The Daniel Fast

The Rainbow Pen!

 

Knowing Providential History

 

 

Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life. God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son. The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. People who do evil hate the light and won’t come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do. (John 3:17-21 CEV).

 

In our attempt at understanding and Knowing Providential History, we look at World History as the history of humanity's journey with Our Father God Almighty. Some experts have discussed the socio-cultural, political, and economic influences that helped to shape Religion and religious lifestyle in America throughout its history. In the commentaries, they start with the state of Native American Religions before the first colonist set foot on the land of the United States of America. Next, they show that the first colonies were Catholic and established by Spain and Portugal. And that the oldest city in the United States is the Spanish Settlement of Saint Augustine in Florida. They also mention the early expeditions of the French in both the north and south regions of North America. They state that it was only later that the Anglican and English settlements that we learn about in our history textbooks started to form in what we would later call the Thirteen Colonies. They also discuss the Puritans in New England, separation of Church and State, Slavery, the growth of the Church in the 20th Century, and the effect that war has on Religion. In understanding how the growth of such a great diversity of Religion came to be in the United States of America, we end up learning by Knowing Providential History.

 

In relation to Knowing Providential History, Christianity and colonialism are often closely associated because Catholicism and Protestantism were the Religions of the European colonial powers. Several factors helped the decision-making processes of those Europeans responsible for the colonization of the continent of Africa. Consider the role of Christianity, medicinal and technological advances, and the lure of capitalist gains. First, Europe experienced a Christian revival in the 19th Century. And missionaries began to focus on the large working class people with the goal of bringing spiritual salvation to the workers and their families. The Bible was made available to workers. Due to their large successes, missionaries began to look beyond the continent of Europe. Missions were established all over Africa. Missionaries did not serve as direct agents of European imperialism, yet they drew European governments deeper into Africa. In their efforts to preach Christianity, to bring western-style education to Africa, and to ingrain monogamy in African societies, missionaries often felt threatened by warfare within Africa. Hence, missionaries called on European governments for protection and intervention. This the European governments began to recognize the potential ease with which their empires could be extended for economic and socio-cultural benefits.

 

In Knowing Providential History, there are many parallels in the Negro Spirituals between the African-American slaves and the Hebrews, God's chosen people. For upon their arrival in America, many African Americans found comfort in the Christian Faith. It was through the eyes of faith that slaves could catch a glimmer of hope for freedom. Music, the Afro-American slave spiritual, was a vital part in the life of the African American slaves. The underlying hope expressed in the songs inspired them to keep holding on, to live because they were God's Creation. They believed that God saw their plight, felt their sorrows, and redeemed them for eternity through His Son Jesus Christ. Some commentators describe Colonialism as a form of imperialism based on a divine mandate and designed to bring liberation - spiritual, technological, economic, political and socio-cultural - by sharing the blessings of the Christ-inspired civilization of the Western World with a people suffering under satanic oppression, poverty, ignorance, underdevelopment and disease, effected by a combination of political, economic, scientific, cultural and religious forces that cooperate under a regime seeking the benefit of both ruler and ruled, colonizer and colonized, enlightened and ignorant.

 

Knowing Providential History, will help us assess our perceived relationship with God, a sense of life's purpose, and lifestyle satisfaction. A general indicator of perceived well-being can be used for the assessment of material, intellectual, emotional and spiritual well-being. It will provide an overall measure of the perception of the spiritual quality of life, provide a personal assessment of one's relationship with God, and give a personal evaluation of one's sense of life's purpose and lifestyle satisfaction. The monitoring of the well-being indicators will include an interest in and an awareness of spiritual issues and the religious aspects of the human experience. The initial approaches to measuring lifestyle quality include measuring tangible and countable goods and services. On the other hand, some of the most important and meaningful aspects of life and lifestyle do not equal such tangible and countable things. Some observers feel that the quality of life and lifestyle lies in the experience of life. Hence an interest in the monitoring and measurement of the subjective aspects of the quality of life's experience. Make a deliberate effort to develop a spiritual well-being scale that would have two subscales: one to measure religious well-being and one to measure lifestyle well-being.