What is history? Out of the millions of events and persons of the past, how are certain events selected as significant? On what ground do we stress the one and neglect the other? And when is an event history? Church historians alike give a version of history as totally the product of impersonal natural forces, so that God and Christ become not only abstracted from the past, but also very remote from the present.

The Biblical philosophy of history is clearly and irrevocably at odds with modern faith. Basic to Biblical philosophy is the doctrine of creation. This doctrine has far-reaching implications for history. The God of the Bible is Creator of all things; man is in rebellion against God and His law, and the basic problem of man is sin. History is the battle of Christ versus antichrist, and man’s basic need is redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ and then life in Christ and under God’s law, now no longer a bill of indictment against man, but a charter for life.

Every non-biblical philosophy of history ends by destroying both man and history. It begins by striving to give a better meaning to history than the one eternity provides, and it ends by robbing history of any human meaning and man of his manhood. In taking counsel against God and His decree, man effectually hurts only himself, not God. In rebelling against the kingship of Christ over history and in seeking to establish his own autonomous kingship, man reduces himself to the status of slave.

For the orthodox Christian who grounds his philosophy of history on the doctrine of creation, the mainspring of history is God. Time rests on the foundation of eternity, rests on the foundation of eternity, on eternal decree of God. Time and history therefore have meaning because they were created in terms of God's perfect and totally comprehensive plan. The humanist faces a meaningless world in which he must strive to create and establish meaning. The Christian accepts a world which is totally meaningful and in which every event moves in terms of God's purpose; he submits to God's meaning and finds his life therein. This is an excellent introduction to Rushdoony. Once the reader sees Rushdoony's emphasis on God's sovereignty over all of time and creation, he will understand his application of this presupposition in various spheres of life and thought.