Lesson 4 Comparisons of World Views for World History
A. Overall Lesson Objective
•To understand a biblical view in contrast to a naturalistic view of world history.
B. Learning Competencies
•The naturalistic world view asserts that man’s development is very recent on a time scale of billions of years and an earth age of about 4.5 billion years.
•Prehistory or prehistoric history in most secular books typically begins with comments about early man as sub-human. This sub-human slowly develops rudimentary tools, uses fire, and eventually evolves to modern man—all in the last part of earth’s history. In a naturalistic view, the origin of humankind in earliest form came from another kind of ‘simpler’ life earlier in earth’s history.
•The biblical world view states from the Record that man was created very intelligent with full language capability, the ability to name the animals, the ability to commune and talk with God, and with cognitive abilities demonstrated in various technologies in the first generations.
•The biblical world view of man is that he was deliberately made in the image of God and without error, but his position of relationship with God changed when he sinned. The lineage of that sin and the its effects continue. The situation is without remedy except through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. History, therefore, becomes a recorded picture of man’s wayward ways, as most people and nations ignore their Creator. A few people reach out and find Him.
C. Lesson
Definition
🦕 CT? Using the answers developed in the assignment, what is a good definition of world history and should it include the subject of origins? Why? If so, how would you do it? In a discussion guided by the teacher, answer the questions before proceeding with the lesson.
Naturalistic or Evolutionary View with Comment
The time for development of recent man is fairly standard in texts and typically given in terms of millions of years near the end of the timeline for earth’s development (usually stated as 4.5 billion years). Historical explanations often begin with a treatment of prehistoric man. ‘Early man’ is usually drawn with ape-like features. In most cases, a series of pictures is presented that show an artist’s rendition of an evolutionary process from ape to modern man. Books have assumed authority, especially to the young to the student, so such diagrams are usually interpreted as true and factual.
What about the examples of human remains that are alleged to demonstrate ‘human evolution?’ Many have been subject to considerable artistry to fill in the unknowns. Some remain pictured in school books but have long since been discredited. Many are, in fact, human (so-called Homo erectus, for instance, and the Neandertal people, post-Flood descendants of Adam). They are within the range of variation in humanity. The majority, however, are simply part of the extinct australopithecine kind (e.g., the alleged ape-woman ‘Lucy’), which have been shown by evolutionist experts to have a unique anatomy that is neither ape nor human but definitely not between the two. [Research note: multivariate analysis] However, most world history texts remain unchanged: continuing to illustrate or explain ‘early man’ if the book covers prehistoric man. The bottom line for history is that we descended from something less than man, and nearly every world history book makes mention of it in one way or another. A popular topic is ‘cave dwellers.’ Unit 3 Lesson 13 explains the issues from a biblical world view but most secular history books maintain that some type of early man lived in caves and that his capabilities were rudimentary at best. The picture that is drawn is in keeping with an evolutionary view of the development of early man.
Most texts briefly speak of the development of languages as a key part of early history. They often point to the earliest known examples of language, but the ancient languages are not simple at all. And, there are several distinctive language families. All of them show a level of sophistication. (The origin of language is important as a fundamental to technology development, especially as technology is transmitted from one generation to the next.)
After a treatment of ‘prehistoric’ or ‘early’ man, history books often explain that technologies developed as greater intelligence evolved. However, this comes from a misunderstanding. Ancient people were very smart, as archeological research shows. Advanced working of metals, ship design, musical instruments, and civil engineering can be found. The examples show great ingenuity. Development of modern technology in the last centuries does not imply that a group of people are getting smarter. It does show, however, that it takes innovation to add to previous discoveries to yield the modern technical developments that we see. Nearly everything done today occurs because someone builds upon something already present. It is an interesting fact that a surge in technical advancement occurred in Europe after the Bible became widely available to the common man. Science exploded in western Europe about this time, also.
Early peoples in history are often explained in terms of regions. With the treatment of prehistoric man from an evolutionary point of view, it follows that man would have evolved nearly anywhere on earth, and not necessarily at the same rate or the same type of development at every location. It follows that some groups might evolve more effectively than others. This kind of dangerous thinking has been toned down in most books, but the roots of evolutionary thinking remain, which logically point to some peoples being more advanced than others because of differences in their early history. Notions of this continue, as native peoples in many regions are deemed less capable than those that came afterwards, or certain groups see themselves as more capable than others. It is the basis of racist thought. The history of man attests to how the persuasive effects of evolutionary thinking can cause racist ideas to become dominant for a period, such as the rise of Nazi Germany, where certain races of people were considered undesirable or less than another group. Historical effects of the evolutionary world view, taken to its logical conclusions, make people very uncomfortable, and should. Many genocides have origins in the same kind of thinking.
