that which your Spirit would teach us from Thy Word and in history. For it is in Christ's name that we pray, Amen. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11, is an exaltation of God's sovereignty. It is the Lord who is great, It is the Lord who is powerful. It is His glory and victory and majesty of which everything in heaven and earth was created for Him. As Saint Paul says in Colossians 3, in the fullness of Christ, for whom all things are created, dwells the Godhead bodily. manifested. We are faced with an economic, political, sociocultural, and ethical crisis in America. Os Guinness makes this observation when he wrote, and I quote, Western culture is marked at the present moment by a distinct slowing of momentum, or perhaps more accurately, a decline in purposefulness, and an increase in cultural introspection. This temporary law, this vacuum in thought and effective action, has been created by the convergence of three cultural trends, each emphasizing a loss of direction. The first is the erosion of the Christian bases of Western culture. in erosion with deep historical causes and clearly visible results. The second is the failure of optimistic humanism to provide an effective alternative in the leadership of the post-Christian culture. And the third is the failure of our generation's counterculture to demonstrate a credible alternative to either of the two. Western Christianity and Humanism. What Dr. Guinness says is there is a failure to maintain the historical Western culture that was based upon biblical Christianity, especially as it applies to Western nations. But he also says there was the failure of optimistic humanism, which later came along and replaced biblical Christianity as the standard religion and practice within Western culture. But there was a third failure as well, with which optimistic humanism could not produce the utopia that man thought he could produce through his own sovereign power. But the third failure, he says, is our generation's failure to have a counterculture to the other two, to deal with the problems and the failures within Western society. Dr. Greg Singer affirms this Western crisis and states that, and I quote, that the Western mind is sickened to death and that Western culture and the civilization to which it gave birth are in serious danger of collapse are facts that have become so evident that few observers are prepared to dispute their conclusion and argue for their vitality." The Western mind, he says, is so sickened to death that its collapse is almost imminent, and there are few who are going to refute such conclusions, that we have come to almost the end of Western culture as we know it. And that most certainly applies to us in the nation of America. As Christians, we are confronted with the problem of what role shall we play in the current moral, political, economic, and sociocultural crisis. Henry Van Til has pointed out in the past that the Christian community has developed two attitudes toward culture. How we should respond to culture, one being positive and one being negative. And I quote, the Christian is in the world, but not of the world. This constitutes the basis of the perennial problem involved in the discussion of Christian culture. Because believers are not of the world, therefore there have always been many Christians who have taken a negative attitude toward culture. They understand the Christians' calling to consent to consist exclusively in proclaiming salvation through Christ to lost men in a dying world. They see that dying world only as lying under the sentence of death and final judgment. Others, having eagerly accepted the Pauline assurance, all things are yours, stress the fact that believers having a cultural calling here, and now to subdue the earth as members of the human race, They also rejoice in the fact that they have so much in common with all men culturally, so that they can together enjoy things that are beautiful and follow after that which is good. Thus, there is, first of all, a conflict among Christians on their attitude toward culture." Dr. Van Til says, the problem that has arisen within even our nation, in its attitude toward culture, of who we are, of what we practice, of what we believe, that the church itself has divided on this very issue. Some see the duty of Christians as nothing more than proclaiming the gospel salvation of Jesus Christ. Well, there's nothing wrong with doing that. We are commanded biblically in Matthew chapter 28 to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to disciple the nations. But it says, these who have a negative attitude toward culture see the Christian's involvement in culture as limited. His calling is no more than the proclamation of the gospel. But on the other hand, he says there is a segment of the church that says, we not only have a duty to preach the gospel of Christ, but we have a duty to bring that gospel of Christ into every area of life. Culturally, politically, socially, educationally, we have an obligation. through the preaching of the Word and its application to have an effect upon the culture and society of which we live. Henry Vantel further states, and I quote, "...culture is not something neutral, without ethical or religious connotation. Human achievement is not purposeless, but seeks to achieve certain ends which are either good or bad." Since man is a moral being, his culture cannot be amoral. Because man is a religious being, his culture too must be religiously oriented. There is no pure culture in a sense of being neutrally religious, or without positive or negative value ethically. Although the realization of values in a culture may seem on the surface to be concerned merely with the temporal and the material, this is appearance only. For man is a spiritual being destined for eternity, exhaustively accountable to his Creator Lord. All that he does is involved in the whole of his nature as man. Do you understand the basis of what he's saying? Culture is not neutral. How we live out our lives ethically, how we live out our lives economically, how we live out our lives politically, how we live out our lives educationally, all that we can talk about that is the makeup of culture cannot be neutral. Man created in the image of God as a religious being, and therefore culture is a religious expression of man's thinking theologically. Whether it be good or bad, it is a theological expression of man. And all culture is theologically based. It's based upon man's view of God. upon man's understanding of God, and how man responds to the God which he believes in. There is no neutrality. None whatsoever. There is either a system of