A Brief History Of Man

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  --George Santayana

The Bible begins in eternity past and continues in real time and concludes in eternity future.  We are not in some episode between two oblivions but are here for a purpose--to glorify God, for all things were created for that purpose.  The story of man (i.e., His Story) is simply:  creation, fall, redemption, judgment.   We all fell in Adam and can be redeemed in Christ, and will all be judged by Christ (either the Bema of Christ or the Great White Throne of condemnation for the lost).  Where we end up for eternity depends upon our relation to Christ in this life with no second chances to redeem ourselves.  We Christians are just passing through as pilgrims to a heavenly city and our eternal reward, for our compensation is not in this life.  We believe that in the end the God of justice will make all things right and answer all our questions.

So we live in the hope of redemption from the slave market of sin and weakness of the flesh until we receive glorified bodies that don't have vulnerabilities, like Christ's.  We are here for a purpose: to complete the Great Commission and do God's will.  Happy are those who find their calling and purpose in life.  Someday this calling will be the Great Completion.  In the meantime, we are stewards of the time allotted us and must redeem it for the Lord's work.  We are here for a purpose--to please God and know Him personally, but not second hand. We long for Jesus to announce: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"

Jesus, who created time (the corollary of space and matter), and entered it for our sakes and lived life in the flesh in all its weaknesses except without sin, living the perfect law-abiding life to fulfill the Law of Moses and thus qualify as our righteousness. He became the perfect sacrifice by dying in our stead while being innocent of any transgression and the Father imputed our sin unto His account in the Divine Ledger.  And so Jesus made Himself known in real-time, for He existed prior to creation and is the Creator, but stepped into time so we would know God.  All we need to know of God is expressed in Jesus as His icon or image.

Jesus didn't become the Son of God by being born of the virgin Mary but is the eternal Son of God and that means there never was a time when He became the Son or wasn't the Son and the Father is the eternal Father and always was the Father of Jesus, not becoming the Father--He was begotten, not made, born, or adopted of God. God didn't create Him, give birth to Him nor adopt Him like He did us. And so, it was high time Jesus entered history in the fullness of time and complete our redemption that was planned by the Father.

In the meantime, we are on borrowed time as it were, and must be good stewards with time management.  The earth will end someday and we want to be on the right side that endures to the end.  Man is ever-learning in technology, but not in wisdom--the right usage of that knowledge: right ends, right motives, and in the right way.  Man will not evolve into perfection or have some mutation that puts us at a higher sphere of awareness wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence.  The problem isn't intelligence, but wisdom and only God grants that.  We need to know God, not the wisdom of man, for man cannot know nor find God through the wisdom of man.

As  Santayana said that if we don't remember the past, we will be condemned to repeat it!  And Hegel said, that one thing we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history.  History is not cyclical in that it repeats itself (as Mark Twain said, "it only rhymes!"), but it's linear going in a direction and having a beginning, climax, and end, conclusion, consummation, and culmination.  It is going somewhere and has a purpose and story to tell from the Storyteller. History is merely God's redemptive plan and narrative for man unfolding in real-time as God orchestrates it.

History has meaning and we are to interpret it and study it to find out what God is saying.  NB:  The Bible is based in history too and is the only religion that is--dehistoricize it and you discredit the faith. We need to learn its lessons or be doomed to repeat its mistakes.  And the unfolding of history in the making is about God's ultimate purpose for mankind, it's not bunk but worth the study, while the key to understanding a story is to know the Storyteller--God!  We know the Author of the Bible as well and that's why we see Jesus at work in it.  Soli Deo Gloria!