The Seven Cs of History

Answers Bible Curriculum Second Edition Unit 2 Lesson 11

In this lesson, we’re returning to Answers in Genesis’ Seven Cs of History but from a slightly different perspective from our last gospel-focused look. This time, we’re focusing on how the Seven Cs function as an essential outline of human history, how we can estimate the dates of these fundamental events, and how this biblical outline compares to the outline of history popularly promoted by American culture.

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good morning welcome back to Sunday school good to be back with you good to be back looking at our answer is Bible curriculum together many and big thanks to Caleb who led Sunday school last week you did a great job I trust you benefitted from the extended discussion regarding Scripture and presuppositional apologetics also thank you for your prayers for me I know many of you been praying for me as I just finished up my fourth semester at the Masters seminary it was a great feeling to turn in my last assignment yesterday so I’m looking forward to a little bit of a break before I tackle winter classes again not thank you also thank you there was you thinking about just also the the ability to go on a retreat last weekend with our fellowship group at Grace Community Church that was a really enjoyable time refreshing time allowed Emma and I to get to know some of the other believers that we get to fellowship with here at in Los Angeles so that was a nice refreshing time but I’m I’m excited to get back into more Bible teaching with you oh I should also mention that Emma’s or just because I mentioned I think in my email to Emma’s been taking a counseling class and that has finished up for for now and so Emma’s also kind of a having the release of a finishing up of the assignments for class so we’re both feeling very very grateful to the Lord for what he’s accomplished this semester also just reminder what a willing I would be with you in person next Sunday and that’ll be really exciting and then I have the opportunity to travel to New Jersey for just a really short time for we need to get back to or I need to get back at least to the classes for my winter session anyway so that’ll be really good I look forward to seeing you in person but today what are we doing today today we’re returning to the seven C’s of history we spoke about this about where we spoke about this in relation to the gospel to week ago we use the seven C’s of history as a way to explain the bad news and the good news of the gospel that that which makes up the saving message about Jesus but that discussion had to be somewhat brief and we had to march through the seven seas somewhat quickly to reach our goal today we’re gonna look at the seven seas in a more leisurely pace with time to pause smell some roses our goal this time of the seven seas is to see how they function as a viable framework for understanding world history we’re also going to give approximate dates for these seven seas in history and we’ll do a little bit of discussion on why we assign those dates and finally we’ll look at how this outline of history this biblical outline of history compares to the outline asserted by our supposedly wise and advanced Western society we’re gonna see how much the biblical view clashes with our culture’s view of the history of mankind now main descriptions were that are relevant to today’s discussion are ones that we discussed two weeks ago so I’m actually not gonna be reading that much scripture today that will point out certain relevant verses that we didn’t look at before I will paraphrase the number of verses though so obviously this is still gonna be a Bible lesson everything that we’re talking about is coming from the Bible anyway so let’s pray before we go further great God I thank you for all that you’ve accomplished and what you continue to accomplish you were so gracious to us your people but I pray that you be gracious in a special way now and that you’ve enabled me to speak helpfully accurately your word up way to speak your truth and I pray God that it would encourage edify convict all the things that you use your word to do I pray that you would do that among your people at Calvary and anyone else who might listen to this God for your glory amen okay whoa we’re obviously talking again about history today and and if you may know that I am partial to studying history like Caleb it’s part of what I studied in college I’ve been fascinated with history since my youth I love history not only because it’s interesting but it also explains a lot why the world is the way that it is today and if we can know why the world is the way that it is it shows us or if we know how why it is the way to do this and how it got that way we can act more wisely in the world history shows us to some degree how we should act in the world well the Bible because it is all know the Bible besides being supernatural revelation from God is also a history book it contains other genres to be sure poetry prophecy epistle but even these genres draw on and explain the implications of what actually happened and what actually was said in history the Bible is not a book of feel-good stories fables moral principles it is a presentation of and it is an explanation of and it is a reaction to history the Bible is the true history of God creating and revealing himself to mankind if history in general can help us to better understand why the world is the way that it is today much more so does the history of the supernatural Word of God help us understand the world and why it is the way it is why we are the way that we are now to this end Answers in Genesis historical outline the 70s of history it identifies seven key moments in history that have had and will have a profound effect on all humanity these seven moments as we’ve seen they can all be identified with words starting with a letter see that’s why we say of seven seas of history you know this is obviously not an exhaustive outline of historical events or even of all the major historic events that have taken place even in the Bible but these seven seas are a good framework for you and I