History today is passé. It is maligned and devalued by modern education, feared and abhorred by students, and marginalized by too many politicians, intellectuals and journalists.
This is not the case at the Trumpet, as our regular readers well know: History is central to our understanding and analysis of world events.
Why? Among others, one reason is that the past often gives clarity to the present, and furnishes the analyst with context in which to build understanding, form opinion and provide informed, accurate forecasts. But there’s another more significant reason we deeply value history. We’ll get to that soon.
If you’ve visited the Trumpet before, you know we’re different from virtually any other news organization. While some might consider our aim to help readers understand their world to be similar to that of other news outlets, the foundation of our understanding differs immensely. We are unique because we explain current events in the context of Bible prophecy, what the Apostle Peter called “the more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19). Basically, we let the Bible inform and guide our understanding and analysis of world events.
That might sound absurd. A credible news organization bases its analysis on evidence and fact, not faith. But our faith in God’s Word is not ethereal, nor is it invested blindly, casually or ignorantly. Our belief that the Bible is God’s infallible Word, and therefore fundamental to any understanding of current events, is based on real facts and tangible, undeniable evidence.
Among that evidence: secularhistory.
It’s true. Secular history, be it the documented history of the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks or Romans, or Napoleon or Hitler, is real, concrete, irrefutable proof of the veracity that God’s Word is true.
God’s presence is revealed in secular history.
This should not be startling. After all, God tells us plainly He guides and influences world events. “Remember the former things of old,” He said through Isaiah the prophet, “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’” (Isaiah 46:9-10, Revised Standard Version).
God did not allow history to unfold haphazardly.
King David of Israel knew this: “Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:8-11, rsv).
Even the Apostle Paul in the first century recognized God’s central role in secular history, and wasn’t afraid to tell a crowd of Greeks as much while visiting Athens. Men of Athens, he said, “I perceive that in every way you are very religious,” but you cannot see the one true God, the one that made the world and everything in it. “[God] made from one [man] every nation of men to live on all the face of earth,” preached Paul, “having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation …” (Acts 17:22-23, rsv).
The rise and fall of entire civilizations, even the geographic locations of peoples, explained Paul, were determined by God!
King David, Isaiah and the Apostle Paul all recognized a profound and moving truth about world events and history: These men knew secular history was a product of God’s will and power. They knew that much of secular history was written by God before it actually happened—or was shaped and determined by God as it was occurring.
Consider how awesome that truth is. That means history itself is evidence of God’s existence. It means the history books collecting dust on your shelf, the history you studied in school—the history devalued, neglected and ignored by most people today—is proof of God’s existence!
You and I ought to be able to study history and see God!
That may be difficult to fathom, but it’s provable. Consider doing an in-depth study of ancient Egypt, or Assyria, or Persia, or Greece or the Roman Empire. Plan to use the Bible as a textbook in your study. It’s shocking at how closely events recorded in secular history books align with events recorded, oftentimes in advance, in the Bible. Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome: Each of these civilizations is discussed extensively in the Bible.
Studying world history in the context of the Bible is one of the most profound and enlightening studies you can undertake. If you’re interested in learning more about the spectacular link between secular history and the Bible, you should carefully study The Proof of the Bible, by Herbert W. Armstrong. For now, let’s consider one of the clearest and most powerful accounts of secular history proving God’s existence, and proving the veracity of His Word.
The Image of Daniel 2
The secession of dominant empires in Western civilization beginning in the 7th century b.c. is widely accepted by historians and scholars. That secession of empires, which you can find explained in detail in most any general history textbook (I use The Mainstream of Civilization), is as follows:
The first world-ruling empire (the Assyrian Empire of the 8th century was successful but short-lived) was the Babylonian/Chaldean Empire, which became the dominant power in the 7th century b.c. after its famous King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Assyria and invaded Syria and Judah.
The second dominant empire was the Medo-PersianEmpire, which, under the innovative leadership of Cyrus the Great in the 6th century b.c., defeated the Babylonians, and dominated territory from the shores of the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, including the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Phoenicia.
The third dominant civilization was the vast and influential Grecian Empire established by Alexander the Great in the mid-4th century b.c., and maintained by four of Alexander’s generals after his death in Babylon in 323 b.c.
The fourth and largest world-ruling civilization was the Roman Empire, which emerged in the first century b.c. and went on to dominate Western civilization, to varying degrees, for the next two millennia.
The secession of these empires is recognized and chronicled in detail in history books the world over. Of course, other civilizations and peoples, many influential and impressive, existed concurrent with these four—but these four were the dominant civilizations of their time.
