History: Cyclical, Cumulative or Linear?

(Edited extracts of a sermon to our Mother's Union Communion - last Thursday)

A group of teachers from around the world have collected some of their student’s knowledge of history, and brought it together into a new ‘Junior School History of the World’. Here’s a short extract:

“The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and travelled by Camelot. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain. Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw.

Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterward, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the 10 Demandments. After that, King David fought with a race of people called the Philatelists. Solemn, one of David’s sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.”

Acts Chapter 13, and verses 13 to 25 tell the story of Paul’s address to Antioch, in modern day Turkey. Paul’s sermon, to a group of Israeli and Gentile Jews, is firmly rooted in history. He essentially makes the case for Jesus being the promised Messiah of the Old Testament - by reminding his audience of the history which came before the ‘Jesus event’. He reminds them that God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and gave them the land that he had promised to their ancestor, Abraham. Then he appointed Judges, and eventually a King; first Saul, then David - from whom Jesus was descended.

This is a rhetorical technique which both Peter and Stephen have used before him. You will remember, I’m sure, that on the day of Pentecost Peter cites the prophet Joel, and the Psalms, as evidence that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s plan for the world. Stephen, the first martyr, when called before the Sanhedrin, also uses history as a way of trying to persuade his hearers of who Jesus was.

There are, I think, two common misconceptions about history. The first is that we are somehow the pinnacle of history...that everything that has happened so far has produced the best and brightest human beings that have ever lived. We see ourselves as vastly superior to all our ancestors. We believe this despite the fact that today we have found even more ways to destroy the planet (and each other) than have existed throughout the rest of time.

The second misconception is that history is cyclical...that what goes around comes around… that we are destined to repeat the mistakes and the successes of previous generations. This week for example, General Sir Michael Rose (who happens to be the step-son of one of our own congregation members) is publishing a book in which he shows the parallels between the American War of Independence, and the recent present Iraq crisis. He shows that Americans today are making precisely the same sort of mistakes that the British made in the 18th century...and again gives force to the argument of history as being cyclical.

There is some truth, of course, in both these models of history - the cyclical and the culminative. But the message of the Bible is radically different. The Bible sees history as essentially linear… it has a beginning (at the point of creation); then a timeline of interconnected events; and it will have a conclusion on what is called ‘Judgment Day’. The message of the Bible is that God is in control of history. It is above all else, HIS STORY.

My prayer is that by sharing this with you today, each of us will be challenged to consider our own place in God’s Redemptive Plan for the World - and begin to see ourselves as individuals for whom God has, and continues to work, a plan to co-operate with him in bringing life to the World.