Modern history is often told from the perspective of those in power. This course examines major events from the Reformation to today, revealing hidden truths and helping you understand how we arrived at our current world system. We'll see Yahuah's hand in history and understand end-times prophecy in action.
Daniel 2:21 - "And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."
For over 1,000 years, the Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe. By the 1500s, many believers recognized serious problems:
Selling "indulgences" (paying money for forgiveness)
People couldn't read Scripture themselves (Latin only)
Church traditions replaced biblical commands
Sunday worship instead of Sabbath
Pope claimed authority over Scripture
October 31, 1517
Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, challenging the sale of indulgences. This sparked the Reformation.
Key Reformation Figures
Martin Luther (1483-1546): German priest who started the Reformation
John Calvin (1509-1564): French reformer in Geneva
William Tyndale (1494-1536): Translated Bible into English; martyred
John Knox (1514-1572): Scottish reformer
The Reformation Was Incomplete
While reformers restored "salvation by faith" and translated Scripture, they kept many Catholic traditions: Sunday worship, Christmas, Easter, infant baptism. They didn't return fully to Torah or the Hebrew roots of faith.
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 2: Age of Exploration (1400s-1600s)
📖 RECEIVE: Europeans Explore the World
European nations sent explorers across the globe, claiming lands and establishing colonies. This dramatically changed world history.
Explorer
Nation
Achievement
Christopher Columbus
Spain
Reached Americas (1492)
Vasco da Gama
Portugal
Sea route to India (1498)
Ferdinand Magellan
Spain
First circumnavigation (1519-1522)
John Cabot
England
Reached North America (1497)
The Dark Side of Exploration
Exploration brought:
Destruction of native peoples and cultures
The slave trade (millions of Africans enslaved)
Forced "conversion" to Catholicism
Theft of resources from conquered lands
Diseases that killed millions of natives
Many atrocities were committed "in the name of God"—a perversion of true faith.
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 3: The Enlightenment (1600s-1700s)
📖 RECEIVE: The Age of "Reason"
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that elevated human reason above divine revelation. Key ideas included:
Reason and science can explain everything
Individual rights and freedoms
Questioning traditional authority
Progress through education
Key Thinkers
John Locke: Natural rights (life, liberty, property)
Voltaire: Freedom of speech and religion
Rousseau: Social contract theory
Montesquieu: Separation of powers
The Danger of "Reason Alone"
While the Enlightenment brought some good ideas (individual liberty, limited government), it also planted seeds of:
Deism: Belief in an absent "watchmaker" god
Atheism: Rejection of Elohim entirely
Humanism: Man as the measure of all things
Evolution: Later grew from Enlightenment thinking
Proverbs 3:5 - "Trust in Yahuah with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 4: The American Revolution (1775-1783)
📖 RECEIVE: Birth of a Nation
American colonists fought for independence from Britain, creating a new nation based on principles of liberty.
Key Events
1773: Boston Tea Party
1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord
1776: Declaration of Independence
1781: British surrender at Yorktown
1787: Constitution written
Key Founding Principles:
All men created equal with God-given rights
Government by consent of the governed
Separation of powers
Religious liberty
Hidden Influences
While many founders were Christians, some were Deists or Freemasons. Secret society symbolism appears in:
The Great Seal of the United States
Washington D.C. street layout
Dollar bill imagery (pyramid, all-seeing eye)
This doesn't negate the good principles, but we should be aware of mixed influences.
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 5: The French Revolution (1789-1799)
📖 RECEIVE: Revolution Gone Wrong
The French Revolution began with similar ideals to America but became a bloodbath that attacked faith itself.
Key Events
1789: Storming of the Bastille
1792: Monarchy abolished
1793-94: Reign of Terror (17,000+ executed)
1793: Christianity banned; "Cult of Reason" established
1799: Napoleon takes power
The Reign of Terror
The revolution devoured its own:
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette beheaded
Churches closed; priests killed
A woman dressed as the "Goddess of Reason" worshiped in Notre Dame
Revolutionary leaders themselves executed
The guillotine became the symbol of "liberty"
Proverbs 14:12 - "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
Prophecy Connection
Revelation 11 describes the "two witnesses" — identified scripturally as the two houses of Israel: Judah and Ephraim (see Ezekiel 37:15-22, Isaiah 43:10-12). During the 1260 years of papal supremacy, both houses were persecuted — Judah scattered throughout Europe, and Ephraim's identity hidden among the nations. The French Revolution's attack on faith represented the beast's attempt to silence both witnesses. Today we see both houses awakening — Judah returning to the land and Ephraim discovering their Hebraic roots.
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 6: The Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)
📖 RECEIVE: The Machine Age
Beginning in Britain, the Industrial Revolution transformed how goods were made, moving from hand production to machines and factories.
