Why Study Church History?

Why study church history?

Church history helps us understand what we believe

If you enter a Protestant church anywhere in the world, you will be greeted with a service that is similar to any other one you have previously attended. There will be differences of style, but you could expect an opening prayer, a time of singing, an offering, and preaching. Often times these will be in a similar order. Nowhere in the Bible is given a list of how to hold a church service, so how have we universally adopted a similar form?

It is because much of what we do and believe as Christians has been shaped by over two-thousand years of tradition, though often we don't recognize it. "Tradition" is often considered a bad thing in Protestant churches. We like to believe we are doing things exactly like Paul and the other apostles did in the New Testament, but nowhere in the Bible do we see that Paul wore a suit and tie to church on Sundays (in fact, Sunday being designated as the official day of Christian worship comes from tradition and not the Bible).

The tradition of the church can be a good thing. Many people have studied the Bible, prayed, and discussed many doctrines and ideas about how the church should live. We do not have to "recreate the wheel," and study all these subjects ourselves, but we can learn from what these people have passed down to us through tradition. We do not believe that tradition is better than Scripture, but we believe that tradition can help us understand the Bible.

If we study the history of the church, we will understand much about how this tradition came to be. Whether we study history or not, we will be influenced by history. The influence will come from the culture around us, conclusions we subconsciously arrive at, and the stories that are told to us. The danger is that without making a conscious study of how we came to be, we can easily arrive at the wrong conclusions.

To build up our faith

The study of church history gives us an appreciation of our heritage. Many men and woman have paid the price of their lives to carry this Gospel message. The Gospel has been preached through much difficulty and hardship.

Learn of the mighty revivals of the church

There have been some great manifestations of God's power throughout the course of the history of the Church. The same Holy Ghost that moved in those revivals is the same Holy Ghost that will move today.

You can see that God's hand has always been on His church

The repeat of history

The writer of Ecclesiastes said "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecc. 1:9). History comes in cycles. By studying the past we can learn about the present. We can learn from the mistakes and successes of others. God is no respecter of persons. What God has performed for past generations He can do for our generation if we obey Him as they did.

Romans 2:11—For there is no respect of persons with God.

We can learn from the successes and mistakes of those that have lived before us.

God does not change

God deals with all men equally in all ages and at all times. How God dealt with men in times past is how He will still deal with men today. God has always required that men live a holy life and he has not changed that standard today.

God uses ordinary people

The God that used Peter, and James, and John is the same God that will use you. God uses ordinary people just like you.

To enrich the knowledge of the minister

A minister of the Gospel should not be ignorant of the rich history of the Church.