The Importance of Studying Church History
J. Gresham Machen argued that "the student of the New Testament should be primarily a historian." The center of the Bible is history, which leads to a historical climax, that is, to say, history is linear.
Sadly, as Machen pointed out, the modern Church has no use for history. However, if you ignore history, you lose the gospel, even if you retain a general belief in God or an ethical/social ideal. If it makes no difference whether Jesus really lived, died, and rose again, as He declared, the Christian religion is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:14).
To quote Machen, "Jesus' resurrection was not an aspiration in the hearts of His disciples but [the act of] God. He is alive and present at this hour to help us if we turn to Him. He is more than one of the sons of men; He is in mysterious union with the eternal God."
Ignore history, and you won't have a sufficient answer to Is communion with God a help toward humanity's betterment, or itself the one great ultimate goal of human life?
What modern Christians fail to grasp is studying Church history "is studying the movement of God the Holy Spirit in history and in the lives of the people of God," as Greg Peters points out on the Scriptorium Daily Blog. "Because God is sovereign and providential over all of his creation, there is no area of human or creaturely activity that is beyond his control or supervision. Though creation cries out and awaits its own redemption (Romans 8:19-23) due to humankind's sin and fallenness, it is still God's good creation, and he continues to act in it."
Church history is the story of God fulfilling his promise to send a savior to save a people, for himself, for his glory. Ignore history, and you will have a shallow understanding of your place in the plan of God.
We are commanded in Jude 1:3 to "contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints.” Christianity is held up through antiquity by timeless and objective truths. Ignore history, and you will be ill-equipped to engage in the marketplace of ideas. If we are wise, we will learn from the Church's history. We stand on the shoulders of giants; to live and die well in the modern context, we must have a firm grasp of the past; we must understand those who came before us, who fought battles and learned lessons that still ring true today.
Creeds, confessions, councils, etc., are not just for seminarians to ponder over. Church fathers battled heretics, dissected Scripture, deliberated over doctrine for our benefit. Their efforts are guardrails for the faith – they keep us grounded. Their battles are lessons for us – they show us that there is nothing new under the sun and that the enemy uses the same tactic over and over to blind the nations and confuse and discourage the people of God.
When we keep our faith and history separated and ignore the connection between them, we do a disservice to ourselves, our children, and if we are pastors or elders to those under our spiritual care.
Paul states in Colossians 2:3-8 that in Christ "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Note carefully, Paul says all facts and information are stored in Christ - regardless of whether these facts are about World War II or the Council of Nicea. All pursuits of knowledge are to the glory of Christ. How much more is the examination of his work in the history of his people.
Quotes from Machen were originally published in The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 11, 1913. This article is now in the public domain. It is worth a read and can be accessed here.
Finally, a great place to start studying the history of the Church is Nick Needham's four-volume set, 2000 Years of Christ's Power.