Will History Repeat Itself?

Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, history is constantly moving forwards. We are all collectively heading towards the end of time, and the consummation of the ages, which will result in a new world, and a new heavens, (Revelation 21). But does the not so old saying that “history repeats itself” or in the words of philosopher George Santayana (1863—1952)“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. Scribner’s, 1905: 284).

What do these words mean in the modern era of the 21st Century? Because Christians believe history is progressive, based principally of the resurrection of the Saviour, what does the saying that ‘history will repeat itself’ mean in the Common Era? First, we need to acknowledge that we all learn from history. Society learns valuable lessons from our past, but if we as a society stop applying those lessons to our current society, we are condemned to repeat what we failed to apply in the here and now, no matter how advanced we ‘think’ we are.

Christians agree that history is connected, that there are lessons in the Old covenant that we learn from in the new covenant. Not only are individual people’s history connected, but because we believe that we are in the church age until the second coming of Jesus Christ, that this world’s history is valuable and will be judged on what we believe will be called the Judgment Day! So because the future isn’t fixed, we still have a lot to learn from history, and history books. Just because the past is in the past, doesn’t mean we all should collectively rewrite history, or forget it, or suppress it.

God doesn’t do this, so neither should “we his creation”. The past holds valuable lessons for us, to the effect that if we suppress our history, it will come back to bite us. To a certain degree, we should leave the past in the past, but that is only after we have learned our lessons from it. The past is like a teacher and even in our modern 21st Century, we still have much to learn as knowledge can be inexhaustible. Does this mean that you should pick up a history book tomorrow or today? Yes and no. We have the means to not forget our past with all of our modern knowledge, but not forgetting the past takes wisdom. Wisdom is applied knowledge, so it doesn’t matter how much knowledge we have, it means nothing to us unless we as a society are applying the knowledge that is so richly available to us all now in the 21st Century! This is Mike.

Comments

Catholic Identity.

I was born into the Catholic Church and was baptized as an infant, I had my first communion and reconciliation as a child, and was confirmed as a teenager. Although I was never devout, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour when I was 21 through an evangelical Christian radio ministry, which in turn gave new life to my Catholic faith. Although I remained a Catholic, I identified as a born again Christian. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I learned the difference between the two denominations and what they taught about being born again. Regardless, there was a significant change in my life back then, which continues to this day. Being Catholic is much like an identity to me and I remember growing up under the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II. The culture I grew up in was largely affected by his papacy, and the way the culture viewed the church was significantly different from the way the current culture views it. Growing up, the pope didn’t try to be rele...

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Biblical Meaning of “Life in the Spirit.”

“Life in the Spirit” is an example that the Apostle Paul gives in the book of Romans starting in chapter 5 and going through to chapter 8. He begins by telling us we are justified by faith (5:1), and have gained access by faith into the grace of God (5:2). We have been delivered from God’s wrath (5:9) and we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (5:10). He goes on to explain that through Adam all die (5:12), and that the free Gift of God brings justification and righteousness to the believing sinner (5:15-17). Through our conversion we are baptized into Christ and into his death, which frees us from the law and makes us dead to sin (6:2-4). He explains that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we are given new life in Christ (6:4). Our old unregenerate self was crucified with Christ so that our body of sin might be done away with (6:5-6). Because we have died to sin, we now submit ourselves to God being that we are now under grace, not the law (6:8-1...

The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Search This Blog