Why I am skittish about Providential History

Funny how school can get in the way of blogging. It is Christmas Break, which is frequently accompanied by a steep surge of activity in all of my forgotten hobbies. With this in mind, I then form about 10,000 New Year's resolutions that I will not slack off on any of them. Result: Nothing, except the feeling of deja vu when I repeat this process next year.
Blogging may be one of those forgotten hobbies... but do not be afraid! I resolve to blog all through next year. (cough-cough)
Providential History. Say what? Providential History- A way of looking at history that is not very well-defined. I have heard a little bit about the whole concept recently, but it took me a while to figure out what exactly was being talked about. A fairly loose definition might look like, "explaining history through the framework of the Bible." Okay. That sounds good. I believe one of the key concepts to keeping a solid worldview is to try to look at the world through the lens of God's Word. Providential History resources seem to start down this same path. However, when I once heard a talk on this, I noticed that the speaker very quickly jumped from looking at history through the Bible to looking at God through history. The American Revolution is a hot topic among providentialists, and for good reason. The outcome of that war is fascinating. When this is brought up, the main points often seem to take all the unlikely victories of our American patriots, shave off the not-so-nice part of war, hold it up and say, "Undoubtedly, God had a hand in this battle. Ergo, God was on the Americans' side." Then come the assumptions that America was formed completely in compliance with God's will, and that it has done so much good for His Kingdom. Well, for starters, that sounds really good! What a nice way to think about our wonderful country. When I began mulling this over in my mind, though, I was uncomfortable with the fact that conclusions were made such as, "God was on the Americans' side." Where does Scripture say that God is on America's side? It doesn't. Scripture can still guide us through the issues of today, such as media and art, but you have to look at those through the lens of Scripture. Making statements about history, putting God on one side or the other, is that looking through the lens? I think there is a subtle shift there.
Here's one that troubled me even more. I wish I could remember it more clearly, but the speaker was referring to the Spanish missionaries in Central America, and somehow, they were put in a bad light because they were in conflict with the American cause. Why could this be waved off so rashly? Professing missionaries loosing rights to evangelize in the American Southwest? "Well, they were Catholic missionaries, and besides, God is on America's side!" I can't help but feel that this providential history is a little bit self-centered when told by an American.
-Red Flag-
This has gone to far. I needed to try to sort out in my head what I was hearing, and try to think about what in this view is biblical and what is not. For one thing, I knew that I could easily concoct an argument for why America was one of the greatest failures in the world, with the same assumptions they were making.
"Look at America now. It has produced a freedom for millions of people with a base from our founding fathers. They used biblical principles to form our Consitution. (I can't help but hear angel voices behind a person whenever they say this) And yet, we have generations of people wallowing in apathy, self-centeredness, and entertainment, that can't seem to take Christianity seriously even if they try. America was undoubtedly planned by God to be a great failure. We can see through history that no matter how well you think your Constitution is written, people are sinners and nations will eventually fall. Period."
That kind of argument would never sail! We can't look at God through history and make assumptions about him in that way.
So how do we look at history? Through the lens of Scripture. How is that accomplished? I think the very first step is to be well-equipped with God's Word, because we don't get a free magnifying glass with a Bible verse on it that gives us directions. We need to be prepared to think everything through in the light of God's Word, which necessitates frequent study if we are to be accurate. The second step is to realize that history is told with a bias of some sort. Everyone has something they want to bring out. This can be hard to see. Step three is take in the history. Read it, hear it, whatever. Try not to presume upon God, and try to point out biased comments when you find them.
I find studying history like this to be very beneficial. I try to look at human behavior based on what I know as right and wrong, and try to see the consequences of sin and the rewards of good acts. One book that does this excellently is "How Should We Then Live?" by Francis Schaeffer. He never tells us what he thinks God was doing. He instead tries to analyze the flow of thoughts and ideas as they move through a sin-stricken race. At the end of an analyzation like this, you ask yourself, "How Should We Then Live?" When I can look at history this way, it brightens up what some people think are just pages of dry facts and dates. After all, what part of history does God not have a part in? We cannot understand his plan, so why do people make assumptions about how he is working throughout history? We instead need to use history as a tool for observing human behavior, so we can think more critically about how we ourselves are living. I need to stress once more that this has to be done with Scripture as a final authority. Maybe Providential History isn't dangerous on its own, but I think that mindset can lead us down a path of wrong assumptions very quickly. Just try to think critically.