ethics, a system of economics, a political system, an educational system that is either based upon the Word of God, or it's based upon man. Either God, through His Word, will be God, as we govern ourselves in every area of life, or man will be God and will govern by his own rules and approach all of these areas of life from a humanistic perspective. Because the Christian is compelled religiously and morally to confront the current issues, politically, morally, economically, and socio-culturally. He has responsibilities. And he needs to understand the very historical perspective of those issues within this nation. We cannot escape how we have dealt with these issues historically. Because history is the key to the future. If you want to understand what the future will bring, you need to understand the past. And a people, as one great philosopher had said, a people who ignore their history are bound to repeat it again and again. History is a tool for understanding the hand of God's sovereign work in the lives of His church. and the lives of the people of the church, to understand how people and nations have responded in every area of life in relationship to the God of Scripture, be it positive or negative responses. And if we're going to understand how that this nation, founded as a constitutional republic, transformed into a democratization of political theory and culture, unto the point of becoming imperialistic as we see it today, if we're going to understand that progression We've got to understand the very nature of what has happened historically in the religious thinking of America. Because the cultural understanding of this nation is only at best a theological understanding of its people. How the people of this nation have turned from God and from Scripture is going to be a telling story of why we are headed down the path of destruction. And you cannot understand this nation apart from its history. With the continual onslaught of humanistic ideologies which affect our political, moral, economic, and sociocultural perspectives, we must establish an effective Christian counterculture. which will redirect our nation from its current path of destruction. One means of accomplishing this restoration of our nation is knowing the historical roots, discerning the basic nature and characteristics which shaped the American Republic. If we can ascertain the theological, the philosophical, the moral ideologies of the Puritan founding fathers, and what motivated them in the establishment of this nation, then we might gain a greater insight as to why God blessed America. We might also ascertain how America has lost the blessing of God, and how we are now coming under the judgment of God, as we examine this history as well. As to what were the deficiencies? How did such a nation, like no nation in history, not since the nation of Israel itself had such a nation, come to be at one point? As John Winthrop called the city on the hill, alive unto the world, to a city whose now light only shines darkness." Proverbs 14 and verse 34 says this, "...righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is of reproach to any people." That's a parallelism in Proverbs 14 and verse 34. The first statement is understood by the second. It's a parallelism. Righteousness exalts a nation. That nation that does right before God will be exalted by God, will be praised by God. But when a nation sins, this is the explanation of the first. What is the opposite of the first? Sin. Righteousness is doing what is right before God. What is sin? Sin is doing what God has commanded us not to do. When a nation sins, it is a reproach to any people. What will it bring? Destruction. Destruction to a nation. And it is the sin of failure of doing what is right before God. that is so characteristic of what has happened in this nation. A sin that is not just of the non-Christian, but the failure and sin of the church itself, whose duty and obligation was to be the salt of the earth. It's more a story of the church's failure than it is of the failure of non-Christians in America. Our focus will be on the theological influence and the development of this nation with the desire to understand its ideological motivation from our establishment until the current crisis that we find ourselves in. That's what we're trying to do. We are not studying history for the sake of history. We're not looking at this nation to be able to say we know a lot about the political structure or theological structure of the nation. Ultimately, what is the goal of everything that we study? How to bring a change in which God will once again bless the church and this nation. Obedience unto God. is the purpose. Well, let us look then at the purpose for developing a philosophy of history. The American historian Greg Singer has pointed out, some scholars would even deny, he states, that a philosophy of history is possible. And some evangelicals have come dangerously close to making such an affirmation, unquote. The very idea of having a philosophy of history, he says, is almost denied today. that one can understand that there is, what? Meaning and purpose in history. And many Christians have come to that same philosophical position. Because to claim there is a philosophy of history is to assert that there is a meaning, a purpose to the events which have come to pass in time and space. The necessity of understanding the very nature of history itself. Why we, as Christians, ought to study it. To a great extent, in Christian circles it's rejected, and in secular thinking, has been almost totally rejected. Why? Because their view, and we'll look at that next Lord's Day Sabbath, the view of the non-Christian at history, Their view ultimately is what? Man alone can give meaning to purpose in his life. It is not derived from the hand of a sovereign Creator God. A God who has created the universe, who has decreed what shall come to pass. But history is about man giving meaning and purpose. And therefore, to speak in terms of objectivity, that there is one meaning and one purpose. It is being rejected out of hand in many of our state universities by many of our historians who deal in historiography, the methods and principles of studying the philosophy of history. Dr. Singer further states, and I quote, the scriptural view is that there is a philosophy of history, a meaning to history. The meaning of history should be a vital and continuing concern of every Christian, whatever his earthly calling may be. We believe there is a meaning. We believe there is a purpose to knowing and understanding history. Historiography, the principles and method of historical study, has as its