The History of Man
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 800: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 3, 2022
The History of Man
The history of man since Adam and Eve brought sin into the world has been a sad record of
the human race departing from God in spite of all that God has done for them. Though Adam
and Eve had consciences that enabled them to distinguish right from wrong, that did not make
them good, and their posterity drifted farther and farther from God until God decided to
destroy the whole human race, except Noah and his family (Gen. 6:13). Following the flood,
God gave to Noah the basic principles of human government. However, the human race again
demonstrated its depravity by building the Tower of Babel, and God had to judge by confusing
the languages of the people.
With almost the entire world departing from God and sinning flagrantly, God chose Abram
to fulfill His purpose in redemption. To Abram was promised that he would be able to bring
blessing to the entire world (Gen. 12:1-3), ultimately fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Throughout the Old Testament the descendants of Abram were used as channels of
divine revelation. Prophets spoke orally to the people, and some of them wrote the Scriptures,
including the opening books of the Bible written by Moses. In spite of increased knowledge of
God and His moral standards, the human race became evil, and Israel, the immediate divine
recipient of God’s blessing, was also judged sinful and had to be dealt with in the captivities.
The Old Testament, instead of being a revelation of improvement as envisioned in the theory of
evolution, instead took man farther and farther from God with the result that the human race
no longer had the longevity it did in creation and that many acts of violence and sin were
performed.
After Jesus’ birth in the New Testament with His subsequent life on earth, His rejection by
His generation, His crucifixion and death for the sins of the whole world, and His glorious
resurrection, a new chapter in the history of man begins. However, just as was true in the Old
Testament, the human race, for the most part, rejected God and went on its wicked way.
In the present age God is calling out from both Jew and Gentile those who will believe in
Christ and be saved. He is not attempting to judge the sins of the world, though sometimes
there is divine judgment upon sin. Even with all the advanced revelation given in the writing of
the New Testament and the presentation of Jesus Christ to the world, the moral history of the
world has become more and more a record of departure from God.
The apostle Peter recorded in graphic tones how man departed from God and denied
redemption by blood (2 Peter 2:1), and how religious leaders who were not saved would, like
Balaam, lead people astray (2 Peter 2:15). This would continue even to the time of the second
coming of Christ, when scoffers would reject the doctrine and refuse to believe that Christ is
coming again to judge the world (2 Peter 3:3-4).
The apostle Paul in his last epistle in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 summarizes the awful extent of
human sin, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form
of godliness but denying its power.”
The present age of grace will be followed by the Day of the Lord, an age in which God will
deal directly with human sin in the time of trouble preceding the second coming of Christ, a
time that continues throughout the millennial kingdom when His rule will be one of absolute
authority. Though the millennial kingdom in many ways is a bright spot in the future history of
the world, even in the millennial kingdom there is rebellion at the end when, in spite of all the
divine revelation given to them in the Millennium, people will rebel against Christ and attempt
to conquer Jerusalem by force.
In the sad destiny of the human race, there will be division of those who are saved and
those who are lost, with the saved being in the presence of the Lord forever in the new heaven
and the new earth and the new Jerusalem and the lost ultimately being cast into the lake of fire
(Rev. 20:15). From God’s viewpoint, out of the dark history of the human race will come those
among angels and men who choose to worship God and who will share with them the joy and
bliss of eternity in the presence of God in the new Jerusalem.
