Reading church history has never seemed to be a very profitable exercise. With long books, boring repetition of dates, and a myriad of names that one can hardly remember. All of the former complaints can be chalked up to grumbling and shear ignorance. Recently studying CH has been very gratifying. Dates are still hard to remember; names are less difficult to recall; all in all CH has become a humbling exercise.
Church History as a whole gives us an overall ebb and flow that has led the modern church to its current location. Making the statement, "All things are common to all men," much more meaningful. In the recorded pages of history one sees struggles, fights, and victories much like in our day and age. We can only imagine all that has transpired in the pages of history that have never been written. History reveals how men erred in their ways and how men succeeded. Often appearing that the error suffered was due to wrong headed thinking, while others erred out of a sincere desire to bring themselves and their fellow man out of what appeared to be terrible wrongs.
Mostly this is humbling as it becomes quite obvious that anything suffered has already been suffered. There is nothing that men have not already experienced. Battles being fought today are unique to those who are fighting them. Even so, we must recognize that we are not, nor have we been alone in what we face. There is nothing new under the sun. Solomon does an excellent job of conveying that in Ecclesiastes. Also humbling is that any movement, awakening, or revival only comes about by the movement of the Spirit and not by the plans of men. We cannot conjure up methods or any other voodoo, (yes I'm calling the methodological mayhem of today voodoo!), to accomplish the purpose of God. He will move amongst his people.
Reading the very truth laid out in the pages of history, that God will move among his people, and there is nothing new under the sun is also a great comfort. Comfort comes in the confidence that God's purposes will come about and He will be glorified. Comfort is gained when we accomplish our chief purpose, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."
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So I have never read much CH, but I desire to. One thing I have been learning these past few weeks has been in the area of new things. We are always trying to do new things that get peoples attention. I am not against trying new things. I am for making as many mistakes as I must in order to share the Gospel with people. However, it is the Gospel that changes people, not the "new thing". Solomon is a steady reminder for me that everything I try, has been tried at one time or another. The only factor that is constant is that it is that the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation. In his book, "don't waste your life" Piper gives a testimony about the impact C.S. Lewis had on his life. He said,
"he (Lewis) showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the ages. To this day I get most of my soul-food from centuries ago."
Thanks Brian. Good blog
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