Interplanner
Well-known member
All you have to do to realize the importance of knowing enough about all history besides church history or the Bible, is to just walk backwards and try to see what the features of the times were about every 100 years going back.
For ex., in 1900, the end of the world was an enormous theme in many Christian groups. There was an expectation that something would take place for the next 100 that was unusual and that the unit of 2000 years was going to matter at the end of that 100. (Compare Y2K for the same reason). In a way, the expectation was right but the time frame didn't matter. The destructive force of uniformitarianism didn't start or end at 1900. The worst out come of it (German Nazism) didn't either. Several similar cults also already existed. Manson was still 60 years away.
In 1800, Paine was trying to end religion once and for all. One constructive outcome was the US 2nd amendment. But Paine actually meant to end much more than that. He went over like Lennon's "Imagine" 170 years later, expressing his ideas not in legal code first, but in pop satire. In the 1800s, another phenomenon took root: European Jews began looking into living in their own place in Israel. That is to say, they did not read the OT through the lense of the NT. For most of Europe and the West, the 'final word' was the apostles on these things. But those in Judaism's meeting places did not accept that, and thought, well, why not? Let's see if we can move down there.
It is only when we embrace and know all the reality of the world we live in, that we realize that 'this is what the Bible says' is the easist and laziest mistake a person can make. There are many other forces at work even when we are handling the Bible.
For ex., in 1900, the end of the world was an enormous theme in many Christian groups. There was an expectation that something would take place for the next 100 that was unusual and that the unit of 2000 years was going to matter at the end of that 100. (Compare Y2K for the same reason). In a way, the expectation was right but the time frame didn't matter. The destructive force of uniformitarianism didn't start or end at 1900. The worst out come of it (German Nazism) didn't either. Several similar cults also already existed. Manson was still 60 years away.
In 1800, Paine was trying to end religion once and for all. One constructive outcome was the US 2nd amendment. But Paine actually meant to end much more than that. He went over like Lennon's "Imagine" 170 years later, expressing his ideas not in legal code first, but in pop satire. In the 1800s, another phenomenon took root: European Jews began looking into living in their own place in Israel. That is to say, they did not read the OT through the lense of the NT. For most of Europe and the West, the 'final word' was the apostles on these things. But those in Judaism's meeting places did not accept that, and thought, well, why not? Let's see if we can move down there.
It is only when we embrace and know all the reality of the world we live in, that we realize that 'this is what the Bible says' is the easist and laziest mistake a person can make. There are many other forces at work even when we are handling the Bible.
