Historical Amnesia
By Rev. Paul Michael Raymond The Covenant News ~ March 19, 2009
The martyr Stephan, in his final sermon to the wicked religious rulers of Israel, sets forth the history of the Hebrew people under God’s Divine and protective Providence. His sermon targets the people in such a way so that they may see, and understand what God has done, and what He is now doing in their own time. Stephan seeks to impress upon both the theological community and the secular community the Providential Workings of God and how God’s Providence directly effects them.
The very fact of this historical account should cause us to pause in order to ask “Why?” Why did God, the Holy Spirit think it so important to move Stephan to set forth, once again, the history of the Hebrew people? Why should ancient history prove to be so important a lesson to these ‘modern folk’ of Stephan’s day? It is because the History of the World, when viewed from a Biblical perspective, holds the key to God’s plan. Thus, it is essential that history should be carefully studied, and it’s true meaning be discovered, in order to know what a culture and a people are to pursue. Without such an outlook, none can see, nor understand, where they are with respect to historical time, what their purpose is in life, and what will befall them if they fail to act upon the purpose that God has called them to. Postmodern Americans, including postmodern Christendom, have failed to understand their own history, and thus have failed to achieve the purpose for which they were born. Without such knowledge of God’s actions and purposes in history, the American people may well have subjected their entire national order, and any hope of its future prosperity to hell and destruction.
The general mindset of the American people is one of willful forgetfulness. Or to put it another way, they suffer from ‘historical amnesia’. Since the past is past, many postmodern Americans deem it worthy to be forgotten. And whenever history is remembered, it is remembered in a secular vacuum, according to revisionist ideology, without any regard for Providence or the influence of Christianity. Today’s culture holds to a destructive tendency, dwelling upon the present without any regard for the lessons of Providence in the history of the world. Yet, without a Biblical knowledge of God and His Providence, America’s future cannot be blessed with positive sanctions from Heaven.
Even the Deist, Thomas Jefferson, without any regard for the Deity of the Sovereign Christ, expressed deep concern for America if she ever lost her Christian moorings to God’s Providence. Knowing that, through an act of Divine intervention, bringing the gift of liberty to the people of America, Jefferson writes,
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”
A refusal to study and understand history from a Biblical point of view is the principle factor in a culture’s demise. When a people become ashamed of Christ and His Words, He in turn becomes ashamed of them, and thus denies them before the Almighty.
Whenever a people are negligent of history they are doomed to the mistakes made in history. Karl Marx put it this way; “If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.” American Christians have been cut off from their Biblical heritage. With all the talk of patriotism and the sacrifices of the Founding Fathers, Washington, Adams and Jefferson, Christian America has forgotten her true founders, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox and the men of Puritan America. Through secular education and political correctness rhetoric, America’s Christian and moral history base has been removed.
The Second book of the Holy Scripture is commonly called Exodus. It is the Greek title given in the Septuagint short for ‘Exodus Aigypotou’ [E-gyp-o-too]. Literally it means the departure from Egypt. The Original Hebrew title is somewhat different. It reads, “Sefer ve’leh shemot” which means “these are the names”. The title is usually abbreviated Shemot, or simply ‘The Names’. The Hebrew title seems to infer that God was telling Israel to remember the names of those men who were faithful to the Word of God, and who were led by the civil majesrty of the God- honoring man Joseph. God was telling His people to remember their own history. These were the Names that the Hebrew people were to remember so as not to fall snare to the ideology of Egypt’s culture and ultimately to Pharaoh’s tyranny. The names of God’s people represented the liberation of God’s people and the providential protection of God’s Covenant oath.
The book of Exodus is part of a whole. It is the second book of the Law, or Torah, and although it can stand alone, it should not be comprehended as a whole in order for it to be understood in its entirety. Exodus is the story of deliverance and destruction, of courage and cowardice, of the embracing of Faith and the rejection of faith. It is the story of a Covenant-breaking people who had forgotten their God, and of a Covenant-keeping God Who never forgot His people.
The entire Torah (the five Books of Moses) seems to follow a distinct pattern, which is closely associated with the Covenant of God. In Genesis we have the Introduction of the Divine. ‘In the beginning, GOD...’ (Genesis 1:1) Genesis sets forth the Transcendental LORD and Creator of Heaven and Earth. Its testimony is that God is above and preeminent over all things. He is Creator and Sustainer of all things and thus Lord of all things. It is God who defines all things in life, even life itself. It is He who defines Good and defines evil. Only God can do this by virtue of Him being the Creator of all things.
Yet, Genesis introduces Him also as a personal God. He speaks and relates to His very creation giving them His own revelational testimony, which is an aspect distinct from the gods of the Deists and the gods of the pagans. This revelation holds all flesh accountable in that mankind has been created in God’s image, and is given a priori knowledge of both God and the works of His Law. He is Transcendent yet personal, and has promised that He will be glorified in the sight of all nations. This fact is a comforting thought in our most recent American history of the 21st century.
