Sovereign Grace Ministries has available for download their series on ecclesiology, entitled "The Church: The Dearest Place on Earth." In the first installment, C.J. Mahaney makes the following observations (my paraphrase):

An understanding of church history is crucial, not optional. We must appreciate church history and understand it because history plays a critical role in understanding ourselves. Albert Mohler has said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to lose it. The greater danger in our day is that history will not be repeated, reviewed, or remembered.

We are trapped in the tyranny of the contemporary. Many Americans are inclined to agree with Henry Ford that "history is bunk." The standardized tests for high school students demonstrate that American students have little knowledge of history, and further, don't care at all. We cannot let this be in the Church. Church history is the stewardship of something precious.

Mahaney is right on target, I think. While I agree that we should always be revisiting our ecclesiology to ensure that it is biblical, I will not concede that everything done in the past is no longer valid for today. Too often today the Church forgets its history because of this mindset that former ways of doing things will not work today. It is true that cultures and people and times change. And it also is true that there will be things in the Church that change because of this.

But what must never change is our ultimate identity--that the Church is the body of Christ and exists as the representative incarnation of Him in this world (see Tony's post today for a few ideas on what this means). A knowledge of history, of where we come from, teaches us that. History also demonstrates how God has preserved His Church since its inception. We need to know that story, and we need to know it well. In the immortal words of Bob Marley,

If you know your history,
Then you would know where you're coming from,
Then you wouldn't have to ask me,
Who the heck do I think I am.

Let it not be that the Church needs to ask itself who it is. We know the answer. The Bible gives it to us, and history tells us. Let us learn from it, and live according to it.

Labels: C. J. Mahaney, Church History, ecclesiology, history, Scripture