to understand what has happened in history you wanna think about what is what is our history what is this through the will these seven Seas will boil down to the most essential events we can know what happened in history and it’s useful for explaining that history to those who do not know Christ or those who might not be familiar with the Bible now let’s walk through the seven seas again and this time and will again be starting with our first sea which is creation now according to a plain reading Genesis 1 which is the way we ought to take the text God made our whole universe every kind of living creature and the first two humans in a period of 6 24-hour days God declared his creation to be very good and he rested on the seventh day this is when humanity officially began so it’s a pretty important event in our history now note that the way we started was part of God’s very good even perfect creation now when exactly did this happen can we set an approximate date for creation well I’m going to certain answer in Genesis asserts that we can and not even based off of radiometric dating or the fossil record the Bible itself gives us indicators to the timing of creation and for you to see this please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 5 Genesis 5 I want you to see something even though we’re not going to read it specifically if you’re at Genesis 5 and you look at the text you’ll notice that you had in front of you a genealogical list notice what is included in this genealogy you have some specific details specific information not only about persons and their names but also how long each person lived and interestingly when each person sired a specific descendant now this list begins with Adam and it makes its way to Noah and his sons now think about it using this information provided by Moses how could we figure out how much time passed between Adam and Noah well it should be pretty simple we just add up the years you start with how long a father lived until he bore his son like for example in verse 3 when Anna had lived 130 years he became the father of a son in his own likeness so 130 years you take this and then you add it to the number of years of the next descendant you add how long his son lived before being before bearing a grandson and then you add how long his grandson lived before bearing a great-grandson and so forth you add up the years until we get the next descendant when do we do this and when we combine it when we combine the information we see here with a very similar genealogy in terms of its layout in Genesis 11 we can gain an estimate we can gain we can calculate how long were the years between Adam and Abraham now Genesis 5 goes from Adam to Noah Genesis 11 goes from well Genesis 5 goes to Noah and his sons and Genesis 11 goes from Noah’s sons to Abraham when we add up the years for all the times that it took for a person to beget a descendant we can conclude that Abraham lived about 2,000 years after Adam that’s about how much time if you add up the numbers Abraham lives about 2,000 years after Adam and if we examine the genealogies involving Abraham that come later in the Pentateuch if we look for other time clues in the Bible and we consult some extra biblical sources of information that coincide with these biblical clues then we can conclude that Abraham lived about 2,000 years before Christ so then from Adam to Abraham 2,000 years Abraham to Christ about 2,000 years as best as we can tell Jesus our Lord was born around 4 BC give or take a couple of years and considering how much time has elapsed between 4 BC and now how long ago from today according to these calculations did Adam live 2,000 plus 2,000 to about 2000 and you get 6,000 years 6,000 years which is why I say Answers in Genesis says that our first see creation took place around 4000 BC when was creation about 4000 BC and now some theologians in church history have sought to be more precise than that Answers in Genesis specifically uses the work of a man named James Ussher Archbishop I believe an Anglican Church in the 18th century or 19th century they’ve sought to be more precise than 4-thousand I’m just gonna say four thousand four so for our first see God created time universe and mankind he began the story of redemption around 4000 BC now I know some evangelical theologians and certain the others will claim that the genealogies that we have here Genesis 5 and 11 have gaps in them and so they cannot be trusted to provide strict chronological information now I would say this is not the case and I’ll give you a little bit of the reason why we’ll discuss this in more detail a little bit later on as we move to the course why can we trust that we do have legitimate chronological information in these genealogies and that there aren’t gaps in there well it should be noted that there are gaps in other genealogies in the Bible but those genealogies are of a different character than those ones that we see in Genesis 5 and 11 the genealogies in Genesis these two genealogies are the only ones in the Bible that contains specific time information go to Mathew to talk about uses genealogy you know get the number of years between or the number of years of how long someone lived or especially when they begat a descendant but you do have those here this would actually make it a little bit similar to the the record of kings and chronicles that tells you how long a certain King lived and those certainly don’t have any gaps so these are unique compared to the other genealogies in the Bible you could even say it’s a different genre of genealogy in fact I think it’s interesting if you actually move to the rest of the tour it you’ll notice that Moses keeps on giving a lot of time details they’ll say how long the people of Israel stayed in a certain place and then when they moved on and we might ask why and I believe the answer is that God’s Spirit Moses they wanted Israel to know just where they fit in God’s history of the world Genesis and the Torah as a whole they very much are concerned with explaining to the people of Israel where did you come from and where are you and where are you going and so a lot of the specific time information