Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Philosophy of History Video

Here's a 34 minute video on the philosophy of history for a class. It's both too long and yet too hurried. But it at least mentions a lot of key issues.

3 comments:

Susan Moore said...

This video was very helpful, thank you. Thinking about the OT apocalyptic writings and Jewish thinking regarding eternity, what is thought to have been their understanding of Eccl. 3:11 (NIV), "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Particularly the section, 'He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.'
Thanks,
Susan

Ken Schenck said...

A distinction is usually made between the concept of "everlasting" which means as long as we can imagine and eternity, which involves the notion of the infinite. I personally think that all the biblical authors thought in "everlasting" terms. When the OT talks about David being a king forever, they would have meant something like "for the foreseeable future." Of course we know that Christ does indeed reign for all eternity in the philosophical and mathematical sense.

This is a good example of how, in my opinion, we read our own conceptual frameworks into the biblical texts and call it a biblical worldview.

Susan Moore said...

The distinction between 'everlasting' and 'eternity' is what I was missing, thank you.
I understand what you are saying, except for what seems to be a disclaimer at the end of Eccl. 3:11, "yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
If they understood Genesis 1 and 2 to be the beginning, I guess the question is, 'What did they see as the ending?'
Susan