Hope for the Future: Christianity and Linear History

“But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:13

As you may know, I really enjoy learning about history; but recently I learned something new (to me) about the study of the past. 

One of the main points of the Biblical narrative is that there is an over-arching story to time and history. A story with a beginning, a climax and an ending. A story whose author is the Creator God. However, this idea of a linear history (with a point to it) did not always exist.  

Historian, Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, explains:

“The Judaeo-Christian conception of time, providentially ordered by God with its beginning in the creation and its end point anticipating the eschaton (the second coming of Christ), inaugurated a new way of understanding writing about the past.”

To be sure, there are cycles in history (that’s one of the reasons we must understand it in order not to make the same mistakes) and there is still debate about the nature of time; however, even the secular “Big Think” website agrees that, 

“The reason why we see time as “linear” is because of Christianity. The idea of Genesis (at the start) and Judgement Day (at the end) gives us a narrative — a linear view of time.”

In fact, Augustine’s famed book, The City of God (wherein he contrasts the Roman Empire with the Kingdom of God), is arguably considered the first use of a linear perspective of history outside the Bible. 

In a world without ultimate historical purpose, the story of Christ broke through and gave us hope for the future. Time was not just an endless cycle of the same old thing, there was now a goal in mind, there was now resurrection, there was now hope. 

Irving-Stonebraker concludes:

“The overarching story of human history from the Christian perspective, despite the darkness and brokenness we see around us, is ultimately a story of hope thanks to Christ’s death and resurrection.”

Because of Jesus, we can have hope in this life and look forward to a time when, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Sources:

Priests of History: Stewarding the Past In an Ahistoric Age (by Sarah Irving-Stonebraker)

Big Think Article: https://bigthink.com/thinking/a-brief-history-of-linear-time/