is used to that purpose that’s great because if Israel wasn’t formed by those time details then so can we be now I will say that or so this is why I say that 6000 years is where the Bible leads us to understand the age of the world and so the creation date around 4000 BC don’t see a need for gaps in these genealogies we can use this time information I believe as God meant now if you do see gaps in these genealogies and some evangelical commentators do allow for gaps or assert gaps such commentators generally conclude that no more than ten thousand years sometimes they’ll stretch it even up to 20,000 years no more than ten thousand years passed between Adam and Abraham let’s see Adam in Hebron ham or no no I’m since Adam and 2 to where we are today this is why one young earth when you talk about young Earth Creationism it’s usually defined as believing that the earth is less than 10,000 years old now again some might stretch it up to 20,000 years 15,000 years but young Earth Creationism usually is meant to say that the earth is 10,000 years or less I think we can do better than that I think that unique to y’all genealogies that we have in Genesis 5 and 11 show us that the earth is 6,000 years old that’s why I say creation at 4,000 BC now again we’ll talk a little bit more about that pit now the universe when it was created by God was free of death free of disease free of pain free of suffering and free of sin but all this of course quickly changed in our second see that’s corruption this is the event we know as the fall man rebels against God and sin enters the world now how much time went by between the creation of man and his fall into sin now here we don’t get specific time details but from what the Bible does show us it does seem like not very much time went by in fact most evangelical commentators most commentators suggest that sin entered the world soon after the clothes at the creation week we won’t dwell on why we think that exactly right now we’ll talk about that in later class but we’re talking just understand now that ii see corruption takes place very soon after the first after creation now man’s act of rebellion against God not only impacted Adam and Eve but it also impacted the rest of the created universe listen to what Romans 8 says Romans 8:22 22 you can turn there if you like Romans 8:22 22 says for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now now God made a good universe a good universes not include futility but sin brought futility into the world Adam brought futility into the world God’s perfect creation was quickly marred by man’s sin man died spiritually he became cursed and the whole universe became subject to death corruption and futility so this is another extremely important moment in mankind’s history this is when the world became futile this is when the world became cursed our world and this is where man died spiritually soon unfortunately increased on the earth as mankind found more and more ways to deny God’s Authority deny God’s loveliness and increased to such a level that in Genesis 6 God declares that he’s sorry that he made man and he planned to wipe man out but it was going to rescue one man Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord we hear these events under the category of our third see catastrophe now we’re gonna put a date for this when did the flood take place going to assert around 2350 BC 2350 BC so this would be about sixteen hundred years sixteen hundred and fifty years after creation according to the Genesis genealogies remember we get some information from Adam to Noah and some time information about the flood which is why we assert this date around 23 fifty God sent a global flood to judge mankind he designed this flood to destroy all air-breathing all land dwelling creatures this is not a hyperbolically described local flood as some evangelicals claim today this was a worldwide flood to completely cover all land on the earth even the highest mountains according to Genesis 7 19 to 20 now the results of this globe impacting event extend to all humans today worldwide geology was fundamentally altered even today scientists observe rock layers that extend across whole continents and contain billions of dead things while scientists interpret the meaning of these layers according to their presuppositions we know the trustworthiness of the Bible such geological findings are consistent with what we’d expect of a worldwide flood now there are some details that are difficult to figure out and creating a model that’s entirely consistent is a challenge but we do see what we would expect to see from the Bible when we think of geology humanity survived this catastrophe only because of God’s grace to Noah but the diversity in the gene pools of mankind and the different animal kinds was probably drastically reduced by the flood you know anything about genetics or inheritance you know that information is passed down in a certain way and there was a large expansion and a manifestation of that information both in humankind and animal kinds what animals we talked about different species of animals that’s just genetic variation playing out but with the flood it got funneled back together you just had two of the most the animals and then you had a one family going into the ark so a lot of that information that genetic variation was likely lost even today since the flood we will continue to have species are various animals even whole kinds of animals that will go extinct and so there’s this loss of information I kind of think it would be interesting how it different did are what were some of the variations of animals and even people that we don’t even see today because of the flood anyways we’re certainly going to have a lot more to say about the flood going forward in our in our curriculum we’ll talk through some of the issues of how to NOAA fit all the animals on the ark how did the flood reshape the earth what are some theories about that what are some evidences for that I’ll talk about many other details related to the flood but certainly this is another hugely important event in the history of all people but so it’s another event that came soon after the