Richard Hollerman

We know that a certain number of our readers are “past oriented” rather than “future oriented.” Some of this may be good and even necessary, but there are some drawbacks as well. Both are necessary.

We think of one passage that Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14 which reads: “I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3::13-14).

We also think of the words recorded in Isaiah: “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Behold, I will do something new….” (Isaiah 43:18-19a). Thus, we must be careful about an article that views things of the past and, rather, let us view the things that are to come.

We wouldn’t want to say that the past was ideal by any measure. But there are some things that have changed—for the better.

For example, at the beginning of this country of America in 1776, we have:

(1) A war against the “powers that be” in Britain (Romans 13:1-7). Was this good? Was it Biblical, according to Romans 13:1-7? Consider this.

(2) Also, we discover that there were atrocities against the American Indians. These people were in this country from the time of Christ and before for some 1,500 years before the so-called “white man” arrived (by Leif Erikson and finally by Christopher Columbus in about 1492). Yes, there had been much murder, wars, pride, stealing, plunder, and many other sins committed against these dozens of tribes, but we must admit that these “Indians”  were here “first” (and before them, only the animals, and birds, and before that it was barren—after after the worldwide flood of 2350 BC at the time of Noah (Genesis 6-9).

(3) There were multiple wars in America against the French and the Indians, with the British on the one side, but all of them were wrong, of course.

(4) Of course, there were massive wars against not only the indigenous Indians, but also against each other (the North and the South), the Spanish, Germany and other countries (in the First World War), Germany, Italy, Japan (in the Second World War), Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others.

(5) There was much disease during this time. Eventually the “white man” brought disease from which the Indians were not immune, and many died. These were contagious diseases that flourished at the time.

(6) The Christian knows that the way of Christ is the best and only way to go. His way of pacifism must be followed and not deviated from on many fronts.

So there were many expressions of a positive influence that continued year by year. At the same time, we must admit that there were massive amounts of evil committed during this period.

  1. Pride continued and increased. Pride by Europeans against “outsiders” continued.
  2. We might think of the great materialism that came to exist during this period, as people gained wealth and possessions.
  3. After the past two hundred years we find increased feminism that continued, increased, and overflowed.
  4. Murder was rampant. Yes, we may think that killing was great now but surely in the former years and centuries we find a great amount of this sin.
  5. Of course, we know that drinking and more and more drunkenness was permitted and increased during this time (it was one reason for the Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 until it was removed under FDR in 1933).
  6. Women taking the lead in many ways was increasingly promoted and this was considered a virtue and not a vice!
  7. Diseases were out of control. We are referring to such illnesses as diabetes, food addictions, cancer, heart deasease, etc.
  8. Although education was intended to be a positive influence, it became an utterly-wicked means of worldliness in the past two hundred years.
  9. This has become an obsession and sports idolatry is rampant
  10. Unbelief, evolution, apostasy, and atheism. We know that such sins have increased and abounded as the years have gone by, especially during the past couple hundred years. We may think of Darwin and his 1859 book, but it existed much further back.
  11. Government over-reach is of course, so wrong. The civil government has no business getting into the personal lives of the citizens.
  12. The liberal and conservative agendas. We might suppose that many of our readers may consider themselves “conservative” and surely this would be better than the wickedness of liberalism. But even this is not what God intended. God is Ruler and we must not forget this basic fact.
  13. Worldliness is rampant, and we assume that you will agree with this. In nearly every aspect of life, we find the world making inroads and gaining adherents.

We come back to the original question: Shall we return? Do you really want to return to the evils, the disease, the worldliness, the division, the atrocities, and the lies of the past? But since today is not much better (if any), we must pause.

We can’t return, of course, but if we could, should we want to return to past ways of doing things, past limitations, past perversions, or past religions? If we can’t go back and we can’t live with the present, where does this put us? This is the question!