Luck Or Providence?

By Author: Terry Dashner
Total Articles: 105
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Luck of Providence?

Terry Dashner..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Think of dominoes falling and not luck happening. What am I saying? Consider this. The milestones of human history are not free-standing monoliths, occurring by luck. They are, however, like dominoes—one event of time affecting another until milestones arise and provide a signature by which we identify human history. Does that make sense?

Listen to this. Author Bill Yenne in his book entitled, 100 Events That Shaped World History (Bluewood Books 1993), the Battles of Salamis and Plataea were significant because they prevented the annihilation of Greek civilization. This in turn allowed a great flourishing of Greek culture which gave rise to the philosophies whose thought would come to form the basis for Western culture. The Battle of Waterloo and the World Wars changed the course of history. So did the invention of the steam engine and the airplane. The flights of the interplanetary spacecraft have cast a whole new perspective on our relatively tiny planet. I agree with Mr. Yenne about the hodgepodge ...
... of events culminating into one great event, marking history for posterity. But, again, I seem to be in the minority group of people who are screaming loudly, Hey! Things don't just happen. There is an over riding hand of Providence, working throughout human history. Please, somebody, tell us this.

Since they won't tell you that God rules over the universe and nations—directing them by the counsel of His Sovereign will—I will tell you. In this brief document, I'm going to state a few of history's milestones and tell you what could have happened had they not occurred. And since they did occur, God was in them working out His will to consummate all things under the authority of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. The nations of the world will become the nations of our God.

Okay, I got carried away. Let me get back to the story. What if man had never become dissatisfied with drawing pictures on cave walls in order to communicate? It wasn't until around 3500 BC that people had the idea of developing a set of simple, widely understood symbols—letters—that represented the sounds used in speech and could be combined in different ways to make up what we call sentences. Such a system is called a phonetic alphabet (Bill Yenne). Had not God moved man to the point of writing as a form of communication, there would have been NO Bible. God is all about communication. So much so that He sent us the Word and it became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-14). Never underestimate the power of the written word. It was the written and disseminated word that changed the course of human history.

Let's do another significant event. What if Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) had not written down a code of civil law? What if Moses had not gone to Mount Sinai to receive the Decalogue of God? Now surely you know that Hammurabi lived before Moses, and it would be tempting to agree with some that Moses copied his laws from the code of Hammurabi because they are so similar. But, this is no temptation at all if you consider God has been working since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden to proscribe hurtful activities among men. Hammurabi's code of law was basically written for civil ventures. Moses' law was very different in that it was authoritative over moral actions. Moses received God's Law for mankind. God's Law is the highest law. From it evolved the English Common Law—the Magna Carta—the Mayflower Compact—the United States Constitution. None of these laws—though superior they are to man—no law is higher than the ONE LAW—God's Law.

I wish I had time to give you more, but church services are getting ready to start. The pastor can't be late. I hope to continue this writing later. For now, you have something to consider. History didn't just happen. It was a lot of dominoes falling upon each other in a linear course to bring us to where we are today. Keep in mind, please. God is bringing the history of man to a close. He's got something better coming. And His Kingdom that is coming will have no end. Neither will any event push it over or knock it out of the way. You can stake your dominoes on that!

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon.
Pastor T. dash

About the Author Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK. Retired from law enforcement in September 2003. Veteran of the United States Navy. Married for 28 years and father of three grown children. Blessed!