flood only about a hundred years after the flood we have another one fundamentally affected humans it changed their relationships between people everywhere and that’s our fourth see confusion hopefully you’re getting these seeds and they’re sticking in your mind creation around 4000 BC you’ve got corruption also around 4000 BC and you have the flow of the catastrophe around 2350 BC and now we’re looking at confusion and we’re going to start a date of 20 to 40 BC and I’ll tell you why we do that in just a second but what’s going on in this fourth sea well not learning from the flood without a heart change to love and obey God Noah’s descendants soon gather together to rebel against God to build a city and a tower for their own glory and this rebellion too would end up having a significant impact on all humanity because to inhibit man’s rebellion God broke mankind’s one language into many languages forcing different families to scatter across the globe by themselves people who spoke the same language stuck together and they separated from those who didn’t speak the same language this scattering separated the gene pools of man also these various people groups not only did they genetically isolate themselves from one another of course there’s going to be intermingling periodically but as they spoke different languages from each other they also developed separate cultures separate traditions and as a result of these as older the separation and independent development they increasingly looked different from one another this is the origin of the people groups that we know today now where specifically did Noah’s descendants go it’s actually remarkable that the Bible tells us Genesis 10 we get the details in the sections sometimes called the table of the nation’s and it tells us where the different people groups ended up going where the descendants of Noah and his sons how they diversified and where they went now when we get there in our chronological study I’ll put up a map that shows generally where these descendants of Shem ham and Japheth and but again this is remarkable that God has such specific information not only about timing but also about location for the people of Israel and for us I mentioned that Babel this instant at Babel probably took place about a hundred years after the flood why do I say that well look at Genesis 10 verse 25 this is part of the table of the nations verse 25 this chapter says this two sons were born to Eber name of the one was Peleg for in his days the earth was divided and his brother’s name was Joktan now the name Peleg means division since the Tower of Babel is then discussed in the very next chapter Genesis 11 and because Genesis does not talk about some suitably any other kind of world division the division most likely meant by pay legs name is the division of people at the Tower of Babel I think some people want to see it as the division of the consonants I think that’s less likely contextually probably we’re talking about the division of people at Babel if you look at the verses leading up to verse 25 from verses 21 to 25 notice how many generations after Shem penny leg is born so just going back to verse 21 Shems the Father Eber okay yeah that’s mention there and then we have Elam and then Arum then our packs ad and then Ebers mention again and we have Peleg so we have our pack said Sheila Eber and then Peleg it’s four generations now if we allow twenty to forty years per generation episode that Babel would probably have taken place between eighty two hundred and sixty years after the flood not that long a bit gap not that long the not much time had gone by it’s likely that the generations were shorter rather than longer and so we can estimate a date for a Babel and we would align this with other things in the scriptures to around 20 to 40 BC so we’ve covered our first four seas we have creation corruption catastrophe confusion all extremely important events for mankind the implications of each is felt by all of us today we’re all affected by these things now interesting all of this has taken place that are only in Genesis 11 for hugely significant events and only the first 11 chapters of the Bible now this fact should make us appreciate a few things one there is a lot of very important history that has happened way before you and I are even born we can sometimes get very myopic about how we understand the world and how we understand life I think everything begins with us or began with the United States thousands of years ago a fence where happening that dramatically affects how we live today there’s a ton that happened in the past that’s important we need to appreciate that fact too another thing we need to appreciate is that the beginning of Genesis is very important to get right these are hugely significant events they’re right in the beginning of Genesis and yet the first 11 chapters of Genesis are some of the most attacked in the Bible this is fundamental fundamental information if it’s wrong or if it’s inaccurate that has huge implications so we need to pay close attention to what the beginning of Genesis says and we need to be able to defend what the beginning of Genesis says what we have here some of the most fundamental information for our origins and why the world is the way it is today we can even say thirdly now much of the relevance of the Gospel message is tied up in a correct understanding of humanity’s origin and humanity’s history I mean think about it if Adam didn’t really exist if the fall never really happened if the flood was just some big exaggeration or battle was just a myth not only does this misinformation have massive implications about the Bible’s inerrancy and clarity but it wreaks havoc on the gospel message and it leaves us without answers to some of the life’s some of life’s most basic questions why is the world like this why am I like this what is the solution to man’s woes today this is part of the reason why we’re using answers Bible creaking I’m at Calvary we want to be able to Apolo Genesis 1 to 11 along with the rest of the Bible as a cure clear and relevant history I will talk a little bit later on in the class there’s a ton of pressure