Theology Thursday: What We Learn From Church History
Our new series in church history began this past week. The best way to get the most from this series would be to do supplementary reading during the week. We’re covering a lot of ground in a short amount of time, but you can add to our “big picture” format by studying more in depth about pivotal people and events.
Certainly one of the most critical times in our history is the long battle against the Arians, or those who denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ. The main contender in the struggle was a bishop from Alexandria, Athanasius. The struggle was more than a heated battle of public opinion: Athanasius was living in exile or on the brink of death throughout his life. His courage is remembered with the phrase “Athanasius contra Mundum,” which means “Athanasius against the world.”
Defending and explaining doctrine is for the sake of the gospel of Christ’s glory and our everlasting joy.
Joyful courage is the calling of a faithful shepherd.
Loving Christ includes loving true propositions about Christ.
The truth of biblical language must be vigorously protected with non-biblical language.
A widespread and long-held doctrinal difference among Christians does not mean that the difference is insignificant or that we should not seek to persuade toward the truth and seek agreement.
Don’t aim to preach only in categories of thought that can be readily understood by this generation. Aim at creating biblical categories of thought that are not present.
Finally, we must not assume that old books, which say some startling things, are necessarily wrong, but may in fact have something glorious to teach us that we never dreamed.
This lecture is available as audio as well as text, and is well worth your time. As you can see from just the life of one man, there is wisdom to be gained from church history, but we have to do the hard work of digging and seeking for it.