What is a biblical approach to history?

On this podcast, we often discuss contemporary cultural issues and aim to help you think

bibically about them.

But sometimes we also want to take a step back and talk about how to think

bibically about an entire discipline itself such as history. That's our goal

today and we think you will greatly enjoy our guest Dr. Vern Poitress who's a professor of

systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and he's

written a great new book called Redeeming Our Thinking

about History.

Dr. Poythras, thanks so much for joining us.

Oh, well, I appreciate your asking me.

Well, let's jump right in. You're a professor of New Testament and System. appreciate your

professor of new testament and systematic theology

what led you to write a book on how Christians should think about and redeem history?

Well, there are several things in the background.

One is because I'm interacting with the Bible, I teach a course on how to interpret the Bible. I'm really aware of the fact that bad ideas about

history have penetrated university, major universities of the world, in their treatment of the Bible.

There is an approach called the historical critical method that has become dominant in the late universities and it's thought of as being well

this is the scholarly way of analyzing any issues in history and any piece of literature including the Bible.

But the assumption in the background is that miracles don't happen. It's a massive program of

reinterpreting the Bible within a naturalistic framework and and of course the

central miracle in the Bible is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, bodily resurrection.

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