1993 Issue 1
Christians are to view all things from God's perspective. We are to think like God thinks (or, as Cornelius Van Til has said, we are to "think God's thoughts after Him"). How are we to think about history if we are to think about it correctly?
A Christian view of history makes a serious effort to apply the truth of the Bible to the record of the past. Three Biblical truths give us a proper view of history.
The Great Christian Revolution by Otto Scott R.J. &: M.R. Rushdoony & John Lofton, Ross House Books P.O. Box 67 Vallecito, CA 95251 1991 h.b. 327pp.
As our culture seeks to move further from God and His standards, man still desires order. In recent years the political focus has been on a New World order. Yet our own nation is becoming more disorderly. Many would argue that much of the world is also. It is no surprise that man created in God's image, thirsts for order. True order originates in the sovereign God not in man. This fact is one of the reasons this book is a delight to read. The authors look at the importance of Calvinism from a variety of perspectives.
A Critique of A.N. Wilson's book, Jesus.
I have been thinking a great deal recently on the issue of CERTAINTY OF KNOWLEDGE. How can we be sure that our religious beliefs are true? How can we be certain that the gospel events actually happened? How can we KNOW FOR CERTAIN that Jesus is everything the Bible claims He is?
These concerns have been on my mind because of two things: (1). my careful study of the preface to Luke's gospel in Luke 1:1-4; and (2). my reading of A.N. Wilson's newly published book, Jesus, published in 1992 by W.W. Norton & Company, New York. It could be on its way of being a best-seller. There were at least twenty copies in the secular bookstore, (Bookstar), where I purchased my copy.
Once again America's military is in defense of President Bush's quest for a "new world order." Two years ago it was to liberate Muslim Kuwait from the tyrannical Muslim Saddam Hussein. This time it is supposedly only a mission of mercy called "Operation Restore Hope." President Bush insists that we are doing God's work, but are we? By what standard do we determine God's works? Is the Bible the self-declared standard for American foreign policy? George Bush's quest for a new world order is no Chistian agenda. Rather it is a humanist agenda which champions the methodology of "the end justifies the means."
In 2 Timothy 3:16, the apostle Paul writes: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Two questions arise: 1) What is meant by inspiration?; and 2) How may we know that the Bible is inspired?
1) What is meant by inspiration? First, as Warfield has pointed out, "God breathed out" (theopneustos) is a better translation of the original language than "inspired." Theopneustos actually speaks of the fact that the Scripture is "breathed out" of the mouth of God, whereas "inspired" means "breathed in."
Israel is a small nation that may seem at first glance to have had little impact on the development of human history. Israel never grew to be a great power projecting empire like Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, or Rome. Its political influence during the era of these great political powers was, at best, minor. Yet, looks are deceiving.
Despite the minor political impact of Israel on the development of world history, she has dramatically altered the flow of history. The modern man tends to think of national significance in terms of politics. But Israel's importance was not primarily political. Rather her significance lay in the fact that she was used of God as the protecting sheath through which the seed of the covenant flowed. In other words, she was the agency through which God providentially brought Christ into the world. And the impact of Christ on history has been enormous.
