THE BIBLE AS UNIVERSAL HISTORY
The Bible is a study in world-history. It is man's first
effort to write a complete history of the human race from its
beginning to its climax in the unification of all peoples and
the establishment of a universal religion.
Though it was written so long ago, compiled under unfavourable
conditions, though as a history it is neither exhaustive nor
comprehensive, nor orderly in form nor scholarly in tone and
manner; yet in spite of its handicaps it presents to the soul
of man the most sublime and magnificent conception of the
whole human race as being in reality one family whose history,
however complex, is a continuous movement towards a single and
all-sufficient consummation. Perhaps nothing will fully
satisfy the heart and mind of thoughtful men save this vision
of the oneness of the life of the race, and of an Eternal Will
guiding all things towards an event in which an ever-advancing
civilisation finds at last completeness and fulfilment.
Here in this ancient book, come down to us from primitive
times and offered through the Authorised Version in befitting
language of matchless power and beauty, this conception is set
forth with a clearness and a force which has not weakened
through the ages and with a fullness of meaning which no'
epoch has been so well able to appreciate as ours.
The early chapters of Genesis are universal in their
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outlook. They take a general survey of the whole earth and of
all its inhabitants. They tell of Adam and Eve, the
progenitors of the whole human race, and of the three sons of
Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth ('of them was the whole earth
overspread'). They describe how 'the whole earth was of one
language, and of one speech' until God confounded men's
language and 'did scatter them abroad upon the face of the
whole earth'. In the twelfth chapter the field of the
narrative narrows, the action no longer embraces the whole
human race, but centres henceforth round the fortunes of one
people only, 'the chosen people' as they called themselves,
the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham. For a period of some
two thousand years the history of mankind is seen through
Jewish eyes and written from the Jewish point of view. The
sacred narrative tells of the vicissitudes, the glories, the
tragedies of the Hebrews. It traces their growth from a single
family to a great and opulent nation and follows them through
their subsequent decline and humiliation. But it does not give
them this extraordinary prominence for their own sake, because
of any native superiority of theirs to the rest of mankind.
The Bible is not a nationalistic work. No one reading it could
imagine the Hebrews enjoyed their distinction because they
were really greater or dearer to God than any other people.
Their failings are not extenuated; their conduct is not
idealised nor eulogised. Their iniquities are frankly
displayed. Their unworthiness of their blessings is
mercilessly exposed. They call forth from the prophets the
most scathing and tremendous denunciation's. They occupy in
the Bible a central place because they are, for a time, in an
especial sense the trustees of God's universal purpose. The
main subject of the Bible
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does not change in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, nor is the
great theme ever forgotten. The thread of universal history
runs through Jewish history. The tides of world progress lap
for a time round the shores of Palestine. At the very
beginning of the Jewish race, in the wording of the call of
Abraham, this universal outlook and purpose is proclaimed, 'I
will make of thee a great nation. . . and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed'. If through the
exclusiveness of the Jew the oneness of the human race and of
its progress is in any passage of the Bible obscured, it is
never forgotten by Him who is the inspirer and true author of
the Word of God.
Had the Jews accepted Christ, they might still have retained
a central place of responsibility in the history of mankind.
The universal theme might still have been carried forward in
the New Testament through Jewish history as it was in the Old
Testament. But the Jews failed. They knew not the time of
their visitation. The children of the Kingdom were cast out
and others inherited their privileges. After the Crucifixion
the Jews no longer march in the van of universal history. They
fall aside from the main current of human progress. The cause
of religion is advanced and the purpose of God goes forward -
- but not through the agency of the Jews. The high trusteeship
they had held so long is forfeited and passes from them to the
Gentiles. In the latter part of the New Testament the action
spreads rapidly outward from Palestine to Ephesus and
Macedonia and Athens, to Corinth and to Rome, till finally in
the closing chapters of the Bible it embraces in prophetic
survey the entire earth and all the peoples that inhabit it.
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And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . and I . . . saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven. . . And the nations of them which are saved shall walk
in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honour into it. . . In the midst of the street of
it. . . was there the tree of life. . . and the leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations. (Rev. 21 and 22.)
Christ emphasised the universality and the unifying purposes
of His Message. He bade His disciples 'go teach all nations'.
He predicted that a certain deed of kindness done to Him would
be remembered wherever the Gospel was preached in the wide
world, and He announced that the close of His Age would not
come till His Teaching had been carried to the ends of the
earth. He said, moreover, that His Gospel was to soften and
remove those estrangements among men caused by differences of
race, nation, tradition or culture; it was to harmonise men's
hearts and induce a sense of fellowship; and some day the
whole of humanity would be gathered into one and become as a
single flock of sheep under a single shepherd.
The Bible sketches world-history; but the spirit in which this
theme is conceived and the point of view from which it is
written are not those taken by the modern historian. The Bible
regards the history of the human race as being from beginning
to end in reality one and single. However rich in incident may
be the onward movement of mankind, however complex it may be
in action, however manifold in interest: though men may have
lost their bearings altogether, though they may have forgotten
their original unity and may have no conception
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of the ultimate goal towards which they are being carried,
nevertheless the course of their progress flows all in one
direction and is guided by a principle of unity which persists
through all divisive influences and sooner or later will make
its dominant power manifest.
The first picture presented in the Bible is that of human
unity in its simplest form: that of a single family. The last
picture is that of a unity manifold and universal in which all
kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations are gathered into
one and unified in the enjoyment of a common worship, a common
happiness, a common glory.
The great problem which, according to the Bible, confronts the
human race in its progress is that of advancing from the
barest, baldest unity through a long experience of multiplying
diversities till ultimately a balance between the two
principles is struck, poise is gained and the two forces of
variety and unity are blended in a multiple, highly developed
world fellowship, the perfection of whose union was hardly
suggested in the primitive simplicity of early man.
(George Townshend, The Heart of the Gospel, p. 5)