purpose the proper development and analysis of historical data to the end that history has meaningful interpretation. We can actually study history and come to an understanding of its meaning, of the intention of the divine hand of God in all that has come to pass. It's not just data. It's not just dates and names. But people, history is a move of God's hand over the nations. And until you understand who is in control of the nations, how things come to pass by His sovereign pleasure for His good purpose, you will not understand the nature of history. The law, I say to you, could not have of philosophy, of history, apart from Christianity. How could it be? If history is just each person making meaning and purpose subjectively or existentially within their life, how could that be? Because each person will be making their own history and their own meaning and their own purpose. That's humanism. And the next person who would come along would not have an understanding of your history, of your reality, of what you have done, because it only had meaning and purpose to you as an individual. And that's the basis of humanism. But the Christian sees history as the hand of God at work in the life of man. Again, Dr. Singer states, and I quote, historical scholarship, if it remains true to its purpose, is characterized not only by the necessity of finding the facts of history, but also of achieving a correct interpretation of all the data which it has in its possession. The quest for meaning in history has been no less characteristic of American historiography that for the historian of other nations. We are greatly indebted to those historians who have recognized, once again, the importance of intellectual developments for a proper understanding of history. However, too often their efforts have largely concentrated on depicting those intellectual changes which have taken place in American life. But they have failed to analyze them as to their intermeaning. As valuable as these studies are, they lose a great deal of their effectiveness as guides to the understanding of history because, all too frequently, they are not presented in the light of the predominant theological and metaphysical issues of the day. Too seldom have these historians given theology its proper place as a determining factor in intellectual life. The recognition of the importance of intellectual forces in the streams of history must be followed by one other step, namely, the realization that the intellectual development of a people is not an entity in itself, but in turn depends upon their theology or lack thereof." The student of American history, whether Christian or non-Christian, cannot overlook the theological teachings of those individuals who, in history, have played an important role within this nation. We need to carefully note what Dr. Singer has pointed out concerning an understanding of inner meaning or theological influences in a historical interpretation. Whether it's good theology or bad, It is at the heart of what drives us. Understand, we are always dealing in time with theology. We are always dealing with men's view of God. And how a man views God will dictate the paths that he will take in life. It will dictate what he thinks about politics, economics, cultural and social issues within a nation. It will either bind him to the word or free him from it. So we as Christians must be careful to understand the meaning of this nation. Again, Dr. Singer states that this must be considered because, quote, the very nature of events as well as the covenantal mandate imposes on a Christian the duty of rightly interpreting the nature of the historical process. He must not only ask himself what history is, but he must also face the problem of its meaning. He must face the very problem of its meaning. Christianity has been central to American history. Christianity has especially had a direct effect. in this nation. Eric Voegelin, whose five-volume series on order and history, which was called by the Saturday Review, one of the great intellectual works of our generation, and by Yale Review, the most important historical work of our century, has said, and I quote, we cannot eliminate Judeo-Christian history without making nonsense of history in general, unquote. You cannot take Christianity out of history. and then make sense of history. It's an impossibility. Christianity is the key to understanding any nation's history. And this is precisely our point. The import of theological truth, which has framed the early objectives of this nation, their world and life view, was predicated upon their faith system. Do you understand that? Get this out of what I'm saying to you, and this is all a context to understanding this developmental philosophy of history. We will not understand this nation apart from what the people believed about God, about Christ, about redemption, and about man's duty toward man. according to his faith system, whatever his beliefs are, they're going to dictate how he deals with men, how he deals with nations, how he applies these things to every area of his life. There is no understanding of America's history apart from the underlying theological and philosophical principles which are the cornerstone of her greatness. We can't do as some say, just go back, let's find out what they did and turn it around. That would be an easy problem. All you have to do is go back and read the history books. You can't read the modern history books. That's an impossibility because they don't go back past 1868. Because they don't know anything happened since the 14th Amendment was passed in this nation. They give more time to Marilyn Monroe and Madonna than they do to George Washington, of which many books don't even mention anymore. But it's not just going back. Even if you had a good history book, understand what I'm telling you. You could sit down and say, well, what did these people say and do? Well, their political structure was a federal republic, a system of law, a structure of laws upon which a nation would be built. And you can look at the laws that they wrote and the constitutions that they constructed and say, well, let's go back and do these things. And my friends, that would not turn this nation around. Why? Because the commitment to do those things, to live them out, was a commitment that they had inwardly from God to obey His Word, to do His standard, and to practice those in life. And so history, for the sake of just trying to put band-aids on our crisis and problem we find ourselves in, is not just going back and looking and saying, well, what are some of the things they did? We could change it and make it different. People