Modern history texts, in many cases, paint a picture of man’s supposed goodness. The problem, however, is the naturalistic roots remain unchanged. One can see it in the form of the ‘hopeful’ recent history references to world government, where modern efforts to ‘partner’ nations or groups of nations toward common goals is given a highly positive projection. But, the projection does not include the biblical understanding that we seem persistently unable to make that happen. Something in us is flawed from the start. So, popular historical concepts have an evolutionary-type of assumption: we should be getting better. Accurate history teaches otherwise. Racism remains alive and well. Slavery has taken different forms but remains. People groups continue to war against other people groups. Mass migrations continue to grossly affect regions as conditions get so bad that cities and regions must be abandoned. History’s picture to the young, without solid reference to our real abysmal historical record, is skewed with an evolutionary ideal: we are getting better as generations continue.
The Biblical Creation View with Comment
The comments below apply the biblical creation world view to various history topics.
1.Generations and Age. Using a straightforward listing of generations from Genesis 5 and 10 for the beginning period as well as time references for ages at the time of events and listings of generations in later books, the earth is approximately 6000 years old. The Flood is 1656 years after the creation week with a small error band. Artifacts, often assigned to prehistoric man, could be interpreted as from the time before the Genesis Flood or from the time after the Flood, depending on where they are found. God’s decreed Flood result (complete eradication of all land creatures and people except those in the ark) ensured that not much remained from before the Flood. Since such findings would reference a worldwide God-ordered Flood, they would not be considered possible or acceptable in an evolutionary scheme. If a human-related artifact were found among dinosaur fossils, for example, it would also be considered a ‘mistake’ or compromised because man and such prehistoric creatures were not supposed to exist at the same time. It is safe to say that some archaeological work of the ancient world or ‘early’ man would contain entirely different conclusions if the research project considered a biblical creation context and could be redone in pristine sites. [Research note: Where are all the human fossils?]
2.Population Size. As we mentioned earlier, the population we see today is about the right size if one uses a conservative figure of population growth from the time of the Flood. Within a few decades of the Flood, the population rate would have been high (in keeping with God’s command and the record in Genesis 9:1 and Genesis 10) but seems to have decreased thereafter. Middle Ages birth rates were very low. Some other periods of history had higher growth rates. Choosing an overall reasonable value yields the number of people we see today (7 billion or so) if Noah’s family is used as a starting point. Using the same value for an evolutionary time frame makes the population far higher than the planet could accommodate. If growth rates were almost zero for thousands of years in an evolutionary time frame, we would still have evidence of burials over time in the supposed long ages of history with uniform conditions (no worldwide flood catastrophe permitted). This is not the case. [Research note: where are all the people?]
3.Post-Flood Conditions. The effects of the Flood and then the scattering of groups at the Tower of Babel are rarely considered with respect to historical evidence of early post-Flood history, when a dispersion occurred with groups of people with uncommon languages. The conditions in the aftermath of the Flood (Lesson 12) were very unsettled for hundreds of years; new land masses were still raw with change. There were changing land bridges and new raw topography. Residual volcanism and the great ice age in certain latitudes made for dangerous conditions. Water was still a dominant force in regions. Large areas had ice sheet formation (the single Ice Age, the aftermath of the Flood) then melting ice. Melting ice led to sizable regional flood catastrophes for which we have evidence. Residual water flows were sizable in many continental areas. Climate changes and new extremes were making the movement of people and development of homelands difficult. Under these conditions, caves provided a protective home. However, they would not have been permanent because of changes in local temperatures, food sources, and safety. Some of these naturally protective cave dwellings have been rediscovered. They show varying levels of sophistication because of the temporary nature of their use.
