Page 131 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

Chapter 18: More Questions about the Condition of Man

Connect …

Deists believe that God created mankind, then left them alone to develop as a society, and has no
interest in being involved in their affairs. God has a lot of other things to do besides being involved in
what is happening on earth. Do you think this is true?

Is God actively involved in history? As a Christian, you probably think He is. Then why did He allow
Adolf Hitler rise to power and kill millions of people in World War II? Why was Lenin allowed to bring
communism to the Soviet Union which resulted in the deaths of over 30 million people? If God is
actively involved in history, why are all the evil rulers permitted to rise to power? And if He is involved
in history, is the conclusion coming soon? Seems like the way things are going, the world is on a path to
self-destruction. Let’s see if we can bring some understanding in this area….

Objectives …

1. The student should be able to show that God is integrally involved in the flow of history from the
beginning to the conclusion.

2. The student should be able to describe how the Bible says the world will come to a conclusion.

The Lesson …

Is God involved in the history of mankind?
The history of the earth is intimately associated with God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. Salvation
is based on the activity and plan of God. The Bible is the history of God’s plan to redeem mankind from
sin and rebellion. And throughout history, we observe that God uses those who submit to his authority
to guide the progress of history, but He also uses those who resist Him to accomplish His will.

The Old Testament is a record of the history of God’s promises to redeem mankind by sending a
redeemer, the Messiah. The culmination of the Old Testament is the cross of Christ; for it is at this point
in history that a sacrifice was made that would change all future historical events. From the cross the
church was born. Jesus left the church with the task of bringing
the Gospel to every last person on earth.

From a biblical perspective, history is not only a journey from the
past, but prophetically it will culminate in the millennial reign of
Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. History will

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