1. The LORD transcends history. The Divine Being is not confined to space and time, for He created He space and time. He is the “I Am”–the ever-existing, self-existing LORD. He is simultaneously in the past, present, and future. He stands not within but above the plane of history and at once orders and observes all things at all times.
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| Human creatures are bound by time, but the Creator transcends time. |
2. The LORD is sovereign over the history of his creation. He created all things, and His control over His creation is complete. “From him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). Nothing happens except through him and by his will. “A person cannot receive even one things unless it is given him from heaven” (Jn. 3:27). The LORD is sovereign over nature. He “makes his sun rise” and “sends rain” and “the snow” (Matt. 5:45; Job 37:6). He causes “the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth” (Psalm 104:14). He commands the eagle to mount up and make his nest (Job 39:27). He provides food for the birds of the air (Matt. 6:26) and for the beasts of the field (Ps. 104:21). The LORD is sovereign over the kingdoms of men. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth” (Daniel 4:35). “He removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan. 2:21). “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov. 21:1).
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| The LORD shapes history as a potter shapes clay (Rom. 9:20-23) |
3. The LORD reigns over history through ordinary means. He ordains the means as well as the ends. For instance, to use an example from the previous point, He causes “the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth,” yet he does so through ordinary means. He has so ordered the creation, so that water evaporates from the ocean, condenses in the clouds, and falls to the ground, wherefrom the roots of the plant absorb the water, which then becomes a key component in the plant’s process of photosynthesis, by which the plant produces the necessary energy for growth. By ordinary means such as these, God causes “the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate.” The same thing can be said for the way in which God “removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan. 2:21). He does this through ordinary, observable, and complex means. For example, what caused the removal of King Louis XVI? The causes behind the fall of King Louis XVI are extraordinarily complex. They involve complex political, economic, military, psychological, and natural factors. But God has so ordained and ordered all of these means, so that it can be said that, ultimately, He “removes kings and sets up kings” (Dan. 2:21).
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| God works through ordinary means. Through complex processes like the one above, he causes "the grass to grow" (Ps. 104:21). |
4. The LORD’s plan in history centers around Jesus Christ. God has intervened in history in a special way. After God’s good creation had spiraled into sin, God called to himself a man named Abraham, and he made Abraham’s offspring to be a great nation, a people for His own possession. Through this people, He promised that “All the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the offspring of Abraham. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal. 4:4). Now, through Jesus, who died and has been raised from the dead and is seated at the right of God, God is blessing the families of the earth. The birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ represents the apex of human history. Everything before leads up to this apex: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal. 4:4). Now that Christ has come and gone, the remainder of human history anticipates his return. Although the world remains chaotic–“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places”–the Lord Jesus is now reigning: “The LORD says to my Lord; ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps. 110:1). His reign increases as the “gospel of the kingdom [is] proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Matt. 24). One day, when this is accomplished, the Lord will return, and his reign will be consummated: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:24-25).
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| The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ stands at the center of human history. |
5. The LORD’s ways are untraceable. Although God has revealed his special plan for human history, the details of that plan are beyond tracing. “How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord?’” (Romans 11:33-34). Therefore, as John Fea advises, “Christian historians would do better to approach their task with a sense of God’s transcendent mystery, a healthy dose of humility, and a hope that one day soon, but not now, we will all understand the Almighty’s plans for the nations” (Fea, 81).
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| Some have attempted to trace the untraceable ways of God in history. Needless to say, they often prove to be wrong. |
Sources
Fea, John.
Why Study History? Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013.
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