Introduction

I'm going to be studying Reformation and modern church history, and I would ask that you turn to the syllabus and Let me explain just a little bit in addition to what's written there How this course will be structured and particularly what you will be doing read through the objectives and the methods and themes There are three textbooks that you will need One, of course, is the rather hefty syllabus, which I hope you've been able to acquire and The tags by Gonzales and the second tags by pleasure

One of the assignments that you will be doing this semester is a denominational paper Or a timeline notice that not both, but one or the other

The denominational paper is a history of Your denomination I do require this for students in the PCA or in other Presbyterian and reformed churches who are anticipating ordination You know it you think you'll be facing ordination exam someday and If you are in that category then you must do the denomination paper That's because many of the questions that you'll be asked will have to do with the history of For instance the PCA that denominational paper is open to all students and You write on your own denomination whether it's presbyterian or southern Baptist or assembly of God Unless you want to write on some other denomination But if you are anticipating ordination, please remember that you must do the denomination paper that paper should begin at the reformation And take the history of the church that you are connected with up to the present Now you don't have to start earlier than the reformation Frank Smith in his history of the Presbyterian Church in America says the PCA began in the eternal decrees of God You don't have to go back that far To start at the reformation and draw out the reformation history or the reformation routes Every denomination will have some connection with the reformation and then develop the paper As flowing out of the reformation and Bringing the history of your church up to date if you are not doing a Denonination paper you may do a timeline And I explain something about the timelines in the syllabus I do have a little sentence they are saying Be as creative as you wish in producing your timeline And some students have taken me up on that Last semester I received a timeline that looked like this Ancient and medieval church history With a lot of pictures and dates even a Church history pig Down here And that's the latest in timeline where

And some other interesting timelines somebody produced the ancient and medieval church history monopoly game That I enjoyed playing It came with two Strong recommendations one from climate of Alexandria Who said it would be difficult to conceive of a more carefully constructed board game

And even Athanasius was impressed this is simply the best board game I've ever played

And some other things say timeline mug so that When you're drinking whatever you're drinking in this mug You can see that the edict of Milan was in the year 313 And that The second council of Nicelya took place in 787 It's amazing how many dates appear on that mug So if you're doing a timeline you can do a more conventional type you don't have to do something quite as unusual as these but It might give you a chance to be a bit Creative in this assignment not all seminary assignments are open-ended like this So this is your chance if you want to do something a little bit different There will be two exams one will cover part one the Reformation the second will cover parts two and three Now I recognize that The information Really piles up my lectures that big syllabus The two textbooks it's just no way to learn church history without doing a lot of reading dates are important events names of people And all of that becomes after a while a bit overwhelming So to try to bring some limits to What you need to Learn for the exams. I have created what I call the 100 most important things And you'll see in the syllabus a list of 100 Topics or questions I would suggest that you prepare a notebook as you go along with good brief but but Accurate answers to all of these questions and the two exams the exams will come from These 100 most important things Some of the exam questions will be asked exactly as the question appears or the assignment appears in the list Others will Involve the information that should appear and a good answer to these questions, but will not be asked exactly the same way But that's what you need to know 100 things not one thousand or five thousand but just one hundred You'll be surprised though how much you'll have to learn In those 100 Topics much of the information For the answers to these 100 topics will come from your reading in the two text and the syllabus and my lectures But you may need from time to time to look elsewhere and I have included in the syllabus A list of resources that can be used for Answering these questions There's a note on grading on page 13 roman new rule 13 in the syllabus and then the lecture and reading schedule For campus students for this class taught on campus we will do one lecture per day So you can Look at the schedule and know what's coming Extension classes generally do two or three lectures each time the class meets And that can be determined in the extension sites

