Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

GENESIS :
In the New Testament we Kave the Old Testament
revealed.
2. That the very people to whom all this evidence was
revealed, and through whom it was preserved for future
generations, should reject the evidence and reject the Redeemer
whom it identified so clearly, becomes the ironyand
the most profound tragedy-of all the ages. This
tragedy is expressed in one simple statement by John the
Beloved, “He came unto his own, and they that were his
own received him not” (John 1:ll; cf. John J:40, Matt.
23:37-39, 27:25; Acts 7:51-53).
History’s Message to Man
(Gen. 15:16)
Can any over-all purposiveness be discovered in his-
tory? Does history have any lessons for us? Does it have
any meaning? There are those who have answered affirm-
atively, but with considerable variability of interpretation.
There are those who answer in the negative. History,
they say, is simply the record of man’s Will to Live, to
resist extinction, to just keep on going on, but without
any predetermined end or goal. Popeye’s “philosophy”
expresses this negative view fairly well, “I yam what I
yam,”
It is interesting to note that all prevailing “philoso-
phies” of history arose in ancient Greece. Herodotus, “the
father of history,” who lived in the 5th century B.C.,
originated what has come to be known as the ethical
philosophy of history. His view was that history is
largely the record of the work of the goddess Nemesis,
Retributive Justice, who inevitably interferes in the affairs
of men to overthrow inordinate human pride, ambition,
and arrogance. Theydides (ca. 471 -400 B.C.) adopted
the strictly secularistic theory of history, namely, that the
events of history are brought about by purely secular
(chiefly economic) causes; that human events are the
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