Seven Reasons To Study Church History

I've been a fan and proponent of the study of church history most of my life- even taught a class in the subject 26 years ago. Therefore, I was glad to see this post at Tim Challies' blog, Seven Reasons To Study the Church's Past. Tim Says:

As I’ve read about the first-century church, I’ve been struck by the blessedness of living in this generation—our generation. As I study the very early Christians I begin to see again just what a legacy we have as Christ followers. The faith as we know it today was not simply handed to us, but was painstakingly developed over hundreds and thousands of years. The Scriptures have been closely studied through all of those years and the general pattern has been incremental steps forward and often large steps backward. Sometimes God sees fit to allow the church to take a giant step forward, as in the days of the Reformation, but more often the church has slowly and deliberately developed doctrine that accords to Scripture. Today we have unprecedented access to the Scripture and to resources dealing with the Bible. For this we ought to be profoundly grateful.

The seven reasons to study church history Tim presents are:

1. God Tells Us To
2. To Understand Today
3. To Understand Tomorrow
4. To Understand Providence
5. To Understand Error
6. To Understand People
7. To Understand Endurance

Every believer should have at least some knowledge of the history of the church. Irenaeus, Augustine, Athanasius, Boniface, Benedict, Francis, Hus, Wycliffe, Luther, Wesley and Spurgeon are part of the heritage of us all. Let's get better acquainted!

Speaking of Christian History, Ben Witherington has been traveling in Turkey and posting some great pictures of early Christian sites. Wednesday he had photos of the Church of St. Nicholas at Pirene here. Earlier he posted lovely pictures of Nicea, site of the first great Ecumenical Council in 325 AD.

Update: See Article at The Christian Century on the abysmal ignorance of church history among American Christians.