Short Lessons From Church History

The people of Geneva, Switzerland summarized their impact in a Latin phrase that they posted all across their city: Every true progress in church history is conditioned by a new and deeper study of the Scriptures. As the Scriptures were studied deeply, the church began to make progress. The deadness that had consumed it during the Middle Ages was replaced by a life and vitality that could be seen and felt and heard. People read about Jesus Christ in the Bible and were changed. They learned that salvation was not by legalism but by grace.

They realized that the Catholic Church was not the only one who could give an authentic interpretation to the Scriptures. They could interpret the Bible for themselves. Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scripture. The Word did it all. Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the word of God. Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the word of God.

The scripture is a light and sheweth us the true way, both what to do and what to hope. And a defence from all error, and a comfort in adversity that we despair not. All of the Reformers taught the Bible. Luther translated it into German. Tyndale translated it into English. Luther and Calvin wrote commentaries on it, as did many others. Since it was not translated into French yet, Calvin took the Greek and Hebrew Bible with him into the pulpit and translated on the spot.

As he did that, he preached Sunday mornings on the New Testament, Sunday afternoons on the New Testament or the Psalms, and every morning of the week, every other week on a book from the Old Testament. He preached hundreds of sermons each year. He also led a college to train pastors and wrote the first systematic theology of the church: The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Fast-forward a couple of centuries and we find ourselves at the time of the Civil War in America.

A lot happened between that event and the Reformation. For one thing, the First and Second Great Awakenings occurred. For another, the church was blessed immensely by several shining stars such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley. Denominations sprung up such as the Baptists, Methodists, and Church of Christ.

And the United States of America was born. In , the new country officially separated from England and in , it was at war with itself and placing the church right in the middle of the conflict. In the words of Charles Reagan Wilson:. Southerners interpreted the Civil War as demonstrating the height of Southern virtue, as a moral-religious crusade against the atheistic North. In light of defeat, the ministers cautioned against decline. A major theme of the Lost Cause. In addition to warning Southerners of their own decline, [ministers] cautioned Southerners to learn from the evil North.

For many, salvation no longer became a spiritual issue but a geographical one. It did not have to do with faith as much as it had to do with heritage. If you grew up a Confederate, you were virtuous or saved. And that explains our current situation today. Many Southerners still feel that way about salvation. They still believe they are going to Heaven because they were born that way. It is their birthright. They grew up in the Promise Land and, therefore, they will enter glory. Those ideas have their roots in the Civil War. Everything just happens naturally.

God did not supernaturally create the universe or supernaturally do anything in history.

Some Lessons From Church History : Christian Courier

He just sat up in the heavens and watched. Soon the churches took this to mean that all of the miracles in the Bible are made up. They embraced a downgrade approach to theology. We are told that we ought to give up a part of our old-fashioned theology to save the rest. We are in a carriage travelling over the steppes of Russia. The horses are being driven furiously, but the wolves are close upon us! Can you not see their eyes of fire?

The danger is pressing. What must we do?

It is proposed that we throw out a child or two. By the time they have eaten the baby, we shall have made a little headway; but should they again overtake us, what then? Why brave man, throw out your wife! Give up nearly every truth in hope of saving one. Throw out natural depravity, eternal punishment, and the efficacy of prayer.

Brethren, this advice is villainous, and murderous; we will escape these wolves with everything, or we will be lost with everything. We will never attempt to save half the truth by casting any part of it away. Spurgeon said that you cannot throw out one doctrine in the Bible. You have to throw out all of them. To capitulate to the latest findings of science is to travel to your doom on a downgrade. All of this is to reiterate that church history explains our current situation.

Ministers in England are still taking a downgrade approach to theology. So are ministers in America and all across the world. They are still throwing out every doctrine that does not agree with science. Church history also provides us with a warning. Jesus said in Matthew 7: They will profess Him with their lips and end up in Hell. Church history has proven time and time again that there will be false professors in the church. For years, Princeton had been wavering over what to do with the miracles in the Bible. The heresies that Spurgeon denounced were being propagated by every school in the Ivy League and Princeton was caving.

Gresham Machen denounced it. He said it was hypocritical to call yourself a Christian and embrace Liberalism. In his own words: Why was this necessary? Why were seminary professors redefining biblical terms? Why were church authorities defrocking a man who taught the truth? Because there are hypocrites in the church. The faculty at Princeton and the leaders of the Presbyterian Church USA had abandoned the teachings of Scripture and, therefore, they needed to be rebuked.

Gresham Machen did that as he would later write:. Men tell us that our preaching should be positive and not negative, that we can preach the truth without attacking error. But if we follow that advice we shall have to close our Bible and desert its teachings.

