Glimpses #213: What We Can Learn From Christian History; 25th Anniversary Reflections

There simply is nothing like it. There is no entity, institution, family, company, organization anywhere in the world like the church of the living God. Nothing can compare in terms of its wonder, glory, longevity, enrichment of human life, universality, concern for the downtrodden, healing, love, and as an instrument of grace and salvation. The church has accepted us as frail, fallible, sinful human beings and shown us God's love. If that is so, we can be open and honest about the church itself, including both its strengths and its weaknesses.

God works over centuries. No single person's lifetime, or any single generation, or century, sees completely what God is up to. We are often reaping from seeds sown long ago. We may be called to plant seeds for that which will be harvested long in the future. This gives us liberation from the "quick success" syndrome.

So God has more time than we would expect or perhaps want. He does not seem to be in a hurry. It appears that God will not be stampeded into a timetable that we devise. Consider, for example, expectations of the Second Coming of Jesus. His return was predicted in the New Testament. Indeed, it was set forth in such a way that Christ's return could occur in any generation at any time, but none could presume to set the date. In addition, when the Second Coming was set forth in Scripture, it almost always was to make the point of watchfulness and holy living—not as an astrology chart. But Bishop Ambrose (339-397) was sure the Goths were Gog of Ezekiel 38. Martin of Tours in late 4th century warned that "There is no doubt that the Anti-Christ has already been born. Firmly established in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity achieve supreme power." As the year 1000 approached, many were sure it would mean the end of the world. Martin Luther expected the end in his own lifetime. And we are all familiar with the popular end times speculations that are constantly marketed to believers. But if our history teaches us anything, it is to be prepared at any time, but work for the long haul.

The very presence of a vital spiritual church inevitably evokes opposition. Attacks will come in various forms, from outright persecution, to misunderstanding, or deliberate distortion, and false accusation. Faithful Christianity is a challenge to the anti-God spirit of the world. A vital church represents much the world represses and hates. The faithful church will always be contrary to the spirit of the age. At its best the church is a people who say that its own self-interest is not paramount, that they are accountable for how they live, that we are all guests on this earth and the world, its beauty, resources and future belong to the Lord who has claims on our lives. Such an outlook is going to provoke a reaction!

When the church appears vulnerable and weak, it may be at its strongest. When it appears strong and powerful, it may be at its weakest. On February 23, 303, at the festival of the God "Terminus," the Roman Emperor Diocletian began the "Great Persecution." His goal was to exterminate the church from the face of the earth. It seemed as though the very survival of the church was at stake, having the power of the mighty Roman empire arrayed against it. But within ten years, the edict of Milan in 313 made the church legal. Soon after that, the church began to receive special favors. The pressure was off. After the external threat was removed, within twenty years new and insidious threats arose from within. During the Arian controversy over the doctrine of Christ there were riots in the streets, excommunications, exiles, and murders. This went on for decades. There were fights over purity. The Donatists would not accept those back into the church who had buckled earlier under the persecution. For generations there were acrimonious internal divisions. Many of these were centered in North Africa, a vital stronghold of the early church, but a region where the injured and divided church later crumbled before the advance of Islam.

Neglected areas in sound doctrine and Christian living will produce reactions, correctives. When the church became socially acceptable and worldly, then monasticism arose as an alternative and a protest. When the church loved wealth and neglected the poor, St. Francis made poverty a sign of leadership and faithfulness. Adventists arose to address the neglect of teaching on the Lord's return. The Holy Spirit was neglected and Pentecostals come forth. When the body of Christ became politicized and seen as a form of citizenship and everyone automatically was baptized, then Anabaptists and Baptists came forth espousing a church of the redeemed and advocating "believers' baptism." Such movements often exaggerate their point in order to be heard.

Many of God's most blessed and gifted servants did not really get to do what they thought they most wanted to do. Augustine and Luther wanted the quiet life of the monastery. Calvin wanted the quiet life of an academic. But they were all thrust into some demanding, combative, political and public arena. Their talents were exercised, but not in the way and places they expected. Perhaps it is not all that important that we get what we think we want.

