Spir Dynamics 192 5/16/93; Rev 525; Gen 50
A. Jesus Christ Controls History.
1. As a part of our Lord’s divine protection of man, He provides watertight compartments of history. Watertight compartments in ships provide a metaphor for God’s compartmentalization of the human race and human history as a part of divine protection of the human race. These watertight compartments are a part of the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.
a. Our Lord controls history directly through His divine power.
b. He controls history indirectly through certain safeguards which we will classify as the watertight compartments of history.
c. He does so permissively by permitting human volition to function in the angelic conflict.
2. Watertight is defined as compartments so constructed as to be impervious to water and to maintain the buoyancy of vessels on the sea. These compartments add to the stability of the ship which make it possible for two or more compartments to sometimes be flooded to prevent the ship from sinking and still be able to sail. So God, in His matchless grace has provided certain watertight compartments to prevent the human race from self-destruction.
3. Satan is the ruler of this world and has been since the fall of man. These watertight compartments of history prevent satanic strategy from overturning the judgments of the supreme court of heaven regarding Satan and all fallen angels in the Devil’s prehistoric revolution against God. Man was created to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict. Human history is the period of the appeal trial.
a. The fact Satan is the ruler of the world is taught in Lk 4:5- 7; Jn 12:31, 14:30, 16:11; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2.
b. The greatest danger to the stability of the human race is the present ruler of this world. Satan’s greatest frustration is that even though he is the ruler of this world, He is not able to dominate the world that he rules. In human history, Satan has met with a certain amount of success only when there is some malfunction, some compromise of the watertight compartments of history.
c. The satanic conspiracy is constructed around deceit.
(1) This is evidenced by the description of Satan at the time he is thrown out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation, Rev 12:9, “And the great Dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the entire inhabited earth.” Rev 20:2-3, 7-8, “And he [the angel that commanded the Abyss] seized the Dragon, the ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he threw him into the Abyss, and shut and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. ...Now when the thousand years were completed, Satan will be released from his prison, then he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to concentrate them together for war; whose number is as the sand of the sea.”
(2) In Jn 8:44, Satan’s deceit is explained. Satan is the greatest and the most effective liar in history. Our Lord was talking to religious people, when He said, “You are of your father, the Devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father; he was a murderer from the beginning and he does not hold to the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks from his own self-absorption; for he is a liar and the father of the lie.” This is the reason for Christian activism and the arrogance skills: self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption.
(a) People do not believe the lie until they have rejected the truth. When believers reject doctrine, it opens a vacuum in the soul into which false doctrine is sucked. The believer is vulnerable to satanic deceit when he rejects doctrine. Nations are destroyed because they come to the point where they are so under satanic control that they can no longer be permitted to exist in history.
(b) Satan wants to compromise that watertight compartment called the believer and the pivot by substituting lies for the truth. He does this by giving the believer false doctrine when the believer is negative toward the truth of Bible doctrine.
© Believers are no different than unbelievers regarding vulnerability to believing the lie; for if you reject the truth as a believer, you will believe the lie. All of the Devil’s disciples, whether believers or unbelievers, there is no truth in them. Our strength is the word of God, not our morality. It is impossible to tell the truth or line up with the truth, if you have rejected the truth. When you reject the truth, you will not only believe the lie, you will participate in the lie. That explains liberalism and activism.
(3) 2 Thes 2:9-10, “that is, the one who is coming is on the basis of the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with every possible deception of unrighteousness for those who perish, because they did not receive a love for the truth with the result that they might be saved.”
d. Satan sponsors Christian activism on the one hand, while the arrogance skills sponsor Christian activism on the other hand. 2 Cor 2:11, “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness [lying] your minds should be led astray from the purity and virtue which belongs to Christ.” Jam 4:6-7, “He gives greater grace. Therefore, it says, `God makes war against the arrogant, but He gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore, submit to God, resist the Devil and he shall flee from you.”
(1) The Bible never tells the believer to take the offensive against the Devil. Those who take the offensive against the Devil join him through activism. Christian activism combines the arrogance skills with legalism—self-righteous arrogance plus crusader arrogance. Self-righteous arrogance results in self-justification, the first arrogance skill. Self- justification results in self-deception, the second arrogance skill. Self- deception results in self-absorption, in which the believer becomes the pawn of Satan, duped into thinking that temporal solutions to the problems of life are tantamount to Christian service and that temporal solutions to the problems of life are synonymous with spiritual solutions.
