When History Rhymes
What’s A Historical Rhyme?
You may remember in your high school history class the teacher saying that those who do not study history are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past or something to that effect. It’s the ultimate reason given to pay attention during lectures. I’ve used it myself and while I think there’s a lot of truth to this saying there’s another quote I like even better. “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” This quote is mistakenly attributed to the 19th century writer and humorist Mark Twain. No one is sure who penned the quote but it contains so much truth.
A rhyme as defined by Wikipeda is a repetition of similar sounds in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Applying the above quote with the meaning of this word we can make a definition of rhyme related to history. It might go something like this, an historical rhyme is a repetition of similar events stressed in the actions of people or nations in the past as compared to events in the present. As we survey the pages of history and compare them with current events sometimes a definite ring of familiarity can be heard. To better understand this concept let’s look at an example of two historical events that rhyme. Case in point was Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII in the late summer of 1941. Hitler’s invasion began almost one hundred and twenty-nine years to the day of Napoleon Bonaparte’s excursion into the same territory. The similarities or rhymes between these two events are striking. Both men had conquered most or all of Europe prior to the invasion. Both dictators had a personal score to settle with Russia. Both armies marched along a similar path to Moscow burning and pillaging the countryside along the way. Both armies were stalled in Russian cities and two of the harshest Russian winters on record reduced the size of each army almost to nothing. The biggest rhyme of these invasions happened after words when both men would eventually meet their end. Hitler well knew the story of Napoleon’s invasion but thankfully he refused to take heed to the rhymes and rhythms of the past. At that moment in time had Hitler taken a pause to analyze the situation WWII might have turned out differently. Thankfully it didn’t. Why didn’t Hitler listen to history’s rhymes and realize the same fate of Napoleon awaited him? A short answer could be just plain pride. Hitler had a modern army that had quickly taken over Europe and by that time he felt invincible. Unlike the German army in WWI Hitler introduced a new warfare called Blitzkrieg or “lightening war.” He plowed through western Europe occupying the territories with little resistance. These early victories fueled Hitler’s false sense of invincibility and along with his hatred of Jews and Russians blinded him from seeing the lesson of Napoleon's failed invasion.
How could two events separated by over a century have so many historical rhymes? There’s one thread of commonality that runs through the annals of history that might explain this. The actions and reactions of mankind to various circumstances have a consistency based on human nature.
The Christian worldview teaches human nature is sinful in need of salvation and rebirth. God provides salvation through the blood sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ. Human nature along with society needs the restraint of the Holy Spirit for civilization to exist. This worldview was the basis for America’s founding as our forefathers created a government with checks and balances to keep at bay the human tendency for sin especially the abuse of power. They also understood that freedom was only meant for a virtuous people. As John Adams said,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
James Madison, American’s fourth president, believed the Constitution of the United States requires “sufficient virtue among men for self-government,” otherwise,
“nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.”
Like Hitler and Nazi Germany who had completely purged the Judeo/Christian worldview from all aspects of its society, America is committing the same purge leading to its ultimate fall. Humanity without God will write a heartbreaking history. Nations that turn from the creator are bound for ruin. This is not only proven in the pages of Scripture but in the endless stories of godless nations that fell to their own devices. God who is sovereign over the universe including time is now speaking through history a dire message to America. But is anyone listening?
Listen to the Music
The Doobie Brothers had a hit song back in November of 1972 entitled Listen to Music. The first verse of the song should have a familiar ring with current events.
“Don’t you feel it growing day by day people getting ready for the news. Some are happy some are sad. OH we’ve got to let the music play.”
Lead singer Tom Johnston wrote the song and the following quote reveals the song’s purpose:
The idea was that music would lift man up to a higher plane, and that world leaders, if they were able to sit down on some big grassy knoll where the sun was shining and hear music - such as the type I was playing - would figure out that everybody had more in common than they had not in common, and it was certainly not worth getting in such a bad state of affairs about.
The song was Johnston’s utopian answer to all the riots and chaos centered around the Vietnam War and the racial strife of that time.
“Everybody in the world would therefore benefit from this point of view. Just basically that music would make everything better. And of course I've since kind of realized it doesn't work that way."
The song fell short of its original goal as all utopian dreams do but the lyrics take on a new meaning in today’s political climate. The song’s title is even more relevant. We need to listen to the music.
History is playing a sad song rhyming with current events at such an alarming rate with lyrical warnings of an impending disaster. The similarities are disheartening and eerie mirroring almost every mistake not only in America’s past but other nations as well. Americans are so influenced by social media and cable news who continue to feed the public with misinformation and conspiracy theories making the truth nearly impossible to find. The fear produced by this only serves as the force that drives the country further and further apart. In the meantime, the political establishment along with big tech and cable/social media continue to enrich themselves and take more power. We won’t be able to hear the music until somebody turns down the rhetorical static. Or better yet someone needs to turn up the song that history is playing. That’s the whole purpose of this post.
So, What’s Next
If enough historical rhymes exist between a past and present event could history repeat itself? Better yet could history be warning us of an impending catastrophe and are there actions we can take to stop it? But have we reached the point of no return?
In 2012, I used the concept of historical rhyming to get an idea of where the country might be headed. Major events where unfolding at that time, big government bailouts, the tea party movement in response to left wing ideologies were steadily dividing the country. Many predicted a revolution or civil war was on the horizon so I began to do some research into America’s first revolution. By comparing and contrasting the events that lead to the first revolution to the events unfolding then, I could see many historical rhymes. History was showing all the red flags of a future event very similar to the preceding episodes of 1776. The historical rhymes seemed to be predicting that within a decade our country would be at the threshold of another revolution leading to a civil war. The looting, killing and destruction that happened last summer along with the events of Wednesday January 6, 2021 when protesters stormed the nation’s Capitol seems to bare that prediction out. Should we brace ourselves for another civil war? Some historians believe that we are living in the darkest days since before that time.
I should make it clear that I am not wanting such an event to happen in this country. And anyone who is eager to jump head-first into such a proposition hasn’t studied the horrible results of a civil war. Most revolutions are bloody bringing with them every deprivation of war and chaos imaginable. If a full-blown civil war were to erupt in America, the recent riots will pale in comparison to what lies ahead. Lest we forget that usually following these events is the spread of terrible diseases and possibly famine. At the end of WWI, the world was hit with the Spanish Flu pandemic. Do we really want to repeat that? I condemned the riots and killings of last summer and I also condemn the latest riot and killings that took place in our nation’s capitol building. And here’s where we see another historical rhyme that immediately should raise a red flag.
The blood that was shed on America’s main streets last year has now spilled over into the halls of Congress. It’s a very dangerous path we are now on and it isn’t the first time.
The question remains do the events that lead to the Capitol riot rhyme with any events that took America into civil war in 1861? Proverbs 16:18 teaches that pride comes before the fall. If America continues to ignore or flaunt the message history is desperately pleading then the nation will suffer the same fate.