Is there a worldview that is superior to others regarding historical certainty? It seems that a worldview with greater historical certainty would have an advantage over one with less. Specifically, how do the Biblical Christian and Secular Worldviews compare in historical certainty?
In the article leading to this one I discussed the secular definition of “prehistory” and its opposition to the true history of the Bible. God’s Word begins with “In the beginning…” and therefore, so far as human reality is concerned, there is no such thing as prehistory according to God.
Philosophers do not all agree whether or not the field of history is valid. Some argue over this because they cannot agree whether knowledge is real or relative, objective or subjective. The biblical creationist would argue that the Biblical Christian Worldview (BCW) requires absolute truth and a real history. It follows then that the Bible describes a real history from the beginning of the created universe according to God’s view of things.
So, let’s look at the topic of “historical certainty” in this light. According to the BCW, For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is… (Exodus 20:11). And, according to the Bible all of this occurred less than 7,000 years ago. In this worldview, historical certainty extends for a long period of time from the beginning. That is, we know with certainty the most important events in history actually happened; such as the creation, the fall, the global flood, the dispersion at Babel, the birth of Christ, and the earthly life, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. If these events are not historical, then the Christian faith is false and also worthless.
However, Christians have reasons to believe that they have less certainty concerning historical events that are not specifically described in the Bible, and history in the Bible ceases to be reported about 100 AD. Once the Bible stops providing history the BCW historical certainty reduces in direct proportion to the amount of time between the present and the time an event reportedly happened.
Professional historians can do their work only if they believe that historical certainty can be attained. They generally have what could be called a theory of true historical belief based on various categories of knowledge, such as restricted knowledge, comprehensive knowledge, and historical knowledge based on belief. Restricted knowledge is defined as knowledge one experiences directly or what one reasons. Comprehensive knowledge includes all facts and truths apprehended by the human mind from experience, reasoning or belief. Historical knowledge based on belief is a mental assent to a truth or fact on the word of another.*
What gets many Christians into trouble in their thinking is that they often base their understanding of historical events on mental assent to truth or fact based on the word of other men (authority figures). Since the culture of today has largely rejected the truth of God for the beliefs of fallible men, Christians can be, and are, led astray to serious untruth when they believe what men tell them about history especially. This false history is usually secularly-based and seriously at odds with the word of God.
Throughout history God has made it clear that man cannot know truth or right from wrong on his own. To help men from going astray God has provided men with two revelations: His Special Revelation (the Bible) and His General Revelation (the creation). By accepting and studying these two revelations it is possible for men to better understand the mind of God and choose to lead lives that are closer inline with God’s will. They can even choose to have eternal life!
Those people who reject the Creator God cannot understand Him or His creation (Romans 1) and are most certainly lost.
Historical certainty for those with a BCW is pretty much the same as for those with a secular worldview for the time since 100 AD to the present. But, it is definitely not the same for those periods of time prior to the completion of the New Testament of the Bible nor for future times.
Consider this. For the BCW the past consists of less than 7,000 years and we have certain historical knowledge (in the Bible) for 4,000-5,000 years since the beginning. The reason this history is certain is because there was a Truthful Witness to all of this history who had it placed in the Bible for our benefit and knowledge.
For the secularists, on the other hand, almost all of the past is what they consider to be prehistory! For their estimate of the 4.6 billion-year age of the earth (not counting their age for the universe), 99.9999% of secular history is prehistory. The description of, even the existence of, all that prehistoric time is based on unproven and scientifically unprovable assumptions. That means that in reality the secularists have close to zero historical certainty.
Again, the BCW proves its superiority over the secular worldview.
J.D. Mitchell
*http://cliopolitical.blogspot.com/2005/08/introduction-to-historical-method_26.html. Accessed April 18, 2018.
