“the true interpretation of history” (thought for Easter)

"Because of his resurrection faith, the Christian will expect and will find that defeat is turned into victory; that even in the midst of the triumph of human blindness and wickedness, evidences will be continually forthcoming – manifest to eyes of faith – of the victory of God. ‘Manifest to eyes of faith.’ Like the resurrection itself, these evidences of God’s victory in the life of the world will be – not ‘facts’ which could be demonstrated irresistibly to any person irrespective of his personal judgment – but confirmations of that judgment of faith which recognizes in the resurrection of Jesus the decisive act of God. The claim that Jesus is final is the claim that at the end of the story this judgment will be seen to be the true judgment, the true interpretation of history, and the action arising out of commitment to that judgment to be the ultimately significant action."

(Lesslie Newbigin, The Finality of Christ (1969). Extract quoted from Lesslie Newbigin, Missionary Theologian: A Reader, introduced and compiled by Paul Weston (London: SPCK, 2006), p. 65)