(2) Christian activism includes the social gospel, social engineering, socialism in many forms, crusader arrogance related to moral degeneracy, civil disobedience, murder, violence, even revolution. All of these things compromise the watertight compartment called your spiritual life. This is why Paul warns against the arrogance skills in Rom 12:2-3.
(3) Believers have a responsibility to the client nation as noted in our Lord’s answer to the Pharisees regarding taxes, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” In this principle, the believer is a part of manifest destiny, which demands blessing by association as the most important modus operandi of our spiritual life. Therefore, rendering to God the things that are God’s refers to the function of your very own spiritual life. Recognition of the divine institutions are a part of rendering to Caesar. Rom 13:1, “Let every believer be in subjection to governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God.” There is no place, therefore, for civil disobedience as the function of believers. This is why criminality is anti- God. Christian activism does not recognize these factors.
(4) 1 Pet 5:5b-9a, “`God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer.’ Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may promote you at the proper time, casting all your worries on Him for He cares for you. Be on the alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in doctrine.” God has provided everything you need to accomplish this: the privacy of your priesthood, your royal ambassadorship, the indwelling of the Trinity, the spiritual skills, the completed Canon, and the problem solving devices.
(5) Activism is a distraction to the protocol plan of God for the Church, a disaster to the client nation to God. Christian activism comes in three categories, 1 Cor 3:11-16: human good, dead works, and evil.
4. The holiness or integrity of God is composed of two characteristics: His righteousness and his justice. God is fair and has always been fair in dealing with mankind. Because of God’s fairness, every member of the human race, without exception, has the same opportunity as all other members of the human race to believe in Jesus Christ and have eternal life.
5. There are at least six watertight compartments of history. They guarantee that the human race will never self-destruct, and that mankind will live on this earth until the end of human history.
a. The division of languages, Gen 11:6-8, after the tower of Babel. There is a great illustration of this in Acts 2:8-11. On the day of Pentecost the gospel was given in many languages in one city.
b. Nationalism. God has divided the people of the earth into various countries. At any given time in history God has declared the boundaries of nations, Deut 32:8; Acts 17:18-26. Even in the millennium, Jesus Christ will rule “nations.”
c. The concept of client nations to God. Israel was a “holy” nation to God. In the Old Testament, there were five Jewish client nations to God: the theocratic nation, the united kingdom, the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom, Judea. In the times of the Gentiles during the Church Age, only Gentile nations function as client nations to God, Lk 21:20-24.
d. The division of the human race into believers and unbelievers, Jn 3:18, 36. Every member of the human race, first through God consciousness and secondly through gospel hearing, has the same opportunity to believe in Christ, regardless of geographical isolation or linguistic barrier. Unbelievers cannot contribute the major factor to the survival of the human race in history. In the Church Age, the mature believer is the stabilizer of history. They are the pivot influence to the world at large. Loser-believers are a distraction to history under the principle: as goes the believer so goes the client nation to God.
e. The invisible influence of the Church Age believer, whereby God blesses the client nation through the pivot of mature believers. The greatest function, service, modus operandi in time, is invisible to the general public. It is the function of the pivot of mature believers.
f. Dispensations is the divine division of human history into various compartments for man’s protection.
g. The uniqueness of the Church Age is a possible seventh compartment. Never in the history of the human race has God provided so much for any group of believers as He has for the Church Age believers.
B. The Bible is the key to historical interpretation.
1. Historical interpretation must be related to God, the angels, and mankind. Bible doctrine is the only basis for accuracy and objectivity in the interpretation of history.
2. Bible doctrine is the only basis for correct interpretation of history.
3. To see history objectively, one must have either divine viewpoint or strong establishment principles in the frame of reference.
4. True history is a series of facts about the human race. These facts must be related to the fact Jesus Christ controls history.
5. To correlate and interpret these facts demands Bible doctrine in the soul, which in turn demands a believer under academic discipline and persistance in metabolization of doctrine.
