Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.
Well, nostalgia is pretty popular on social media these days. One example is the ex-account Retro News Now. It posts commercials, shows, songs, toys, sports clips from past decades on virtually any topic. While these kinds of accounts are fun and funny and certainly take you back, our tendency for nostalgia reflects something deeper about who God made us to be. We are supposed to be people who remember, but it also matters how we remember.
The Old Testament's full of calls to remember. The Psalms repeatedly teach God's people to remember the deeds of the Lord, to recall his wondrous works. The prophets reminded Israel of its disobedient past and God's deliverance anyway. Moses warned against forgetting God's laws. Just about every book in the Old Testament, in fact, calls the Lord's people to remember in some way or another as a way of being faithful.
In fact, an old history buff of mine used to say that the entire Old Testament could be summed up with just one word, remember. In the New Testament, Jesus instructed his disciples to take communion in remembrance of me, he said, never forgetting his faithfulness to follow his demands. Divine destiny and die and rise in glory, defeating sin in the grave. And when we remember, we reflect God, who not only took on flesh and dwelt among us, but who also promised time and time again. to remember Throughout Scripture, God assures his people he will remember them.
and his covenant to them. One reason we have to be reminded to remember is that we can struggle to do so. As the New England primer of sixteen ninety famously put it, In Adam's fall we send all. One of the results of that is that we tend to forget what God has done, what God has promised, and how God has been so faithful to us in the past. When it comes to remembering, we have two tendencies because of the fall.
The first is the tendency to have a selective memory of only those things we want to remember. In fact, the popularity of online nostalgia accounts could be due to how we think about the present. We're depressed about it, but we're sentimental. We long for the positive realities of the past, barely remembering those things that have always plagued the human condition. Second, we can also be susceptible, philosophically speaking, of constantly repudiating the past as unenlightened.
Building on the theory of German philosopher Hegel, the postmodern concept of history is not the story of one thing happening after the other. It's the law of ceaseless progress. Historicism, as it's often called, is the record of inevitable human advancement from age to age.
So why remember the past in any serious or enduring way if it's so out of step with the progressive march of history toward better days? But there is a reason that nostalgic images and videos arouse something so profound in us. In the end, what we do with memory has very real consequences, not just for individuals, but for our civilization. Should we reject the past or try to retrieve it? If we do try to retrieve it, how?
If we reject it, what parts? From the French Revolution's attempt at a post-Christian calendar to fascist Italy's adoption of year one in 1922. There's very real and serious implications to how the past is considered, how it's judged, and more to the point, what we attempt to forget about the past. This biblical call to remember is a call to much more than just mere nostalgia. It's a call to action.
or to remember truths and heroes, triumphs and tragedies that inspire action in us in this cultural moment. The author of Hebrews commanded that we are to remember those who spoke God's word, and then we are to imitate their ways, Hebrews thirteen, seven. Most of all, though, we are to remember God. We are to remember all that He has done. And to remember is not just a mental activity, it's a way that we image our Creator, the one who remembers His promises and is always sure to fulfill them.
And so the Apostle John's words and revelation apply to all of us, to people, to families, to entire nations. Remember, repent, return. We need to remember the faithfulness of God. repent of our sins and return to his ways. That's a way we remember his promise to always forgive and to restore.
For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Andrew Carico. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, visit breakpoint.org. Hi, my name is Bill from Port Orange, Florida, and I'm a Cornerstone partner because for many years I've richly enjoyed and reflected upon the work that was being done by the Coulson Center.
and I wanted to make the commitment to support this ministry that changes lives, communities, and culture. If you'd like to join me and a thousand other believers in becoming a Cornerstone partner, visit colsoncenter.org/slash cornerstone.
