The title above is a book written several years ago by Harry Rimmer. As I remember (I first saw the book in 1945), Rimmer’s theme was that almost everything repeats itself. Indeed, this has been the truth concerning nations.<\/p>\n
Look at Israel. God appointed a judge over Israel, but when that judge died, they forgot God and were punished by neighboring enemies. God raised another judge who led them back. He died. They went astray again. And again they were punished. Another judge…etc, etc. About 12 times, the same petition was followed. They never learned their lesson under the judges, and they continued on the same path with their kings and underlings until they were completely devastated in 70 AD.<\/p>\n
The same is true of other nations down through history. Babylon, the Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Third Reich. All followed the pattern. None learned from the other’s mistakes. Yesterday is being replayed!<\/p>\n
Solomon said the same thing as Rimmer–about 2,700 years before Rimmer even thought about it. The Preacher put it this way: “That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is <\/em>past<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). He also said that “there is no new thing under the sun<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That which hath been is yesterday and now is today and then he turns it around and says the same thing from the now of today back to the yesterdays of times gone by.<\/p>\n Why will we not profit by the events of yesterday? Do we lack the wisdom to comprehend? Or do we reason like the fool who always said, “It can’t happen to me (us)?” But it does. So, the church suffers just like the nations and like the foolish individuals. In spite of all the warnings God has given us, we plunge blindly down the path that leads, always, back to yesterday. Hence, the first great apostasy, the second, the third, and more yet to come. Why can’t we learn?<\/p>\n We are now entering a new year. A new paper (The Expository Review<\/em>-rlc). Perhaps a new beginning. To what can we look forward? The same old mistakes? The same old hassles? The same old lethargy? We have 525,600 minutes lying out there this year to be used-or wasted!<\/p>\n Let’s do things this year! Let’s not bog down in endless controversy that leads to-zip! If someone can be saved, well and good; but if it is just continuing controversy, saying the same old things over and over-mark it off and go on to something beneficial. Let’s do like they are advocating over yonder in Luchinbach, Texas; let’s get back to the basics-faith, repentance, and baptism; the glory of the church, its mission; its work; the right kind of living; back to the spirit and truth of worship.<\/p>\n Let’s build up the cause that we all claim is dear and precious to us, or was that just lip service? We’re all getting a little closer to eternity. Since my last journalistic effort, many faithful soldiers of the cross have laid their armor aside and gone on to greater things. Several good friends and past stalwarts have departed from the faith and have re-enlisted in the army of Satan. If one of them is reading this, we beg, we beseech, that you consider tomorrow. No matter how long we have, it won’t be very long. Do we no longer believe there is a hell?<\/p>\n By now, we are probably down to 525,595 minutes. How are we going to use them? Let’s prove both Rimmer and Solomon wrong as far as we, individually, are concerned. We will make new history for the Lord’s church. We will not relive yesterday!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by R. L. Craig via\u00a0The Expository Review, January 1982 The title above is a book written several years ago by Harry Rimmer. As I remember (I first saw the book in 1945), Rimmer’s theme was that almost everything repeats itself. Indeed, this has been the truth concerning nations. Look at Israel. God appointed a judge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-92295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94609,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-genocide-accusation-against-the-bible-and-why-it-fails\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":0},"title":"The \u201cGenocide\u201d Accusation Against the Bible\u2014And Why It Fails","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brad Harrub, Ph.D. Every semester, thousands of college students sit in classrooms where the Bible is ridiculed or reduced to a caricature. One of the most common accusations they hear is this: \"If God is real, why did He command genocide?\" For many young Christians, that question lands like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91643,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-immoral-for-killing-the-canaanites\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":1},"title":"Is God Immoral for Killing the Canaanites?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Judge of All the Earth God is the Judge of all the earth. He does not kill anyone arbitrarily, and when He does take a life out of this world (Genesis 15:16), it is always just and right. If God commanded the killing of the Canaanites,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46925,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-abimelech-be-counted-as-a-judge-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":2},"title":"Should Abimelech be counted as a judge of Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am teaching the Judges to the children. My question was Abimelech really a judge? I have read both sides, and am interested to hear what your evaluation is. Thank you for your input, Jeff. Answer: \"After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years, God sent a spirit of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-israel-having-a-king-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":3},"title":"Was Israel Having a King Sinful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall A common position is that Israel's wanting a King was sinful (I Samuel 8). Israel even confesses, \"Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46942,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-samuels-sons-counted-among-the-judges\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":4},"title":"Why aren’t Samuel’s sons counted among the judges?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Concerning your post recently about\u00a0whether Abimelech was a judge or not: I remember a passage concerning the people wanting a king because of the evil of Samuel's sons, whom he appointed to be judges over the people in I Samuel 8:1-5. I'm not sure if this would help your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57046,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-long-did-the-judges-rule-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":92295,"position":5},"title":"How Long Did the Judges Rule Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton A passage that has given scholars difficulty over the years is Acts 13:17-20.\u00a0The New American Standard renders it thus: \"The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}