A distinctly Christian view of history is imperative to the health of any nation. Without this worldview, individuals remain infants in understanding and never progress to maturity. When this phenomenon becomes widespread and begins to characterize entire people groups, a barbaric population emerges with no reference point to anchor them in the present reality or provide direction for the future.

In the absence of any knowledge about who they are, where they come from, and what happened before their existence, their collective consciousness is enslaved to the moment, tending toward despair and destruction. Modern education has taught recent generations that history is little more than recalling brute facts, names, and events. Many implicitly believe that history has no objective meaning or eternal perspective apart from the sum of our individual choices. There is no ultimate purpose before us or judgment above us except for the meaning we create for ourselves.

While this may be the popular perspective, this is also an unsustainable philosophy for a fruitful existence. We will always live in the light of a larger story. Even if we reject the account of the Scriptures, we will adopt another historical account to make reality intelligible. Our inherent necessity for purpose drives us to identify what character we are and how we are to act in the prevailing narrative.

The Biblical Story

The story which God has written says that we were given the occupation of being his representatives on earth, commissioned to subdue the raw materials of his spoken world and maximize their potential. Sin disrupted this holy vocation. The message of the gospel is about setting us back to this divine calling for which we were created, restoring us to God so that we may drive back the darkness and liberate a fallen world from bondage to corruption, all to his glory.

Christians relate all of life to the Lord Jesus Christ and seek to bring every inch of creation under his dominion. The gospel advanced through entire cultures that recognized the word of God as the ultimate authority and the biblical worldview as the lens through which history was to be understood. While secular and pagan views of history explain events by chance, believers treat every moment as shaped by the hand of Providence.

Providence says that the universe is not governed by blind forces or left to run under some autonomous power, but is sustained and directed by the perfect wisdom of a divine decree. Our forefathers were of the firm commitment that history is being carried along to an intended destination by the hand of a sovereign Lord who rules over the laws of nature, the fortunes of men, and even sinful choices to bring about his ultimate purposes. 

The assumption here is that God actively governs the affairs of his creatures. He oversees the rising and falling of nations, installing and deposing earthly rulers at his pleasure. He determines the boundaries and times of a nation and visits blessings or curses on that nation for her obedience or disobedience to his word.

This is the same view of history held at the time our nation was founded. Even our Declaration of Independence expressly mentioned the role of Providence in the birth of our nation: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”

When the founders spoke of Providence they were referring to God himself. The Declaration of Independence was a covenant document based on the conviction that the Triune God was intimately involved in forming this great land as the Author of history. Among other elements, this assumption is seen in the reference to the Supreme Judge elsewhere in the document. Belief in accountability to a higher law grew from the understanding that the prosperity of a nation was tied to the acknowledgment of her Creator. With our national foundations waning, this belief desperately needs to be recovered.

Our Greatest Need

Providence reminds us that God is a loving Father who sees to and provides for the needs of his creatures. He does this generally through common grace for all but in a particular sense for his chosen people.

The greatest need among all the nations is provision for the problem of sin. Out of his abundant supply, God has shown forth this grace in the person of Jesus Christ as the exclusive means to meet this need. Biblically speaking, the word Providence has to do with “God seeing.” He has looked at the helpless state of guilty sinners and has ensured that the needs of their souls are richly furnished for eternity. Christian civilization, and all of the attendant blessings therein, is only realized through the power of Christian conversion. Without Christ, society will eventually crumble.

God has a plan for the nations that he is actively in the process of realizing. This plan will not be frustrated by the futile efforts of rebellious creatures. The work of Christ is not only the key to individual redemption but also national renewal and blessing for our nation. America needs Jesus, and until we look to the Son that God has provided, we will become a barren wasteland devoured by our apostasies. If we humble ourselves and turn from our transgressing of his laws, righteousness may again exalt our land. The only way to experience revival is if God is pleased to open our eyes to the urgency of our need for his intervention.

As a nation, we have largely forgotten God. America must be humbled by the great mercy she continues to receive. Grasping the doctrine of divine Providence allows us to recognize that the King of kings controls what happens to our nation. Yet we bear the generational responsibility for maintaining the blessings of liberty. Our sins should cause us to tremble about the reality that God is the Supreme Judge, and that while he is full of patience and slow to anger, his justice never sleeps.

This perspective leads us to cultivate the kind of holy living that flows from a rightly held fear of the Lord. We begin to realize our dependence on him, which increases our love for him. We are compelled to walk by faith in his word and not by the sight of our circumstances. We are forced to do the right thing and leave the results to God. We fix our eyes heavenward on his promises that we may not grow weary in our labors. The guarantee of the gospel victory to the ends of the earth causes us to wage our warfare from a heart of worship because we know who holds the future. This is our place in the story he is telling. Providence has shed his blood to purchase the nations, and he will have them all. May he soon have ours as well.