4.Cave Dwellers. Some groups of people, who were dispersed at Babel, would not have taken all the know-how of their pre-Flood culture with them. Small, rapidly migrating populations under severe traveling conditions are known to very readily ‘lose’ technology. The changing climate conditions, disease, and hardship are plausible reasons why analysis of many cave dwelling sites shows they were abandoned for no apparent reason. Those locations were good protection when needed, but changing conditions meant short period stays (a few decades) where tools and other technical skills remained rudimentary. If more time was available, technologies could redevelop. In contrast, paintings at some sites often show great sophistication, showing work with materials that demonstrates considerable wisdom. The dwellers had a longer time to leave their mark and evidence of sophistication. These varying conditions are exactly what we would expect for several hundred years after the Flood.
5.‘Kinds’ Through the Ages. God repeats the principle of ‘kinds’ (Genesis 1:12, 21, 24-25) with respect to vegetation and living creatures. Everything reproduces after its kind. There are no links of intermediate life forms between the kinds that show in the fossil record. Widespread sedimentary rock containing fossils is evidence of the Flood, and many of these ‘fossils’ are living today. People still produce people (Genesis 1:27-28). Apes produce apes. The kinds are a little wider than our classification system: dogs, for instance, came from a common kind that includes wolves and similar animals. However, reproduction stays within the ‘kind.’ Land things do not become fish things. Lions and tigers (which can interbreed to tigons or ligers, despite being different species) have clearly descended from the same ancestor but not from an ancestor they held in common with a bear, horse, or kangaroo. Speciation within a kind is certainly possible and common, but the crossing of kinds will not naturally occur, because God designed things that way. And, above all, man is a special object of God’s creation and imprinted with His image. Nothing else has this characteristic—anywhere in the universe.
6.Languages. The miraculous intervention of God at the Tower of Babel event, where only one language was spoken, gave instantaneous birth to many languages (Genesis 11:1, 6-8). Language experts today point to a few dozen families of language; the many languages within each family have all developed from one of the stem languages created at Babel. This makes sense. As the groups separated at Babel and continued to separate from each other, languages that were once the same rapidly became different. In Papua New Guinea, for instance, where people are separated by many mountain ranges, over 600 separate languages have developed in one modest-sized nation. Thus, hundreds of languages within each family show clear signs of being related but not to languages in other families that come from a different stem language. Consider, too, the sophistication of the first language of Adam in Genesis 2:19-20. It was complete upon his creation; he named the animals; he communicated with God at first, then his wife, then his ancestors. There is no gradual development of this original language; it was created. [Research note: towering change, also how did all the different races arise?]
7.Early History After Post-Flood Period. In historical terms, the time after Babel is the birth of ancient cultures on all the post-Flood continents. It is interesting to find that far flung and seemingly unrelated cultures have flood stories in their past. [Research note: historical references to the Flood]. History detail, unfortunately, is lacking in most regions outside the ‘world’ of the Patriarchs due to the harshness of those centuries, the disappearance of land bridges, and the effects on recording of history in the earliest and most difficult of those times. The most notable exception, of course, is that of God’s chosen people, who were given the function of recording the history of Abraham and succeeding generations that led to the birth of Jesus Christ. It is not a surprise, then, to find that the Bible, over time, has proven to be such a reliable historical document. Regardless of the terrible condition of the human soul, which the Old Testament repeatedly shows, the important history that leads to Christ is preserved through the Record.
8.History Since Christ. Modern history, therefore, in a biblical world view, is predominantly the record of the continuing need for the Savior and the ‘lost’ condition of the human race that persists. While notable, exceptional people are found and occasional nations rise to the occasion to thwart various bad things from happening, the opposite is just as true. The human race, in a historical sense, is not improving on its own. The value of accurate history is that it repeatedly illustrates this. Where Christianity has influenced peoples and nations, one can find historical effects that are generally more positive. Rarely, however, are these historical effects mentioned in secular history books.
D. Assignment
Define what you believe is a good definition of Social Studies. If you think from a biblical world view, what would be your fundamental basis for understanding human behavior? Choose two or three Bible verses to support your definition.
E. Learning Activity
Divide into teams. Each team review 3 secular history books of world or ancient history. Summarize what each one says about early man or prehistoric man. Present the findings in a quick summary and compare the results among the teams.
🦕 CT? Do these books treat the origin of man? If so, what is their assertion about his beginnings? What world view is presented? What would be the value of presenting both the biblical and naturalistic world views? Discuss as a group.
F. Concluding Assessment
The history of the human race, from a biblical view, shows the need for a relationship to the Creator. A secular view of history means that man’s history stands on his evolution from something less than a man, and he has no relation to any kind of deity.