History...

...is an adventure.  It contains victory, defeat, tragedy, joy, and so much revelation of the human heart and character.  One of the most difficult tasks is to discover meaning in History...  To move beyond facts and dates into knowledge and wisdom.  Often, instead of History, a student discovers someone's agenda disguised as History as the things that would make us wise for the future are shoved aside to make way for prejudices and agendas that feed a particular political bend or justify otherwise pathological behavior.  If the agenda is more successful than the facts and wisdom of History, a nation will lose its way when it loses its History.

History can be studied in many ways but three fascinating anchor points defy agendas and political perspective:

• Behavior
• Taxation
• Demographics

The challenge to the serious student of History is to recognize emotion and agenda in supposed historical presentations and reach beyond to the behavior patterns of generations, the irrefutable evidence of how nations tax individuals and families, and the nasty math of demographics which reveal how a nation answers the challenge of, "TO BE OR NOT TO BE..."

American History through the Eyes of Awakening

There are four generally accepted Great Awakenings in U.S. history.  The links below will take you to Wikipedia Links that are fairly Generic.  Take a look then come back to study HISTORY.

• The First Great Awakening (often called by historians the "Great Awakening") (1730s - 1740s)
  • Liberty sealed in Revolution
• The Second Great Awakening (1800s - 1830s)
  • Tragic division over life but families Freed in Civil War
• The Third Great Awakening (1880s - 1900s)
  • Great Power reach solidified in World War
• The Fourth Great Awakening (1960s - 1970s)
  • Tragic division over Life, Liberty, and Faith continues in Roe v Wade, Woodstock v Jesus Freaks, Election of 2008... Resolution???
• Approximately 50 to 80 years between awakenings... The next one might be just around the corner...

 

History prepares a People for the Future

Wikipedia Reads:  "Great Awakenings influence and are influenced by religious thought from throughout the world but the cycle of Great Awakenings appears unique to the USA. This could be because the USA is home to many different denominations and sects, while remaining largely Protestant, which is known for its relative freedom in terms of expression of belief as opposed to Catholicism. The lack of a single dominant faith or state-sanctioned religion means new ideas can be spread without having to slowly reform existing institutions from within, or allowing pressures to build up until the existing institutions are violently overthrown. On the other hand, the established sects have enough prestige and inertia that the pressure for new ideas builds into a regular cycle of bloodless revolution."

In Reality, the first Great Awakening directly fed the American Revolution.  The Second was a divided awakening along the Mason-Dixon line aimed at the Civil War.  The Third Awakening raised up the generation that led the United States in World War II.  The Fourth Awakening, like the second, was a divided awakening and its leaders are just now coming to power in a time of deepening social, political, and spiritual division.

Black Flag:  Dangerous Conditions. 

As a soldier for 20 of the last 30 years, God gave me the chance to walk on a number of pages of History as they were being written. 

Contact us at:

areulost @ msn.com