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Is "The Right Side of History" a Biblical Concept? · Theology Made Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Theology Made Podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jordan.
• 0:08
  In today's episode,
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  we're going to look at how the right side of history is a
• 0:13
  biblical concept.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard the phrase, probably used it, the right side of history.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everyone uses it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Politicians, activists, corporations, churches.
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  SPEAKER_00: It sounds great.
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  SPEAKER_00: It makes sense.
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  SPEAKER_00: But no one ever explains it.
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  SPEAKER_00: That phrase only makes sense if the Bible is true.
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  When someone says the right side of history,
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  they're assuming three things.
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  SPEAKER_00: History has a direction.
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  SPEAKER_00: History has a moral standard.
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  SPEAKER_00: History will eventually judge us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that feels obvious to most people today.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it shouldn't.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because for most of human history, no one believed this.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world,
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  SPEAKER_00: History wasn't going anywhere.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was something you endured, not a story with a hopeful destination.
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  SPEAKER_00: Most cultures understood time in one of two basic ways.
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  SPEAKER_00: The first was cycles.
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  History repeats,
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  civilizations rise,
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  they fracture,
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  they fall,
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  then it all starts again.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this way of thinking shows up all over the ancient world.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Hindu thought,
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  SPEAKER_00: time moves through endless ages,
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  SPEAKER_00: where creation,
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  SPEAKER_00: decay,
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  SPEAKER_00: destruction,
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  SPEAKER_00: and rebirth repeat without end.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is finally healed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is permanently fixed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Greek thinkers weren't far off.
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  SPEAKER_00: Heraclitus saw reality as constant motion.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everything changing, nothing lasting.
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  SPEAKER_00: You never step in the same river twice.
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  Plato treated time as a shadow of something eternal,
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  not a path towards fulfillment.
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  The Stoics even believed the universe would burn itself down
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  and start over,
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  SPEAKER_00: repeating the same events again and again.
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  SPEAKER_00: History in this view has no moral direction.
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  SPEAKER_00: It just turns like a wheel.
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  SPEAKER_00: You don't reach an end.
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  SPEAKER_00: You just keep going.
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  SPEAKER_00: The second view is decline.
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  SPEAKER_00: That history is a long slide downward.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Greeks talked openly about a lost golden age.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hacy had described humanity moving from gold to silver to bronze to iron,
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  SPEAKER_00: each stage worse than the one before it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The present wasn't seen as progress.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was proof that things had gone wrong.
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  SPEAKER_00: Roman writers shared a similar thought.
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  SPEAKER_00: As Rome grew more powerful, they believed it grew more corrupt.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wealth weakened virtue.
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  SPEAKER_00: Success spread decay.
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  SPEAKER_00: History didn't make people better.
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  SPEAKER_00: It exposed how easily they broke.
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  SPEAKER_00: Across the ancient world, the assumption was the same.
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  SPEAKER_00: The past was pure, the present compromised, the future bleak.
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  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't fix history.
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  SPEAKER_00: At best, you could slow the collapse.
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  Whether history was seen as repetition or seen as decline,
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  it never arrived anywhere.
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  There was no right side of history,
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  no final judgment,
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  no moment when justice finally wins.
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  SPEAKER_00: History either goes in circles or it drifts downward.
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  Wisdom meant learning how to live inside the pattern,
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  not expecting the pattern to ever change.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that was the world people assumed they lived in.
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  SPEAKER_00: Which is why the later claim that history actually moves forward,
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  SPEAKER_00: that it has meaning,
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  SPEAKER_00: direction,
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  SPEAKER_00: and a final reckoning,
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  SPEAKER_00: didn't feel obvious or natural.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible introduced something radically different.
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  SPEAKER_00: History is linear.
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  SPEAKER_00: It has a beginning, it's going somewhere, and it has an end.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the beginning means time itself is created.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not eternal, not cyclical.
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  SPEAKER_00: History isn't a loop, it's a story.
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  SPEAKER_00: And from the start, scripture moves forward through promise.