though to compromise on these chapters to reinterpret them now our 50 is going to jump a pretty long distance in time our fifth seat is Christ appearing around 4 BC Christ appears more than 2,000 years after the confusion at Babel there’s a lot of old part of it event in the Old Testament leading up to Christ with the nation of Israel in fact we could probably do a whole separate list of C’s relating to Israel we talked about the covenant with Abraham talked about the commandments with Moses the camping in the wilderness wandering the conquest of the promised land the crown or the time of the kings the captivity in exile but the culmination of what God was doing with Israel comes with Christ so it’s why we don’t include those other sees they are important but the culmination of all of that what God was doing with Israel is with Christ relations for relations 4 verses 4 to 5 says this Galatians 4:4 to 5 but when the fullness of time came God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons this event the coming of Christ in his incarnation that obviously also had worldwide implications it was that the beginning and in many ways that the total fulfillment of many promises given to Abraham and to his descendants through Jesus through this specific seed of Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed our Lord Jesus the Son of God came to earth to save his people from their sin this soon was brought into the world by the first Adam the last Adam functioned as a new representative for mankind Jesus 3 all those who believe in him from the curse of Adam’s sin in this fifth see we were talking about how Jesus came to earth as a man heard the son came to earth as a man lived a perfect and sinless life on the earth and then became the righteous substitute on man’s behalf and that was via the sixth see the cross yeah the birth of Christ around 4 BC we had the cross around ad 30 why did Jesus have to die in the cross was there another way well no no indeed because Jesus experienced in that garden revealed that the cross was absolutely necessary what did Jesus ask his father in the garden if it’s possible take this cup from me and we’ll have more to say about that later on but one of the implications of that statement is it is not possible that had to happen what happened with Christ on the cross had to happen for God’s glory and for the salvation of man from his sin to reconcile us to God Jesus had to suffer the full holy and boiling anger of God against our sin in himself as God Jesus was able to bear and pay once for all the infinite penalty of sin that sin requires and that God’s justice requires as man however Jesus was able to stand in the place of sinners and act as their representative this is one of the reasons why it’s so important for Jesus to be fully God and fully man if he wasn’t God he couldn’t have accomplished the work but if he wasn’t man he couldn’t apply the work to us because we needed a human representative it’s so doing Jesus took our sin if you’re a believer he took your sin paid it off and gave you his righteousness through his life in death we see this described in Colossians Colossians 1 verses 19 to 22 Colossians 1:19 to 22 says for it was the father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him fullness of deity the fullness of God and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven and although you were formerly alienated in hostile and mind engaged in evil deeds yet he has now reconciled you I love it finished reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach what a wonderful statement even from the very beginning before the foundation of the world it was God’s plan it was set for God to send Christ to the cross to redeem people for himself the major moments of history the other sees that we’ve discussed especially their first four they all point to this moment in one way or another they they point to Christ Adam points to Christ the fall points to Christ the flood points to Christ Babel points to Christ they all point to various needs that man has that need ultimately of another human human representative to bring Redemption we need someone like Adam but who succeeded were Adam failed we need someone to redeem us from the curse from sin from death to rescue us from the judgment of God that was so evident in the flood and to bring us reconciliation both with God and with one another the reconciliation that are to reconcile us from the divisions that were intensified at Babel amazingly though the first Adam brought death into the world through sin the last Adam Jesus brought life into the world for all men who would believe in him now it might be a toss-up to consider what is the most major event in human history is it the Incarnation is that the cross is it the resurrection certainly they’re all closely related and together I think they do make up the most major events in human history nothing was more monumental to humanity – you and I and our God coming to earth living perfect life before the father and dying on the cross for our sins and rising again but just as the first sees point to Christ in His Word which was fully accomplished praise God so does the last seat point to Christ which technically isn’t history since it’s in the future but God has made it so sure of happening we can think of it as history it just hasn’t happened yet it’s set in God’s mind and so it is indeed history if Christ redeemed a bride for himself on the cross which the Bible says he did and keeping with a wedding metaphor what does the bride wait for in the future the consummation this is our 7th and last Essene the exact timing of the consummation is done now this is sometime in the future I date soon and that is one they’re getting ever closer we sometimes talk about Christ’s second coming this is what we mean with the term consummation now understand that rather than one particular events the consummation represents a series of events that all have to do with the summing up of all things in Christ but what are these events well Christ will one day come back to gather his own in the rapture and keep them forever with him Christ will judge wickedness on the earth in the