6. This limits the unbeliever’s perspicacity in the field to his understanding of establishment.
7. To correctly interpret history one must understand evil, reversionism and apostasy and be able to distinguish then from sin. For example, sin doesn’t keep you from being great; e.g., Caesar was a sex athlete.
8. To correctly interpret history one must understand the angelic conflict, the First Advent, the cross, the Second Advent, and the integrity of God.
9. To correctly interpret history one must understand the doctrine of dispensations and the attributes of God.
10. To correctly interpret history one must understand the Church Age and the function, purpose and objective of the royal family, along with the fact the royal family was inserted into history. The Roman Empire sometimes obscures the beginning of the Church Age.
11. While many historians recognize Rome as the center of gravity in history, they cannot relate it to the First Advent or the beginning of the Church Age.
12. The establishment student of history as an unbeliever can understand that while the Greeks made great intellectual and political contributions to history, their genius in drama, literature, history and philosophy was destroyed by their degeneracy. The unbeliever historian is limited in his ability to cope with historical facts from the divine viewpoint.
13. Alexander was one of the greatest men who ever lived, but his intellect took him in the wrong direction after he conquered the world in twelve years. His genius was limited and went astray. When he no longer used his intellect in military strategy he became one of the greatest liberals who ever came along. His one-world ideas ruined him. Caesar knew establishment, and was practical. He knew it was necessary to have a military, free enterprize, etc. Liberal historians think Alexander was great because of his one-world idea. And they hate Caesar for his establishment principles. They cannot interpret Caesar, Alexander, Moses or anyone.
14. The Roman empire is the central lake into which all streams of ancient history flow, and from which flow out all modern streams of history. The Roman empire was the fullness of time. It took the establishment principles farther than any other people. Israel and Rome were the only two establishment peoples in the ancient world.
15. It takes Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint to see what happened to conservatives in history. True conservatives are land owners or farmers. They went to cities and became dependent on the state. From this liberalism developed. Conservatives made Rome great during her first 400 years. Liberals steal power and then abuse power. Liberals are mixed up, unstable and without principles. All revolutions result in state owned prosperity, and business depriving the individual of any chance of ever becoming prosperous. Believers must be able to interpret contemporary history and future history.
C. There is no correct interpretation of history except the doctrinal one.
1. The blind men and the elephant illustrate partial or incorrect interpretation of history.
2. Failure to correlate a true interpretation with doctrine and the divine plan removes the real dynamics of a partially correct interpretation. Prevalent interpretations of history always have some element of truth which is lost because there is no doctrinal perspective or because there is no establishment perspective.
3. Partially true but false interpretations of history include:
a. The river-valley concept, e.g., Egypt. Or the geographical or climatic interpretation, e.g., Greece (many mountains kept the people divided).
b. The biological interpretation. Competition for food, mates, power. Man is unequal (true); man is subject to his heredity (true); certain groups never have any great men, e.g., blacks. Inequality is natural and inborn.
c. Racial interpretation. Races are only great because of doctrine or establishment, which is never recognized in this interpretation of history.
d. Genius interpretation. A small portion of any population is more intelligent than the rest of the population. Yet geniuses are seldom related to reality. This interpretation ignores the supergrace believer’s impact on history.
e. Moral interpretation. This is based on observance of the laws of establishment. This explains the rise of Rome and the fall of Greece, but is only a partial interpretation of history.
f. Economic interpretation. This is the worst of all. It is sponsored by liberal historians. It fails to recognize evil. It seeks to discount the integrity of God and true conservatism.
g. You cannot explain history in terms of the old sin nature, but ultimately only in terms of the integrity of God.
D. The Bible sheds light on obscure historical events. Judges 3:31.
1. Shamgar (meaning “God gave”) was a Hurrian supergrace believer, and not a Jew. He was the third judge, and lived c. 1200 BC.
2. In about 1208 BC, the Mycenaeans launched 1000 ships to attack Troy. At the same time the Dorians invaded Greece from the north. The Mycaneans were thrown out of Greece. Troy fell along with part of the Hittite empire.
3. A lot of people were let loose around the Mediterranean. These wandering peoples are called the Greek Sea peoples. When they moved into Israel they were called Philistines, and it was Shamgar who stopped them. They by-passed Israel after being stopped and went on to Egypt where they were stopped by Ramses II. So they settled in southern Palestine.