The New Testament is a polemic book almost from beginning to end. Every great Christian utterance, it may almost be said, is born in controversy. It is when men have felt compelled to take a stand against error that they have risen to the really great heights in the celebration of truth. If we are to follow the example of the New Testament, we will take a stand against error. We will heed the warnings of Machen and refute bad doctrine. We will also keep in mind one more lesson from history. Church history reminds us that we are not alone.

It reminds us that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the saints who have come before us. As the well-known hymn puts it:. Like a mighty army moves the church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. As the era of Machen was drawing to a close, a tall preacher from North Carolina made a name for himself by preaching a biblical message while, at the same time, partnering with Liberals.

His name was Billy Graham. Their hearts did not change. There were no evidences of salvation in their lives. Yet they claimed to be Christians.

Church attendance exploded

All of this is to say that we are not alone in our struggles today. Whatever we are going through, someone else has gone through before us. There is still a temptation to compromise. There is still an enticement to loosen up our stance on the truth. All of us have been accused of being too much like J.

Gresham Machen and not enough like Billy Graham. But there is no need to give in. Faithful men have walked in our shoes and God has been faithful to them. In fact, we have a great cloud of witnesses who attest to this as the author of Hebrews says:. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses. That passage comes at the end of the great Hall of Faith in Hebrews So the author is telling us that, as we think of men like Abraham and Moses and Gideon and Barack and Samson, we should lay aside every encumbrance. We should run the race that is set before us.

We should stand fast for the truth! The lessons of church history are endless. An article like this one could go on forever and say so much more but it has to stop somewhere. So let us stop by saying that there is no reason for Christians to forget church history. There is no reason to suffer from historical amnesia. We have so much to learn from it and so many blessings to receive. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel. When Joshua and his generation died, a generation arose who did not know the Lord. They did not remember the Exodus and all the Lord had done. They forgot their history.

Maybe they forgot because they did not have access to the Internet. Maybe it was because they did not have enough books. Maybe it was because they could not get Wi-Fi out in the Promise Land. Or maybe they were just lazy.

Six Lessons Christians Must Learn From Church History

Whatever the case, we cannot use those excuses. There are more church history books and websites now than there have ever been. We need to make sure that there is not a generation after us that does not know the Lord. Contact Store Resources About. It has other benefits as well. History instructs us and gives us encouragement. It teaches us the lesson of perseverance.

About Church History For Kids

Yet, so many Christians forget to as Bruce Shelley writes: Sparrows do not even fall to the ground apart from the hand of God. False teaching must be challenged in order to preserve the true faith. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. Thus the Christian Church was joined to the power of the state and assumed a moral responsibility for the whole society.

This ensured protection of the Church against Islamic incursions. In the end the crusades were a dismal failure as they did not dislodge Islam from Jerusalem and led to further division with the Christian Church. During the Middle Ages conflicts continually arose over the power being wielded by both the Church and the State.

Jesus never required faith in Him to be forced on anyone. He came to save us from our sin and today still invites people to let Him change their hearts one by one. Because of this conflict between and within the Church and State in the Middle Ages, many voices began to speak out against the power and corruption of the Church.

Chief among them was a German monk named Martin Luther. He published his 95 theses or statements for debate on the door of the Catholic Church at Wittenberg, Germany in that challenged papal authority. He was ex-communicated from the Catholic Church for his refusal to recant his statements. This led to the Reformation and the formation of several new church bodies that separated from the Catholic Church in protest. At issue was whether or not authority came from the Bible or from the Pope.

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But are Christianity and science mutually exclusive? Science has never been able to repudiate one fact of the Bible. On the contrary, science continues to affirm the facts of the Bible, especially in the field of archeology. To me, science is simply discovering what God already created. Science has not refuted the Bible, it has confirmed it! As the world progressed in its knowledge of science and technology, liberalism invaded universities which were Bible based at the time and the Church. They believed that truth must pass the test of human reason. Consequently, universities abandoned the Bible and liberal theology in the Christian Church began to grow.

Today it manifests itself in prosperity theology, acceptance of homosexuality, and other false teachings that go beyond or outside of Scripture. These are all an attempt to make God subject to our intellect rather than adhere to His teaching as found in His Holy Word. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. As we look back on the history of the Christian Church, we see that many of the issues the Church faces today are not new, but have existed for ages church vs.

The above lessons remind us that the Christian faith, unlike every other religion, is not based upon a set of rules requiring strict adherence.

• Church History For Kids.
• Lesson 9: The Study of the Church | www.newyorkethnicfood.com.
• Some Lessons from Church History.

But rather it is based on the fact that God appeared as a man in Jesus Christ, who suffered and died on a cross to redeem mankind and pay the price for all sin, and who made a way for the human race to live with their Creator forever.