Do you like History?⤒🔗

When I was little, I loved history, but hated history class. I know that sounds strange, but some of you know what I mean. There is a big difference between actually learning from history (which I loved) and all of the classroom work of memorising dates (which I despised!). I am still bad with dates, but I love learn­ing about the people and events of the past more than ever. Edmund Burke is quoted as saying: “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” The more I learn history, the more con­vinced I am that Burke was right! History is vitally important if we want to serve God wisely in this life. God teaches us that fact in Psalm 78.

Psalm 78 is a maskil of Asaph. Maskil is related to the word “instruction”, and so it is thought that this title means the psalm was intended to teach a lesson. Psalm 78 is an excellent example of this type of psalm, because it begins with a note about teaching. As you can see in verses 1-2, Asaph wrote this psalm to teach the reader/listener by “speaking in parables” and uttering hidden “things from of old.” He wants us to learn something from the past ... particular­ly the history of how God has worked and done marvellous deeds in previous generations (see vs. 4). Asaph goes on to tell us that God decreed laws for the people of Israel to teach their children, so that each generation would teach the next about God’s Law and His deeds (vs. 7). Now if we talk about God’s deeds, about what are we talking? We are talking about history! Here Asaph is explaining that it is important for God’s people to teach their children about God’s Law/Word, but it is also equally important for them to teach their children about history and God’s mighty deeds in the past. I love that old wordplay – history is HIS Story – God’s Story of His power and faithfulness! And if we don’t learn those lessons of God’s power and faithfulness from the past, then we might have to learn them the hard way: by repeating the mistakes of the past and suffering the consequences. Read through the whole of Psalm 78 sometime soon, and learn from the mistakes you read there – for we still forget God, grumble when things go wrong, get greedy for some­thing better, and put God to the test by our faithlessness.

History is vital for your Christian walk, and mine. There are more lessons to be learned than you might at first realise. You can learn about God’s power to save and provide, and you can learn about sins to avoid. But that isn’t the sum of it. You can also learn about things that God’s people have done right, which are worth copying. You can learn more about what churches have done right/ wrong to spread the gospel: worship practices, leadership styles, outreach philosophies, and missions projects. And the more you learn of the church of the past, the more comfortable and content you will be in the Reformed Church in particular!

In Robert Godfrey’s book An Unex­pected Journey, he writes of how God brought him to the Reformed Faith. Dr. Godfrey had an early interest in history which God used to confirm his growing Reformed convictions. And church history played a similar role in confirming my faith as well. My father was a Reformed/Presbyterian minister in the States, and I grew up being taught the Westminster Confession. However, I also attended a Dispensationalist Baptist school. I was one of only half a dozen Reformed/Presbyterian children at the school amongst hundreds (including the entire faculty). I was often pressed about my beliefs and had to really grapple with what I believed vs. what my friends and classmates believed. It led me to history – to search out from where different ideas and theologies had come ... and that strengthened me in the foundations of the Reformed faith. These were not new ideas; they were ancient, they were true ... I realised that I wasn’t part of some novel system of belief. I believed the genuine biblical truth as it was passed down through the early church fathers and restored to its glory again by the Reformers of the Protestant Reformation.

Reading church history confirmed this for me, and can do the same for you. It is important to be forearmed against her­esies and lies which have already been condemned in the past. I am sure many of you have heard before that modern day Mormonism is just a repackaging of the ancient Arian and Manichean her­esies.¹ Jehovah’s Witnesses represent the ancient heresies of Gnosticism and Ari­anism.² The modern Pentecostal, Char­ismatic, and New Apostolic movements are all related to the ancient heresy of Montanism. This last one is probably the one most pertinent for us ... Mon­tanus was a recent convert who began to prophesy in the second century A.D. – supposedly from the Holy Spirit. Those that followed Montanus believed that these new revelations superseded the Scriptures, and so new revelations could lead to all sorts of strange things. This sounds strikingly similar to a lot of Charismatic churches today! The ancient church eventually rejected this false the­ology and the practice of seeking ecstatic visions/miracles because of their destruc­tive effects ... it would do the modern church good to learn the same lesson.

Too often, we can look around at other churches and see them thriving and growing – and we can become envious. We start to question why we do things “the Reformed way” instead of like these other churches. We can easily look at these sincere brothers and sisters in Christ and ask, “Why can’t we be like that?” And if you don’t know your Bible, or your Church history, you might be led astray from that which is true and biblical. Now, please hear me on this – I am NOT saying that only Reformed Churches are true churches. I am not saying that if you aren’t Reformed then you aren’t Christian. I am not saying that! Rather, what I am saying is that there are movements in other churches that are founded on ungodly ideas. Some of these ideas have been recognised as false and condemned as heresies for hundreds of years. Forewarned is forearmed. If you learn from church history, you might be spared a lot of heartache and trouble by not repeating the mistakes of the past!

So, what do you do, if you agree with me? Where do you start? I have recently purchased a number of beginners books for Church History to review and recommend to members of the Nelson congregation. The first set that I purchased (which I haven’t finished reading yet) is How to Read Church History Volumes 1 and 2 by Jean Comby. I have read good things about it. Some other very accessible places to start are introductions to church history, such as Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley or Church History Made Easy by Timothy Paul Jones. With any book apart from the Bible, you need to read with discernment. These books were well-reviewed online, but each had its particular weaknesses. The key here is that after you read one of these histories, you then must strive to connect that history with God’s Word. Comparing God’s commands to the successes and failures of our fathers in the faith can help you learn a lot of lessons the easy way. Such lessons are a major part of growing to maturity in the faith! So get reading!