great tribulation and at its end he will destroy or he will descend to earth and destroy all those who rebelled against him Christ will then restore the earth and set up an earthly kingdom in Israel for a thousand years reigning in a perfect righteousness and justice as the promised descendant of David at the end of the a thousand years Christ will quash a final rebellion led by Satan and then commence the great white throne judgment at that point the Old Earth and old heavens will pass away in great Heat every person will then be judged according to the records that God has kept of that the wicked according to those records according to those books they are thrown into the lake of fire forever their righteous I led with Christ into a new earth and new heavens these this new heaven and the new earth and they are different from the old versions not only by their total perfection by the total absence of sin death pain and sorrow but also because God Himself dwells on the earth with his redeemed bride in the New Jerusalem now that is wonderful and this is where all of history is going to the final consummation God’s people dwelling with God and enjoying him forever what a wonderful destiny but what a fearful destiny for those who do not know God and will not submit themselves to God because where is history leading them to eternal destruction eternal punishment for rebellion against God that’s again that where we see Illustrated that that concept the kindness and severity of God his love is justice so in the seven seas then we have a fundamental outline of all human history creation around 4000 BC corruption around the same time catastrophe 2350 BC confusion 20 to 40 BC Christ around 4 BC that cross around 80 30 and then the consummation to come someday very soon now we need to understand God’s history the true history of mankind if we really want to understand reality but unfortunately many deny this history not only the timing of this history this history but the factual nature of this history and they come up with a substitute history and this is most obvious in our secular culture let’s now consider our secular cultures viewpoint of the seven seas of history how would they describe what we’ve just described now this is according to the wisdom of our world creation well the most popular popular idea currently for how the universe began is not what the Bible says but it is the Big Bang Big Bang was supposed to have taken place about fourteen billion years ago with the earth forming about four-and-a-half billion years ago secular view there never was a creator the universe and life were created by chance matter was created by a bang life evolved from molecules to proteins the single-celled organisms eventually to man cut more specifically current evolutionary theory is that man evolved from apes or ape-like ancestors it raised people groups that we see in the world today are the result of different evolutions of man in different places about corruption what is the world’s you what is this secular cultures view of sinning corruption there’s no such thing from an evolutionary perspective there has always been death disease and struggle behaviors like violent rage selfishness of dole tree they’re not sins they’re mere products of biology their evolutionary hold old holdovers their disorders of the brain much if not all we do people suggest is a product of our genes our upbringing and our social economic circumstances there’s no such thing as in there’s no such thing as corruption what is the secular view of the flood never happened or if it did it was local and insignificant things have proceeded in the past generally in the same way they do today this is the idea of uniformitarianism we can use science to understand the path because things have always been the same everything is slow gradual processes way if the flood is a myth and so is Babel and the spreading out of the peoples from the Middle East differences of people in their languages their culture and appearance they are to be explained by evolution and the process of natural selection according to mere chance people evolved differently in different parts of the world what is the secular view of Christ some say he didn’t exist but that’s actually a very intellectually on untenable position there’s tons of historical documentation of Christ but those who do concede that he exists he’s a good teacher good example he was not God it’s not the Lord it’s not the Savior what about the cross the death on the cross was certainly not about delivering mankind from sin or the wrath of God the cross was a tragic accident the Jews and Romans putting to death an innocent and good man or maybe it was the sad end of a zealous but deluded Jewish reformed or even it was the noble sacrifice of a person who sought to set forth a positive moral example for others to follow but again this is not about propitiation this is not about making man right with God what about the consummation where is history heading according to a secular perspective well it’s not very hopeful with such different views of these significant historical events it’s only natural that’s the secular view the future would be very different going to secular thinking what happens to people when they die well they just return to dust there’s no soul there’s no afterlife meanwhile man will continue to evolve but the individuals will die and come to nothing what about the end of the universe all two main views of the end they see either the universe coming the end of the universe coming with a whimper or with another bang but when the whimper is something sometimes described as heat death the idea is that the universe will gradually grow colder and colder until everything is static and dead the idea of the universe ending with a bang is that the universe will begin to contract it will squeeze together into a huge crunching ball and this super pressurized collection of matter will then explode again and then perhaps spawn another universe I think you can appreciate that this is an extremely different view of history is it not and as I say your view of history is going to inform how you ought to live in the world today