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  God speaks and generations live towards fulfillment,
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  creation,
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  fall,
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  redemption,
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  restoration.
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  SPEAKER_00: The meaning of events isn't found by looking backward to some golden age,
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  SPEAKER_00: but forward to what God has said he'll do.
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  The prophets in the Bible,
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  they don't preach nostalgia or returning to the past.
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  SPEAKER_00: They preach expectation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Justice is coming.
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  SPEAKER_00: restoration is coming.
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  SPEAKER_00: Resurrection is coming.
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  SPEAKER_00: The future, not the past, carries the weight.
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  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the story, history isn't remembered by the winners.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's judged.
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  Not by emperors,
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  not by those in power,
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  not by those who get to write the headlines,
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  but by God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the idea of a right side of history comes from.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not progress, but from judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so when someone says,
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  SPEAKER_00: I want to be on the right side of history,
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  SPEAKER_00: they're really saying,
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  SPEAKER_00: history will evaluate us,
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  SPEAKER_00: actions will be weighed,
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  SPEAKER_00: justice will be revealed.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's not a scientific or a neutral belief.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's an eschatological belief.
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  SPEAKER_00: It assumes a future reckoning.
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  And that assumption,
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  well,
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  that didn't come from the Enlightenment philosophy.
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  SPEAKER_00: It came from the Bible.
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  SPEAKER_00: Modern culture quietly replaced judgment with progress.
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  SPEAKER_00: Instead of asking whether something is right, we ask whether it's new.
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  SPEAKER_00: We assume time itself does the moral work for us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Newer means better, later means wiser.
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  SPEAKER_00: The future, by default, is morally superior to the past.
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  SPEAKER_00: But that assumption doesn't hold.
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  SPEAKER_00: Progress explains how things change.
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  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't explain why they're good.
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  SPEAKER_00: Technology can accelerate while ethics erode.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can learn how to do more without learning how to do better.
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  SPEAKER_00: In history, it is full of innovation paired with moral collapse.
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  SPEAKER_00: The 20th century alone gave us electricity,
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  SPEAKER_00: antibiotics,
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  SPEAKER_00: and mass communication alongside genocide,
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  SPEAKER_00: nuclear war,
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  SPEAKER_00: and industrialized death.
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  SPEAKER_00: Advancements didn't prevent cruelty.
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  SPEAKER_00: In many cases, it made them more efficient.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that exposes the problem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Progress, yeah, has direction, but no destination.
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  SPEAKER_00: It moves, but it doesn't judge.
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  SPEAKER_00: It can tell you what comes next, but not what ought to come next.
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  SPEAKER_00: For history to bend towards good,
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  something outside of history has to define what good actually
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  is and bend it.
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  Otherwise,
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  the future isn't better because it's right,
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  it's just better because it won.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the phrase only works if justice is real.
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  If history has no final justice,
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  then the phrase the right side of history is meaningless.
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  It's just majority opinion,
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  whoever wins,
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  and whoever gets to write the last textbooks.
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  Without ultimate judgment,
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  there is no right side,
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  only the loudest or strongest one.
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  SPEAKER_00: The phrase secretly assumes that injustice will not get the last word.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that assumption is biblical.
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  SPEAKER_00: So why does secular culture keep using it anyway?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because even when people reject Christianity...
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  SPEAKER_00: They still talk like the Bible's right about time.
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  They believe in justice should be exposed,
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  evil named,
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  history should mean something.
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  SPEAKER_00: They want moral accountability without a moral accountant.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the language stays even when theology fades.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this isn't about mocking anyone.
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  You don't have to be a Christian to want to be on the right
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  side of history.
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  SPEAKER_00: But historically,
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  SPEAKER_00: that idea only exists because Christianity taught the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: history matters,
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  SPEAKER_00: justice is coming,
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  SPEAKER_00: truth will be revealed,
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  SPEAKER_00: and power doesn't get the final word.
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  That can be defended through secular optimism,
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  but it can be shown in biblical hope.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Theology Made Podcast.
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  If you found this helpful,
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  like and subscribe on whatever channel you're listening on.