will not be bound to anything you try to change. They will not do it unless they are committed Theologically to do such. And that commitment must be understood in light of the theology that brought forth those views. And then a view of what theology took us away from those views. The Scripture speaks clearly to it in Proverbs. When it says, and you know it in the King James as, where there is no vision, the people perish. But do you know what the real Hebrew translation is? Where there is no law, talking about the law Word of God, where there is no revelation, if you would like, the people cast off restraint. You understand what that means? When the people no longer are adhering to the revelation of God, They will go do whatever men think is best. As Proverbs says, there are many ways that seems right unto men, but the end thereof is death. That's what I'm explaining to you. We are driven theologically. This nation was built on theological presuppositions that are essential to understanding why and what these people were seeking to achieve in that time of history. And there'll be no turning this nation back till we understand the very motives, theologically, of the people that we have got to deal with in our history. God does not accept just any faith system and bless a nation. Just as long as it's sincere. He blesses that faith system. He blesses that theological dogmatism, which is consistent with the teaching of the Bible. That's what God blesses. And if you want to understand why God blessed this nation and made it a great nation, even though from the time of its constitutional development, and you have to remember, America has a history long before its constitutional development. But even in the constitutional development of this nation, the seeds of destruction were still planted. Because of the theological impetus of the people, God continued to bless this nation. But when that seed brought forth its humanistic ideology, this nation turned in a different direction. And God ceases to bless this nation. I still say to you, He's not just not blessing us. We're under judgment. When we can kill our children in the womb and think nothing of it, at the cost of 1.8 million babies a year, God has blinded this nation. We are not coming under the judgment of God, my friends. God is killing off our history. Our heritage is dying. We don't even look like the founding of this nation any longer. We no longer think like the founding fathers of this nation. They would not even recognize us if they could come back from the dead. The faith system that God blessed this nation was one that was founded upon the Word of God. If we want America to change, if we want God to bless America, then we must be committed to a return, not just to the political, social, economic practices of America's history, but to the theology which exalted God as her sovereign lawgiver. and Christ as her Redeemer. That's what we've got to do. And nothing short of that return will bring a change in America. Well, what are the motives then for historical studies? There are two basic motives I want us to remember. Just two. Now, I'm piecemealing this together, so I hope you'll stay with me for the next few weeks. Because I want you to get this foundation. If you get this foundation, you'll have a good understanding of how to study history when we're done. There are two motives I want us to look for historical study. First, Christians are required to know and study God's Word and the history of the world He created. They are to know His commands and what He demands of obedience and for blessing. This is called personal duty. This is the Christian's personal duty in understanding why we should be motivated to study history. Psalm 78, beginning at verse 1, says, Listen, all my people, to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. This is coming from our God. He is commanding the people. Listen to what I say to you. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, talking about their history, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children. We'll teach it to the children. We'll not conceal it from them. But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments and not be like their fathers. A stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Did you hear what he said? God was going to speak to them His Word. But not only speak the Word, but bring back to remembrance the works of God. That is, history. Things which have happened within time and space. We, as a Christian, have to know God's Word. But we also have to know the history of God's hand and work among men. For what reason? That we might know God and not forget Him. That we might receive the blessing of God by doing what is right. For my friends, if you forget how God works and blesses and you do not remember His Word and the history where He demonstrates that to us. Remember what Scripture says in the New Testament? These things were done in the Old Testament for what purpose? For our what? For our example. To know and to study how history has affected God's life. And secondly, we must understand how God deals with nations in history, especially what happens to those who will not obey His commands. That is a national duty. The first is personal. We have to know how God blesses us and how we are to teach our children God's Word and history. But then a nation needs to understand how God will deal with them. Psalm 2, beginning at verse 1, why are the nations in an uproar? And the people devising a vain thing. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. Talking about the righteous. He who sits in the heavens last, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury. But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to Me, Thou art My Son. Today I have begotten Thee, and ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. Now, therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judgments of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Do you see what this Messianic Psalm says? He's addressing the kings of the earth, the nations. Nations and kings, do not forget. The God of heaven. You are taking a stand, a counsel against Him to destroy His nation, the true Israel of God, the church. He says, beware. Beware, because that nation, that nation who turns against God will feel the wrath of God. There's our second motive. We need to understand God not only condemns men, but he condemns nations. And therefore, the motives behind our purpose for studying history from a biblical perspective is based upon one thing or two things we're looking at. Our personal responsibility and our duty. as a nation before God.