is it any surprise then that those who believe in a secular viewpoint as outlined here is it any surprise that they choose to act the way they do as their sin is of no consequence as if life is all about satisfying various desires in the present those behaviors make sense according to their proposed history now thankfully God and His mercy gave us the true history of the universe in the Bible that we do not have to walk about as the rest do in darkness like blinded men now I hope you’re thankful for that I mean praise God that we had this record praise God that he revealed himself because otherwise we’d be lost God gracious lead to death for us so again here are the seven C’s of history and I hope that you’ll remember these memorize these this is a useful outline for understanding the most fundamental events of our history and where history is going now I want to talk about a few application questions with you and here I will ask for your audible participation number one how do the moral and social issues of our society relate to man’s attempted revision of God’s history your understanding my question think about the problems in our society how are they connected to our society’s understanding of history what do you think I’ll give you an example – maybe spur you’re thinking one of the issues that we see is transgenderism gay marriage acceptance of homosexual practice how does that relate to man’s altered history of the world yes God created them male and female God created the two genders but if you say God didn’t create we just evolved well then you can have transgenderism if you say God created marriage and marriages between biological man a biological woman or if you deny that well then you can have homosexual relationships you can have gay marriage I mean anything goes so you can see that what one chooses to believe about history is gonna result in certain behaviors and really certain problems I mean transgenderism is insane but this is the result of believing in a history with that path what are some other examples of this kind of thing a problem in society that actually goes back to our understanding of history yeah a bush can you explain that right right we don’t have a God there’s no true morality it is about survival of the fittest this child is an inconvenience to my survival it is an inconvenience to my life it doesn’t have a right to exist it doesn’t have a right to dignity or life so I can get rid of it yeah this makes sense from a secular perspective but it is a denial of what God actually did in which he created every person even those who have not let yes not yet left a wound in the image of God and he says you shall not destroy my image if you do I will require it of you whoever sheds man’s blood by man bloody shellfish or by man his blood shall be shed according to Genesis 9 gay marriage transgenderism abortion what else yeah that’s a good point there is a lot of fear about global warming and environmental Cataclysm and if you see the universe as just coming about by chance life on Earth coming about by chance then this is a serious issue because by chance it can all just be destroyed it could all be ruined we could we can end up killing ourselves that does not bring it to thinking that God actually created the world God is governing the world and he has promised and this does not absolve us a stewardship but he has promised I will preserve it I will preserve it until its time until the time at the end so yeah that’s another great point global warming and all the and the incessant worry about the environment we can add to this racism that’s a denial of what God did in creation and what God did at Babel we are all one people we are one blood ultimately but racism doesn’t see us like that sexual harassment and abuse which we hear about which we’re hearing a lot about these days again it goes back to creation in the fall political corruption that denies what God established after the flood that’s a nice what God will do in the consummation that there will be a final judgment and a final Redemption some people are so so into politics and to the point of absolutely hating those who have a different political persuasion because they believe that this is all there is it comes down to politics this is how we’re going to save ourselves and the world would you say no no that salvation of is coming in the consummation that’s when the world will be establishing this justice again we have a stewardship that we are to fulfill in the present but we’re not going to ultimately achieve that goal until Christ comes feminism we could add that denial of creation and what God established there so again I’m just trying to drive home the point what you believe about she origins what you believe about history it has a profound effect on your thinking for the present and even your behavior for the present this is one of the reasons why we want to take this seriously we want to be able to defend the scriptures here another question I know if you ever thought about this we’ve talked about the secular viewpoint but is this what you’re gonna find with people what will which of the following is are you most likely to encounter among the people the world those who come to a completely secular worldview those who hold to a completely biblical worldview are those those who hold to an inconsistent mixture what do you think you’re popping in encounter people who don’t have a completely secular viewpoint bill affirm parts of it but they’ll also have some other ideas in my own experience and I’m sure many of you can attest we were talking to people there are plenty of people who will affirm a God even if it’s not the God of the Bible low affirm a creator even though they might also believe in evolution I actually had a conversation on the way to the Ukraine STM this past summer with our driver to the airport and we got talking about spiritual things and he mentioned he’s like I just can’t believe that there’s not a creator out there I don’t know how he did it but I just can’t believe that I can’t believe what people are saying or asserting that it all came about by chance I think that’s very telling it’s telling first of all at