By the year 2019, over 25 million people took a DNA test to discover more about their roots and ancestry. They wanted to uncover the generations that came before them so they could better answer these two questions, “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from?”
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If people will do this with their earthly family and ancestry, then it is a worthwhile endeavor for Christians to do this with the family of God and our Christian ancestors. When a Christian studies church history, they are uncovering the Christian generations that came before them so they can answer the questions concerning their identity and their foundation. We may not always ask, “Who am I?” or “Where did I come from?” But we do ask questions like these:
- Why am I Baptist?
- How did Protestantism come about?
- Why do we do Sunday School?
- When did we get the English Bible?
These are just some of the questions that church history can help answer. But we need to answer this pivotal question: What is church history?
The story of the Bible is not a collection of fairytales and parables meant to convince us to live upright lives. The story of the Bible, put simply, is a historical narrative of God working to bring about salvation to the lost.
The Bible is more than history, but it certainly is not less.
We see the history of creation and the beginning of Israel in Genesis. We discover the kings and conquests in the Old Testament. We read of Jesus and His ministry in the Gospels. We find the building of the Church in Acts and the Epistles. And finally, we uncover the fulfillment of history in Revelation.
God has been at work all throughout history, and His work has continued for the last 2,000 years. Studying the history of the Church is the study of God continuing His work that began in Genesis. Church History is the study of how God has worked in the last 2,000 years of history through certain people at certain places for certain purposes.
We now see what church history is, but let’s ask one more question: What does church history do?
There are four basic applications of church history that all believers can benefit from.
1. Church history guards against errors
Looking at church history helps us guard against errors of our day. For example, some may argue that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the God of the New Testament. This may seem like a new teaching, but really it is an old Gnostic teaching that was deemed heretical in the early councils of the Church. Church history helps us see that these “new” teachings aren’t actually new at all. Ecclesiastes confirms this in 1:9, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
2. Church history is God’s work
To be clear, God works in all history because God is sovereign over all, and there is not one thing that escapes His rule (Ps. 115:3, 103:19, Isa. 46:10). However, church history is the special history of God’s work in building His Church on the rock of Christ (Matt. 16:16-18).
Since church history is God’s special work of building, encouraging, and purifying His church, it is fruitful to look back and see all that God has done. He has used many different people and things to work in His church: councils, letters, debates, missions, evangelism, discipleship, mercy-ministries, faithfulness and conviction are only a few of the ways God has continued to work in His church, and we will find all these examples throughout the study of church history.
3. Church history is a form of discipleship.
All believers need to be following the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. But, each of us should be discipled by someone else. A few years ago, I asked another believer this question, “Who helped disciple you?” The believer thought for a second, laughed, and then said, “I was discipled by dead people!” What they meant is they were discipled by people who had been dead for decades, but these people wrote books and sermons that helped disciple this believer.
By studying church history, we can be discipled by “the cloud of witnesses” who came before us and wrote books and sermons for our benefit (Heb. 12:1). People like Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Martyn-Lloyd Jones and Lottie Moon can help disciple us today when we read their writings.
4. Church history helps us understand how we got here.
When believers study church history, they are ultimately studying the timeline for how we got to where we’re at today. Church history helps us understand how we got different denominations. It helps us understand why we have so many Bible translations. It helps us understand why we have programs like Sunday School and prayer meetings. Church history informs our current day, and it gives us context for the things we do today.
History may not be the most exciting subject for you — this is true for a lot of people! But, don’t view church history as another subject from school like algebra and English composition. See church history as a discovery of your Christian ancestry as you uncover God’s work in building, encouraging and purifying His people for the last 2,000 years.
The history of the church is exciting. Not because the people are exciting, but because God’s work is exciting and full of wonder and glory.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Cameron O’Daniel and originally published by the Baptist Record.
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