Before
After
Hand-made goods
Machine production
Rural farms
Urban factories
Home-based work
Factory employment
Local markets
Global trade
Key Inventions
Steam engine (James Watt)
Spinning jenny (textiles)
Cotton gin (Eli Whitney)
Railroads and steamships
The Cost of "Progress"
Child labor in dangerous conditions
16-hour workdays, 6-7 days per week
Polluted cities and water
Families separated
Loss of Sabbath rest
Rise of materialism
Yahuah's design included rest and family time—industrialism often destroyed both.
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 7: World War I (1914-1918)
📖 RECEIVE: The Great War
Called "The War to End All Wars," WWI was the deadliest conflict in history up to that point, killing over 17 million people.
Main Causes
Alliances: Countries bound to defend each other
Imperialism: Competition for colonies
Nationalism: Extreme national pride
Militarism: Arms race between nations
The Trigger: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (June 28, 1914)
What They Don't Teach
International bankers funded both sides of the war
The war helped establish the Federal Reserve's power
The Balfour Declaration (1917) promised Palestine to Zionists
The war destroyed traditional Christian Europe
Created conditions for WWII and the Communist revolution
Germany blamed and punished (Treaty of Versailles)
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 8: World War II (1939-1945)
📖 RECEIVE: The Deadliest War
WWII killed 70-85 million people—the deadliest conflict in human history. It reshaped the entire world order.
Key Events
1939: Germany invades Poland; war begins
1941: Pearl Harbor; US enters war
1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
1945: Germany surrenders (May)
1945: Atomic bombs; Japan surrenders (August)
Major Powers
Allies
Axis
USA, Britain, USSR, France
Germany, Italy, Japan
Deeper Truths
The same banking interests funded Hitler's rise to power
WWII led directly to creation of the United Nations
Israel became a nation in 1948 (major prophetic event)
The atomic age began—power to destroy all life
USA and USSR emerged as superpowers
Matthew 24:6-7 - "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars... For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 9: The Cold War Era (1947-1991)
📖 RECEIVE: East vs. West
After WWII, the world divided into two camps: the capitalist West (led by USA) and communist East (led by USSR). Though they never fought directly, they waged a "cold" war of ideology, espionage, and proxy conflicts.
Key Events
1949: NATO formed; USSR gets atomic bomb
1961: Berlin Wall built
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
1969: Moon landing (Space Race)
1989: Berlin Wall falls
1991: USSR collapses
Controlled Conflict?
Some researchers believe the Cold War was managed by elite powers who benefited from:
Massive military spending
Control through fear
Expansion of government power
Suppression of dissent (McCarthyism)
Creating a common enemy to unite populations
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
Lesson 10: The New World Order (1991-Present)
📖 RECEIVE: Globalization and Control
Since the Cold War ended, there has been a push toward global governance—what some call the "New World Order."
Signs of Globalization
European Union (political/economic union)
World Trade Organization (global trade rules)
International Criminal Court
Climate agreements (Paris Accord)
Digital IDs and surveillance
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)
End Times Connection
Scripture warns of a coming world system:
Revelation 13: A beast system that controls buying and selling
Revelation 17: "Babylon" the world system
Daniel 7: A fourth kingdom that will "devour the whole earth"
We may be seeing the foundations of this system being laid today.
Revelation 18:4 - "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
🤔 REFLECT: Responding to Our Times
Understanding history helps us understand the present. As followers of Yahusha, we are called to:
Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16)
Not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2)
Watch and pray (Luke 21:36)
Trust in Yahuah's sovereignty over history
✏️ RECALL: Practice Questions
🎯 RESPOND: Course Reflection
Answer Key
Lesson 1
1. The 95 Theses | 2. Payments to the church for forgiveness of sins | 3. William Tyndale | 4. Sunday worship, Christmas, Easter, infant baptism
Lesson 2
1. 1492 | 2. Magellan | 3. Slavery, destruction of native peoples, disease, theft of resources (any two)
Lesson 3
1. Human reason | 2. Life, liberty, and property | 3. Deism, atheism, humanism, evolution
Lesson 4
1. Declaration of Independence | 2. 1787 | 3. Examples: equality, God-given rights, religious liberty, separation of powers
Lesson 5
1. Period when revolutionaries executed thousands by guillotine (1793-94) | 2. Banned it; closed churches | 3. Napoleon
Lesson 6
1. Britain/England | 2. Child labor, long hours, pollution, loss of Sabbath, family separation (any two) | 3. Destroyed Sabbath rest and family time
Lesson 7
1. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand | 2. Alliances, imperialism, nationalism, militarism | 3. League of Nations
Lesson 8
1. 70-85 million | 2. Israel became a nation | 3. United Nations
Lesson 9
1. USA and USSR | 2. 1989 | 3. They never fought directly; war through ideology, espionage, and proxy conflicts
Lesson 10
1. Movement toward worldwide economic, political, and cultural integration | 2. Examples: EU, WTO, digital IDs, climate agreements, CBDCs | 3. Predicts a world system controlling buying and selling | 4. Be wise, don't conform, watch and pray, trust Yahuah