In Exodus we also have the testing. How will the people respond to a hierarchical Representative Government? How will they fair under a Theocratic Theonomy? In the book of Exodus, God illustrates the Covenantal structure of Hierarchy, as He moves Moses to rebel against the illegitimate power structure of Pharaoh’s tyranny, subjecting himself and the people of Israel to God’s Lordship and rule of Liberty under God’s Law.
We see in Exodus, as also in the third Book Leviticus, various legal principles and detailed case laws. It is here where God sets forth His written law, moral, civil and ceremonial. He calls the people to an OATH and a Covenantal Promise, binding them to His Law and holding them undeniably accountable.
In Numbers, the Fourth Book, God shows how rebellion and disobedience to the oath of Law brings horrible sanctions. And finally, in the re-telling of the Law, Deuteronomy, Moses gives the Hebrew people hope for the future generations by the promise of God for the coming of the Messiah. Thus, in the first five cohesive books we have the whole of God’s covenantal plan and structure for the only civil and religious social order which is acceptable to God the Creator, Lawgiver, Judge and King.
The Book of Exodus traces the trial of the People of God under the Power Tyranny of Pharaoh, to the Reconstruction of both the Church and the state in the wilderness. These lessons are extremely important for the Christian community today. It is important for us to study the history God sets forth in Exodus since, in every age, the Christians have had to face, and will always face the “Egyptian” power base, which unceasingly tries to bring the people of God into bondage. If we, as God’s true people, remain ignorant of the strategies of the “Egyptian” power base (their ways and means), we will justly face the sanctions imposed upon us by God through wicked rulers as a result of our disobedience.
For the pagan, history is cyclical without any purpose or reason. This idea concerning history comes from the Greek and Roman world, and sadly has been adopted by many Christians today. The pagan gods of “Chance and Fate” have replaced the Sovereign God of Providential decree and orchestration. The pagan view of history removes all notions of Divine sanctions for disobedience, especially when it involves the national level. To suggest that a nation’s economic, political, medical, environmental or cultural decay is directly linked to its rebellion against God’s Law is rejected out of hand as superstitious and fanatical, even by many in the Christian community. This is precisely the problem. God is bringing judgment upon both our rebellious nation and the arrogant global community for the continual breaking of His Holy Law.
History is totally and perfectly controlled by God, down to the minutest detail in order to bring about the end and goal of His perfect decree. History is the working out of the sovereign plan of God in time, on earth, among men and nations. George Bancroft stated rightly, “Providence is the light of history and the soul of the world. God is active in history, and all history has unity because God is in it.” What is happening to our nation is in direct unity with God’s ultimate plan. Worldview Theologian Stephan McDowell rightly stated, “Since God is the Author of History and He is carrying out His plan in the earth through history, any view of the history of America, or any other country that ignores God is not true history.”
Whenever there is evil in the land, and wicked men seek to blaspheme God, Righteous God takes action. He must take action since He is Just and Holy, holding all flesh accountable to His Holy Law. He, therefore, brings sanctions against all ungodliness and rebellion, personal as well as national. When the God of Scripture is abandoned, rejected, despised or forgotten, truth and morality are destroyed. Subsequently the culture is then set adrift upon a turbulent sea of despair and possible extinction. In a word, the culture is ruined. Like the Roman citizenry of ancient Rome, they never see it coming. But in one day, at the wicked hands of the barbarian Goths, Rome was sacked, and the people were astonished.
We are facing a negative recompense for our national and ecclesiastical apostasy. There is a principle to be learned here. Whenever there is a shift in world and life views away from God, there will be terrible consequences. Whenever a society turns from the living and true God to gods made with men’s hands, Heaven becomes iron above them and the judgment of God rests upon them. Since God is the God of liberty, and all His Laws are verity and truth, any departure from the God of Liberty, and His law of Liberty, MUST result in bondage and sorrow.
As William Penn rightly stated, “If men will not be ruled by God they must be ruled by tyrants”. Jesus warned, “ …I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent…”
The postmodern apostate Church of Christ is ready to die. In fact, it seems to me, that much of her witness is already dead as a result of her rebellion. She has apostatized from the gospel to such an extent that she is longing to be liberated from God and His Law, so as to run whorishly after the “leeks and onions of Egypt” without any excuse whatsoever.
For the Faithful Church, however, it is time to take back the heritage of our Biblical Fathers and restore those things that remain. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each one of us to strengthen the things of Righteousness, and declare them by every means providentially possible. The weapons of the Saint’s warfare are the weapons of Spiritual, Biblical Words. The tool of Dominion is the Law of God. And since the Word of God is powerful, and God has set in motion a great awakening among the faithful Christian underground (as I call it), then we are assured a victory. We must however, be future-oriented and continue relentlessly to advance the Kingdom by every Biblically Lawful means at our disposal.
Let us pray for the resolve to reflect upon, and to apply those things, which we have received, heard and learned… that we may repent and be steadfast pressing forth the Crown Rights of King Jesus.