So that goes through the introductory material That's what we're going to do and that's how we're going to do it And I think I know what I'm supposed to do and I hope you know what you're supposed to do But read through that early material in the syllabus with some care And I think it will be clear as to how the course will unfold I'd like to come down to lecture number one Which is an introductory lecture on Reformation and modern church history Each of these lectures will be headed by what I call a word of that history quotation from somebody about something having to do with history I usually try to link that quotation with the topic that we're going to be discussing in the lecture This one actually comes from Alice in Wonderland Looking through the looking glass and it's a quotation from the queen in that story But it has something to do with history So read those quotations just to alert us to some of the challenges and The important matters related to the whole study of history I attempt to Find a title for each lecture a little bit like a sermon title to Put in concentrated form what is coming and in a more attractive form than simply saying we're going to study Martin Luther or something like this This title is a long preface Introduction to Reformation and modern church history that long preface means a long preface to our lives as we are Looking in this study of history for the background context In which we have come to be Christians and this then represents something of our own stories I'll choose a scripture text for each of the lectures a text that is in some way relevant to the topic under discussion In this first lecture there are three texts Hebrews 12-1 And Isaiah 40 verse 8. I'll end the lectures with one of these two texts rather than saying I'm finished you can go now I'll say something like therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us I'll use those particularly when we're studying somebody that we really admire And as we see the examples of great Christians in the past We should go out reminded of the fact that we have a race to run too Not all the lectures will have that Outlook because Some things we'll have to study will be sad times when the church has veered away from the truth of the gospel times when culture has impacted Christianity in a way that the message of grace has been obscured and Those lectures will end with another text the grass withers And the flower fades but the word of our God shall stand forever That we can be sure of And then I just put in a Hebrews 11-31 for those times when I'm frustrated because I can't say all that I want to say What more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about all the Westminster Divines And I do not have time to tell about all the great missionaries of the 19th century missionary movement and Sort of tempted to use that at every point but I'll restrain myself And we'll think of the other two tags as are closing Words from God at the end of each lecture A prayer I've included in each lecture which we will pray together And this is the point in this lecture that I would like to lead us in prayer The prayer generally comes from someone that I'll be talking about in the lecture Although this prayer for this first lecture comes from Solomon And it is a prayer that King Solomon uttered at the dedication of the temple The temple was the visible Center of the Old Testament church So I think it's an appropriate prayer for us to pray for the church as We think of our study of church history That prayer of Solomon Says that God's name is there We're studying the Lord's church Christian church God's name is there That prayer from Solomon also prays for forgiveness Church of course is far from perfect Some points that it's history so far from perfect that we wonder if the church is still there at all So the prayer for forgiveness is also an appropriate prayer as we think of the study of church history So let's pray together now and I'll lead As you listen follow in your hearts to this prayer from the Bible from King Solomon at the dedication of the temple Let's pray O Lord my God Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day May your eyes be open toward this temple Night and day This place of which you said my name shall be there So that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel When they pray toward this place hear from heaven your dwelling place And when you hear Forgive I'd like to talk a little bit about why we study church history Of course for most of you you're studying it at least one reason is it's a required course But I think there should be some Deeper reasons for the study of church history. It's not Old Testament. It's not New Testament So what somebody has called the third Testament but quite a different level from The Old Testament and the New Testament But there are some important reasons for Christians to be concerned about the study of church history Of course one reason is simply to know the past