4. All the great powers of that period were destroyed except Israel.
E. Each generation of history is sustained by the historical impact of the mature believer. The mature believer is responsible for blessing by association and historical impact in his nation. He is blessed by God and those associated with him are blessed by association, either directly from God or indirectly from that believer. Every generation is blessed, not by the wisdom of people who have lived before them, but by making their own blessing through reaching maturity. The mature believer is the salt of the land, 2 Tim 1:5-6.
F. The Principle of the Wrong Side of History, 2 Tim 3.
1. This is described in verses 1-4.
2. Opposition from the wrong side of history is described in vv. 5-12.
3. Deliverance from the wrong side of history is taught in vv. 13-17.
4. Illustrations of what happens when people get on the wrong side of history.
a. Military men are scapegoats for political failures. Most generals fail because of their failure to relate history to the integrity of God and their professional knowledge. Caesar and Napoleon related their genius to history and exploited their genius through their ability to properly evaluate the historical situation.
b. Robert E. Lee recognized the importance of the railroad and troop movement. he developed the concept of concentration of forces. The rise of industry led to the rise of machine armies. The North had no men of genius to exploit their industrial complex. Manifest destiny is the divine interpretation of history and the reason why the South lost the war. Lincoln correctly interpreted history through the use of the principle of mass armies and mass industry.
c. Germany used this principle to destroy France in 1870.
5. Freedom is the source of all prosperity. Therefore when in prosperity, don’t restrict industry.
6. In the concept that Jesus Christ controls history through the laws of divine establishment universal military training is a must. Generals must be produced by good training. Today the army requires a stereotype junior officer and promotes human good for promotion.
7. An officer must understand technical information as well as be a good leader. He must be an interpreter of history, a businessman, an engineer, and many other things.
G. The Concept of Logistical Grace in History.
1. Since we have lost every chance of advancement historically, we are dependent solely on the integrity of God.
2. Logistical grace is the divine provision from the integrity of God for the royal family to advance to maturity.
3. Alpha grace is God’s provision between salvation and maturity. It includes:
a. Living and temporal provision, security from evil, food, shelter, clothing, transportation.
b. The concept of space and time.
c. The provision of Bible doctrine, the local church and one’s right pastor.
d. Awareness and alertness regarding historical trends.
e. A guardian angel.
f. Your health.
4. Bravo grace is logistical support for the believer after he cracks maturity. It is the justice of God providing total relationship with the integrity of God. This support is the escrow blessings deposited in Christ from eternity past.
5. Charlie grace is God’s logistical grace provision of punitive preventative suffering, which includes warning and intensive discipline, for the believer who is maladjusted to the justice of God, i.e., the carnal and reversionistic believer.
6. As a nation we have been provided protection in spite of poor leadership. As a result of bad decisions from a position of spiritual weakness, we have had poor political leadership for the last fifty years. This has resulted in our failure to correctly interpret contemporary history.
H. Historical Interpretation and the Pivot.
1. The only answer left for our country from the results of an evil tampering federal government is a pivot of mature believers.
2. The pivot is a remnant of mature believers who have maximum relationship with the integrity of God. This is the remnant according to the election of grace.
3. If the pivot is large, the nation is preserved by the justice of God from the historical disaster it must face. If the spin-off of reversionistic believers is too large, then the nation will be destroyed while the pivot survives the crisis.
4. The size of the spin-off is the index to national disaster. If the spin-off is large, then the nation has social and political reform apart from the integrity of God. The spin-off is destroyed by historical disaster and the nation is cleansed.
5. The pivot is like the eye of the hurricane, it is protected in historical disaster.
I. History and the Postulates of Integrity.
1. Personal.
a. There are no advantages to the advantages without the advantage. Advantages (plural) means blessing from the justice of God. Advantage (singular) means relationship with the integrity of God.
b. If you have the advantage, you have the advantages.
c. Without the advantage, there are no advantages.
2. National.
a. No nation can have the advantages without the advantage (relationship with divine integrity, a large pivot).
b. A nation without the advantage loses the advantages.
c. No nation can recover its advantages without the advantage.
d. Loss of both the advantage and the advantages removes that nation from history. This is the justice of God administering the fifth cycle of discipline.
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© 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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