this point that a lot of people do have a mixture of ideas but I think there’s a reason for that and the reason is actually expressed in the Bible even in the 70s that is that people have been created by God and are made in the image of God they also experience common grace from God and as Romans 1 emphasizes to us they know the truth about God even as they suppress it in unrighteousness therefore they will live inconsistently they will think inconsistently that people who embrace evolution but also believe in God you have people who dogmatically assert that there is no such thing as dogmatic truth or you have people who deny God but nonetheless live as if there is such a thing as right and wrong which you shouldn’t be able to do you should want to do if you but even in rebellion people cannot rub out God’s fingerprints on themselves and the universe it’s too well set in therefore they will live it consistently sometimes we can even do this to us Christians even though we know the truth week we can be inconsistent not because simply of God’s fingerprints but because of the corruption and the temptation to compromise and to go into sin part of what we do we are to do as Christians is to graciously call others out on their inconsistency and will view draw their attention to the fact that they already know about God and suppress that knowledge this fits right into what we call presuppositional apologetics but we can show them look you’re living it consistently and that’s because what the Bible says is true the Bible review is why you live the way you do and even why you want to deny God it all starts with the book of Genesis now one other question I want to ask which of these seven events the seven seas do people in the church most often challenge and why what do you think creation yeah yeah I think creation is definitely gonna be one of them not just the actual timing of creation whether it’s six thousand years ago or ten thousand years ago twenty thousand years ago but also the method of creation did God use evolution were there long ages was there a satanic Kingdom before God recreated the earth a second time there’s a lot of challenging even within the church on the subject of creation and thus connected with that there’s gonna be a lot of challenge when it comes to catastrophe the flood if you don’t subscribe to a straightforward understanding of creation according to the Bible then you’re probably not going to subscribe to a straightforward understanding of the flood let’s see these two events may be also corruption and confusion but those first four seven seas they are the ones that seem to be coming under the most attack some people within the church the question is why I think the answer is and I’ve already been alluding to this throughout the lesson is that we’re under pressure Christians are under strong pressure from scientists from society to acknowledge secular theories and to make the Bible fit those theories rather than work the other way around to critique man’s theories by the Bible and evangelicals many of us simply don’t want to be labeled as backward naive unscientific unsophisticated so we really want to integrate what the world says I mean they sure seem to have lots of piles of evidence it surely must be true we’ve got to rethink how we understand the Bible the struggle is real don’t mind me saying the phrase pressure from society is real we feel it with evolutionary theories about origins we feel that with calls to recognize the legitimacy of transgenderism homosexual relationships we feel it more and more with women preachers and pastors our pressure except that total equality of man and women in the in the church and family we are not unaffected by these cultural pressures but we must respond to them rightly and how do we do this by going back to understanding and holding to what is spoken as the perfect and reliable scriptures and not just the scriptures in general even the beginning books the definitive answers on origins marriage headship in the church and family they all have their basis in which book Genesis that’s why I say again let us hold to Genesis just as much we do the rest of the scriptures hardly any Christians today will deny that Jesus is coming back that there will be a consummation and yet we compromise on the fundamental fundamental matters of origins we’re gonna fill lots more about the details of Genesis and these topics we’ve discussed if you say wait I’m not I’m not quite convinced of the Younger position or I have some objections now I’m not sure how I fit well that’s okay I want to proceed forward and I want to try and persuade you of this this interpretation this understanding of the Bible well that’s gonna take some time just for now remember the seven seas as a fundamental framework of history and I would urge you look forward to where history is heading to God’s people dwelling with God and enjoying him forever if you have any questions or comments about today’s lesson you can email me or you can ask me when I see you in person Lord willing next week next week we begin officially our study of creation and the book of Genesis finally huzzah so looking forward to that and I think that will be really edifying and enjoyable time steady let’s go god I thank you for your people thank you for brothers and sisters at Calvary but I also thank you for your word thank you for revealing our history we would be lost in really ignorant speculation without you revealing what you did not just what you did and what happened with with Israel and with our Lord Christ but also what will be we look forward to the consummation we’ve longed for that day not only when you will establish justice and you will make all that is wrong right so we will just be with you get to enjoy you know you in a way that I can’t even imagine what God thank you for saving us thank you for Jesus Christ thank you for the gospel thank you for the salvation that will come to us that has come to us but also will come to us we praise You God I pray that Calvary would continue to praise you and grow in you today in their continuing service in Jesus name Amen thank you all looking forward to seeing you next week