Past is not irrelevant It's not unimportant In fact in one of William Faulkner's novels one of his Characters says the past is never dead. It's not even past And that's true Past is still with us Scarlet Bart has said Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and Luther and all the others are not dead but living They still speak And one thing we're going to try to do this semester is to hear some of these people speak by reading not only about them in one of our books But reading some of their words in the other book and also in the syllabus The present still Has within it the past and it's important for us as Christians to know Something about the past Not only is the past still with us, but the past has an usual power There's a kind of struggle today for who is going to claim history And it's important I think as Christians for us to know the power of the past but to be sure that as we study history We're not simply creating a usable past something that We can use It is something we can use but we need to be sure that it is also an accurate past And I'm going to do my best and I want you to do your best too to be honest and open in our study of history We're not going to romanticize it. I'm going to glamourize it If there is sin in era and there is plenty of that then we ought to face up to it So an accurate past is our goal someone once said I'm going to write An unbiased history of the civil war from the southern point of view Well, we might be tempted to write this history from the reform point of view or even the Christian point of view That we need to be careful to be truthful We will not ignore the war on crumbles knows But following B.B. Warfield neither will we look at that only We will not just look for the mistakes We'll try to acknowledge those and yet at the same time acknowledge the great things that people have done in the past Church history it seems to be today is something of a counter cultural activity And I first started teaching church history. It's seen rather sedate safe Did not create much controversy But more and more studies like this go against the grain of our culture against the grain of our present history I read recently about a Duke University professor of literature who made news by confessing in class that he loves literature That seems so startling to people That somebody teaching literature would love it That it created something of a stir Strange sentiment in English departments nowadays and maybe even subversive Well, I really do love history And I want to try to instil that love in you A lot of the people that we're going to talk about are dead white European males I still love them like Luther, Calvin and others There are many others too And people from other areas of the world beside Europe But as we study this history We will find resources and strength I think for the present day In the people and events of the past The presence of the past the power of the past and the purpose of the past One reason we study the past is to know who we are Already mentioned that this history is a long preface to our own Life stories as Hustogunzali says in our text One of the great early books of church history that we'll talk about In one of our later lectures is John Fox's Acts and monuments usually call that Fox's book of martyrs But in Acts and monuments John Fox Says that the history that he is writing is a continuation of biblical history And so is part of our story Our story goes back through all of that history into the New Testament, into the Old Testament And we want to know who we are The point that I've made in several ways already is that we need to learn from history Learned both from the good things and Learned from the bad things too No man can cause more grief than one clinging blindly to the vice of his ancestors Quote the Mississippi novelist again William Faulkner And those points need to be identified and we need to learn what not to do as well as what to do from the study of history But not just to know the past history can The fascinating in the sense of Trying to learn what happened way back there That history is also important in order to expand the present Russian proverb Puts it this way dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes So we're not going to dwell on the past we're certainly not going to forget it Because we don't want to be blind But we should not dwell on it either Without realizing that all of that has significance for our present Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones Castor but a historian in a fine sense of the word a man who really combines two calling switch I think are of importance preaching the word and understanding history Said the only justification for looking to the past Is that we may learn great lessons from it and apply them That's what we want to do So study the past yes Expand the present give us the opportunity to see further each of us is from a certain place We represent a certain tradition certain part of the church By studying church history we can travel all over the place this semester And see how Christians and other countries and other times and other traditions have viewed the faith And that all of that of course is to shape the future There is a very Famous saying often repeated Those who fail to remember the past or condemn to repeat it I think that's true sometimes heresies appear on the Seen has new truth not realizing the church has already dealt with that sometimes many times over and there are Good answers from people who have already fought that battle But because people don't know church history they get into the same model all over again So we want to Avoid the mistakes of the past That is supposed to come from my name George Santajana that statement But I have created my own little proverb those who fail to remember the past or condemn not to repeat it So we study the past not only to avoid the mistakes of the past But to be challenged by some of the great things that have happened in the past Who still gums alleys our author of Our textbook Says both by our action and in action We're making history By the way gums alleys text I think is a very good one Professor gums alleys is from Cuba originally teaches now in Georgia but a fine historian And You will enjoy reading his history. It's very lively it moves very quickly You will not necessarily always agree with everything he says then occasionally I may point out some places in gums alleys' history where I think he could state it a bit better Or be a little more accurate, but generally it is very trustworthy and it's certainly very readable So that's where we're going through the lectures of this course in Reformation and Modern Church history Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses Lab us run with perseverance The race marked out for us Okay, we've got a few minutes for questions I'm sure I would get through quite this quickly, but we can Discuss any of that anything I need to go back over in the syllabus or any Thing that I have said that is it quite clear? Yes

It will be at I don't have the date, but we'll do lectures One by one Through 13 So get your calendar skip any fair days or anything like that and You can figure out when it will come Today was number one Twelve more days than the midterm that doesn't put it right at midterm, but it's hard to find a midterm In this course and I would rather do the Reformation which will be about one third of the course Such an important part of this part of church history then do the first test I'll figure that date out and give it to you later So that what it is February 25 so it comes pretty pretty quickly so you need to To get underway with the first section of your notebook that will be the first 26 Questions Midterm will be taken from the first 26 questions