Some of the most influential leadership has been exercised from confinement in prison. Think of Paul's epistles, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison, and M. L. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Alexander Solzhenitsyn went to prison a loyal communist and came out a committed Christian. He wrote in Gulag Archipelago, "I nourished my soul there and I can say without hesitation, 'Bless you prison, for having been my life.'"

The Dark Night of the Soul is not a disease. Look deep enough and you will inevitably find that the choicest servants of God have been prepared through the fires of affliction and the "dark night" of the soul. If we could just prepare ourselves ahead of time to realize that when the darkeness overcomes us, it is not a curse. It is a precursor (one that runs before.)

The church itself produces some of its most virulent opponents. Julian "The Apostate" (332-363), a Roman emperor who boldly thought to become a new Alexander the Great, tried to reverse the accepance of Christianity. He was brought up as a Christian. His uncle was Constantine. One of his best boyhood friends was the great Cappadocian Saint Basil, whom he asked to join his administration. The nihilistic philosopher Nietzche was son of a Lutheran pastor and his mother was a devout Christian. Stalin was a former seminary student. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, son of a Methodist pastor.

Our fractious family. We look around and see literally thousands of Christian denominations. One could easily conclude that Christians are a divisive, conflict-ridden people. Yet when we look at all the minor rivulets and major streams over the course of Christian history, as well as the church today, practically all affirm the great teachings of the faith as historically summarized, for example, in the Apostles Creed. Perhaps a wonder even greater than the countless divisions is the amazing unity that Christians do share on such essentials.

As a young Christian, I was always fascinated with how God works in the world. How has he worked through the church since the end of the Biblical era? How does God work through a church that is so obviously flawed, human, and prone to infidelity?

Through circumstances I could only interpret as providential, I found myself head of a Christian media company some 35 years ago. Our little team felt led to tell stories of our Christian heritage. Some Christian leaders warned us we would fall on our faces, as people have about as much interest in Christian history as they do in going to the dentist for a root canal.

We sensed this was a calling and began providing Christian history films. We needed to supplement with study resource materials. Thus, 25 years ago, late in 1982, Christian History Institute was formed to research and publish study materials. We began with a simple 16-page mimeographed guide for a film on Jan Hus. Next, for a film on Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, we developed the guide into a magazine format and called it Christian History magazine. The format worked well, so we used it again for our next film on John Wycliffe. Response was even greater.

We had stumbled across a resource deserving a life of its own, and Christian History magazine began to be published out of our office as a regular, stand-alone quarterly. We had no full-time staff and needed more experienced guidance, so an agreement was made for it to be taken over by Christianity Today. Our institute now continues its publishing efforts with Glimpses (now 18 years old), Glimpses for Kids, our Torchlighter animated video series for children, study guides, and curriculum resources. You'll learn about all these and more on our popular history website, www.chinstitute.org.

Christian History: Stimulant or Sedative?
While I was teaching a seminary church history course, a fascinating pair of events occurred when students gave reports on a figure from church history they had chosen. An African-American student reported on former slave Richard Allen (1760-1831), who became founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The young man began his report but soon broke down weeping in front of the class, unable to continue. He was embarrassed, apologized and then explained that he was overcome because it meant so much to him to discover another African-American in American church history that he could identify with and see as a model and hero. To see how God had used Richard Allen years earlier was the stimulant he needed to move forward in ministry, assured that God could use him, too.

Then another student took his turn and said he too had been moved by the hero he had chosen for his research. He had studied William Carey, the great missionary pioneer. He saw that Carey went into India in 1792, lived under severe conditions and did not see one convert his first seven years. Our young man told how he had been feeling depressed because his ministry did not seem to be bearing fruit. He held the rapt attention of the class as he said how in studying Carey he had learned how to relax. He did not have to panic when he found little immediate success. If God was doing a solid work through him, then God would do it in His way, on His timetable.

For the first, Christian history became a stimulant to move ahead with confidence. For the second, history helped calm him down and taught him to relax.

©2007 by Christian History Institute, Box 540, Worcester, PA 19490. Tel.: 610-584-3500, Fax: 610-584-6643, E-mail: glimpses@chinstitute.org, Web: http://www.chinstitute.org. Prepared by Ken Curtis, Ph.D. Photo credits: CHI Archives.

Created July, 2007.