The Study of History and the Vitality of the Church

It is my firm conviction that the Christian faith is inherently historical. Christians are nothing if they do not grasp history. Why is this? First and foremost, Christians believe in the very historical bodily resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15). If we do not believe in this historical event, we have abandoned the core tenet of what defines the Christian faith.

In addition to this, Christians find in the New Testament that the Apostles make continual appeal to historical realities. Peter, in his first sermon in Acts 2, includes an overview of the history of Israel to explain what the events of Pentecost mean. Paul appeals to the historical events of the covenants made between God and Abraham and between God and Israel in Galatians 3-4 to explain the nuances of how God provides salvation through Christ. Perhaps it would even be worth noting that the majority of the books that God inspired to be included in the Canon of Christian Scripture record history. Genesis-Nehemiah is an account of the history of Israel. One cannot really understand the prophetical books without knowing the historical background. The first five books of the New Testament are historical records of events that happened during and just after the life of Christ Jesus.

It seems that to believe the Bible means that we must take history seriously. This leads to my main consideration here, that is, why should Christians study history? This question is incredibly important to me as I prepare to embark on PhD studies in history. I hope my initial thoughts above show the reasons why it is important to be concerned with history to some degree, but it may occur to some that all of my above examples are about biblical history. There are likely few Christians who would question the value of studying the history books included in the Bible, simply because they are biblical books. What about studying history that comes much after the biblical records? Why is the study of history important when the history in question is what happened in the 4th century, the 10th century, or in my case the 17th century?

The first reason I have that the study of history is important for Christians is also biblical. In Matthew 28:16-20, Christ promises to always be with His church as they carry out their task of spreading the gospel. I understand this to be connected to the promises in John 14:16-28 that the Holy Spirit will be sent to teach and lead the church. In the book of Acts, we have concrete examples of how the Spirit taught and lead the church just after the Ascension of Christ. All of this means that God does not abandon His church or leave us to our own devices. The study of history, particularly the study of church history, is simply studying the ways that God has been at work in His people through the Holy Spirit since Christ ascended back into heaven. Acts is an infallible record of the things that Christ continued to do through His church (Acts 1:1-2), and albeit fallible, our study of history is still the study of things Christ continues to do in His church.

The next reason I have for studying history is that the theme of the people of God is an incredibly important one in Scripture. As we study history, we are connecting ourselves to God’s people in ages past. We seek to know God’s people in this age by fellowshipping in the church each Lord’s Day, but we come to know God’s people of the past by reading what they wrote and thinking on the things they did. We are linked to the church of past ages.

The last reason for studying history is that reading what other people have said about the Bible helps us understand the Bible better. When we read theologians of ages past, we learn more about what the Scripture teaches. The reason why it is important to read theologians of the past, not just modern interpreters of Scripture, is because they can have insights that we do not have. There are two ways we gain from their insights. One way, and maybe the most important, is that biblical thinkers from the past do not face the same issues that we face. When they write about the topics and issues that we face, they do so without being burdened by the same debates and tensions that we have when we approach Scripture. Certainly they make mistakes about what the Bible teaches, but they do not make the same mistakes that we makes. Reading what they have to say can give us some perspective on our own mistakes and clarify our thinking.

The second way we gain from their insight is that they had a different intellectual apparatus than we do. They used different techniques and tools to read and exegete biblical texts than we do, which means it is likely that they notice different things in the text than we do. We should not think that we can see everything in the text because we are modern readers. This would be what C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery.” They certainly see things in Scripture we miss and we should make use of their insights.

As I think on these aspects of studying history, it encourages me to be excited about knowing more about what God has done in the past and seeing what other Christians have learned from Scripture. I hope you also will be more excited to know more about the history of God’s church.