History matters a great deal, not because “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Guess what, we will repeat our mistakes of the past, no matter how much knowledge of it we possess. History matters because those who inhabited past times had a nature like ours—on the one hand, possessing great dignity as divine image-bearers, and on the other hand, fallen in sin.

“What is past is prologue.” These words are inscribed on the statue known as Future that stands in front of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. The quotation is taken from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In Act 2, Scene 1, Antonio, the usurping Duke of Milan, tells Sebastian, the brother of the King of Naples, “What’s past is prologue.” Antonio was trying to convince Sebastian to kill his brother Alonso and take the crown, as Antonio had killed his brother Prospero. The idea here is that the past sets the context for the present and the future. Who our ancestors were and what they did establish the setting in which we move and have our being in the present. Our actions, attitudes, beliefs, and wishes will also make up the setting for the world our children and grandchildren will inhabit.

The year 2024 is now past. A new year dawns. It is hard to believe that we are saying goodbye to 2024. I was born in 1969, and for 30 years, the 21st century was a figment of my imagination. Now, this century is nearly a quarter of the way completed. What happened?

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