But while history books do an excellent job detailing these world-ruling empires, none can explain why they came about. Why were there four empires, not five or six or more? Why the Babylonians, then the Medo-Persians, then Greece and then Rome? Why in that order? Why not any other civilization or people?
The answers can only be found in the Bible, and specifically in the book of Daniel.
The time-setting of the book of Daniel is the 6th century b.c. In fact, read the first chapter of Daniel and you’ll see that it’s describing the sacking of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587 b.c., and his relocation of the Jews back to Babylon. Secular history textbooks describe these same events occurring at exactly the same time. Among the Jews captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken back to Babylon was Daniel, a bright Jewish lad with the gift of interpreting dreams, who quickly became a confidant of the king.
Not long after the king brought Daniel and the Jews to Babylon, he had a remarkable dream. The Babylonian priests and magicians could not interpret it, so he called Daniel before him to tell him what the dream meant. Daniel’s interpretation of the dream is recorded in Daniel 2:31-49. You might notice that the king did not explain his dream to Daniel. God revealed both the imagery and the meaning of the dream to young Daniel. With the meaning firmly in mind, Daniel stood before Nebuchadnezzar and explained in vivid detail what he had dreamed, and the meaning of the dream.
Notice Daniel’s explanation to the king in Daniel 2:31-35:
Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was detailed and impressive. The Babylonian king saw a great image, or statue, which was clearly divided into four distinct parts: its head comprised of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, and its legs of iron (its feet were a mixture of iron and clay). After a while, the image was struck in its feet by a flying stone, which caused the image to crash to the ground, whereupon the shattered debris was blown away, and it was as if the image never existed.
This dream, as Daniel explained further to Nebuchadnezzar, was a seminal event in world history!
After relaying the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel explained its meaning (verses 37-45):
Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. … Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. … And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Daniel explained to Nebuchadnezzar that he, the king of the Babylonian-Chaldean Empire, was the head of gold, the first of the world-ruling empires—a fact recognized and confirmed by history books!
Daniel then told the king—the time-setting, remember, is in the 6th century b.c.—that after the Babylonian/Chaldean Empire there would arise three successive empires. These were pictured by the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron. Consider what’s happening here: God was revealing through Daniel how the next 2,500 years of secular history would unfold!
The Medo-Persian and Greek and Roman civilizations at the time of this prophecy were mere kernels of their latter glory. God was revealing through this Daniel 2 image that they would become world-dominant civilizations! Daniel 2 was a prophecy about the rise and fall of four successive world-ruling civilizations.
How can we know God was referring to these four specifically? Because the documented histories, which fill millions of pages of textbooks, of these civilizations unfolded exactly as God said they would in Daniel 2 and other prophecies in the book of Daniel. Take Daniel 8, for example. Here God revealed further details about the second ruling empire, pictured by the breasts and arms of silver in the Daniel 2 image, explaining that this empire would be a combination of two distinct peoples that would come together to dominate civilization. If you know Persian history, you know that it was the joint efforts of the Medes and the Persians that defeated the Babylonians and established the great Persian Empire.
God revealed similar details about the Greek Empire. For example, did you know that God actually prophesied that Alexander the Great would emerge to transform Greece into a vast, influential world-ruling empire? The book of Daniel also explains how God foretold that after Alexander died, the Grecian Empire would be divided into four distinct regions, led by four of Alexander’s generals. In Daniel, God also foretold spectacular details about the Roman Empire, even though it wouldn’t emerge as a world-ruling civilization for another 600 years!
This might be shocking to you. But it’s merely the beginning. There are so many thrilling details proving God’s role in secular history, you will be left breathless after learning about them. To learn more, read Daniel Unlocks Revelation, The Proof of the Bible and, most importantly, The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Study this literature in conjunction with some good secular history books and you’ll be continually flabbergasted at the connection between secular history and the Bible, which proves God’s central role in history.
Before long you’ll come to learn the real value in studying history. Secular history is a gift from God, irrefutably proving His existence and the veracity of His Word!
Our minds should be rocked by the reality that the past 2,600 years of mankind’s history have been directly or indirectly shaped by the Daniel 2 image. “The Daniel 2 image didn’t just evolve!,” explainedTrumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry. “How did these great world-ruling kingdoms from the time of Nebuchadnezzar down to the time we now live in take shape like that image? The only way that is possible is if God shaped and molded it—to prove that He rules in the kingdom of men!”
What a travesty that history today is devalued, ignored and feared. Secular history reveals God’s role and presence in the world of man. It gives fact and evidence to the claim that God exists, and it proves, in conclusive detail, that the Holy Bible, God’s Word in print, is absolute, and therefore fundamental to our understanding of current events.
