Those were the words spoken, the stark statement by the writer: “History has been put on hold.” This comment referenced the fact that America had failed to elect the first female president; a historical inevitability had been postponed by the ill-informed electorate.
Such a remark about history’s having to wait spotlights a way of thinking that has captured the minds of millions. It’s as though history is an actor in a scripted play, the protagonist and the moving force that causes things to happen. There are those who have proclaimed from high places that “we need to be on the right side of history,” but history doesn’t have sides, neither on the right nor on the left. History is not a train that carries humanity forward. It is not a vehicle, bur rather, it is like an old-fashioned Viewfinder that kids used to while away hours looking at pictures of people, places and things, captured by a camera lens.
History can teach us; in fact, it should. However, it can’t compel us. It is the register of the actor’s lines recorded after they have been spoken. The betterment of the human race is not inevitable. Following the great surge of optimism in the latter half of the 19th century, when “evolution, progress, and a relentless move forward and upward by the human race” was trumpeted by philosophers, theologians and other members of the intelligentsia. “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better” was the fluffy phrase on the lips of the optimists.
Unfortunately, the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s, the colonial wars across Africa as European powers established their colonies by force, bloody revolutionary conflicts in Central and South America, the Spanish-American War, and “the war to end all wars,” World War I put the lie to the sanguine opinion that had been spawned by Europe’s “enlightened ones.”
Perhaps the most appropriate metaphor for human history is not a train or any other means of transport. Possibly a line that has a starting point, the “past,” a middle that we call the “present,” that leads inexorably and inevitably to a climatic “future”. At that point, God Almighty, the author and Lord of history will reveal Himself, His Kingdom and His will. At times, that line seems to be moving higher while other times it slopes sharply. Like a stock chart reflects the highs and lows of the market, the timeline of the human race shows heights of glory and wisdom as well as depths of despotism and evil, but the line keeps moving forward.
All of human history is one long chronicle of man’s unwitting, often, unwilling, march toward the “revealing” of God, as seen in the Book of Revelation. Prophecy is history written before it happens. God wrote this cosmic drama before time began. One can be a “bad actor” or an obedient participant. People can choose or refuse to believe and trust God. That is their prerogative. However, God’s Kingdom will come and His will shall be done. In fact, it’s happening right now. History truly is “His Story.”