God's Overarching History: The Big Picture Series

How do you see history? How does your mind frame the world around you? Are you seeing it from a Godly perspective, or from a secular perspective? Today we’re going to talk about God’s Overarching History: The Big Picture. Today we’re going to go from Genesis to John to Revelation and frame within our minds how God accurately portrays history.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. Amazing. Over 6 days God makes the universe, Earth, nature, animals, and humanity. It was perfect, from the beginning. God is this self existent being, existing forever, in a timeless state, and he chooses to create a universe, laws, physics, and he creates life. You’re here right now because God decided to sovereignly create a human species. He wanted there to be us.

He creates the first two human beings, and designs a garden for them to live in on the surface of the pre-historic earth. God lives in direct contact with his creation, genesis 3:8 says that God himself walked in the garden.

It’s assumed that previously, before God made man, he had also made the angels, these spiritual beings who serve him. One of these beings named Lucifer, the most beautiful of all the angels, by some act of the will, manifests pride in his own heart. Isaiah 14:13 says “You said in your heart,‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high.” And perhaps it had something to do with God’s creation of man.

So Lucifer, also known as Satan, goes to the first two humans, and tempts them. God has created a perfect reality for his people to live in, but he also offers one option, one tree that they must not eat from, to allow for a sacred choice: to obey or disobey. It’s much easier to obey in this world, because there is only one tree that must be avoided. Yet as we know, scandalously, amazingly, shockingly, the first humans accepted the temptation, and decided to play god for themselves. They disobeyed god, and opened up a nightmare that would unfold throughout human history.

The perfect universe, and the perfect earth became fallen. This one decision changed everything, opening a door for Lucifer to become Satan, the fallen one. By successfully tempting Adam and Eve, Satan gained control over them, the earth, and everything on it. Humanity had given up their dominion over the earth, and ceded it to Satan. As 1st John 5:19 says “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

Yet God promised, though man had fallen and would now face mortal death, through the human race would come one who would defeat Satan, and restore humanity to it’s place of fellowship with God.

Isaiah 46 verse 9 says “Remember the things I have done in the past.”

History is so very important. What do they say about history? Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So we must remember what God has done and what he will do.

Historical revisionism is a very real threat. In fact the truth is, many of us probably don’t know much about Christian history. I didn’t know anything about Christian history until I attended a Christian college. You see in public education, any mention of Christianity is edited out. Did you know that the first settlers coming to America did so for quote “the glory of God and advancements of the Christian faith?” Unfortunately that part of the mayflower compact is often edited out. I had never heard of the great awakenings in the United States, or how Christians founded the first universities, orphanages, and hospitals. They didn’t change anything, they just kind of didn’t mention it.

History is so vital. So we must be certain as Christians that we are seeing history as it truly is, and not as the world has taught us it is. The modern view is fairly simple: Everything is getting better all the time. Humanity is “evolving” and doesn’t need that drab old religious stuff anymore. Through science and technology man will ascend the heights! In fact if you were to watch television, or television programs for many hours you would probably never hear mention of Christianity, churches or faith. It’s excluded. They edit it out of our daily lives.

We must fight the false narrative, to claim a Christian concept of history. So let’s continue. As we discussed, humanity fell away from God, and were expelled from the garden in an event we call the fall of man.

Soon the world has become so corrupted, that there is only one man and his family who must safeguard the future. At one point in human history the entire hope of the planet, the species, and the various animals of the earth resided on an ark, while the entire surface of the earth was covered in flood waters.