How should Christian understand world history?
7 Lucky Gods of japan (Photo credit: Steve-kun ) "What goes around, comes around." This American idiom suggests a view of history that has more in common with ancient Greek philosophy than with the Judeo-Christian understanding of history. The grand difference between the ancient view of history and that found in Scripture is the difference between what is called "cyclical" and "linear-progressive." A cyclical view indicates that there was no beginning to the universe and no goal for it; rather, history creates itself and eventually repeats itself—forever. It was this ancient perspective that generated the skepticism that inspired Friedrich Nietzsche 's view of "the myth of eternal recurrence." Over against this view stands the biblical view of linear-progressive history. This understanding does not say that history moves in a steady incline, moving toward some evolutionary climax; rather, it indicates a movement of history that looks