What are the main features of a Christian interpretation of history? …
- History is a working out of God’s purposes
- God is the Lord of history… Because God is the Lord of history, history has meaning and direction
- Christ is the center of history… the midpoint of history has moved from the future to the past
- The new age has already been ushered in
- All of history is moving toward a goal: the new heavens and the new earth.
- The characteristic activity of the present age is missions
- We live in a continuing tension between the already and the not yet
- There are two lines of development in history (Satan’s kingdom will exist and grow as long as God’s kingdom grows, until the Day of Judgment)
- All of our historical judgments must be provisional
- The Christian understanding of history is basically optimistic
The Bible and the Future