Dr. David Irving reminds us that Christians throughout history have faced discouragement, opposition, and concern for the church. Yet church history also testifies to God’s faithfulness in upholding his people and strengthening and growing his church, even in difficult seasons.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
How does church history encourage us?
As long as I have been a Christian, I have met other believers who have understandably expressed concern about the state of the Christian church. That concern might arise from a perceived numerical decline, new pressures facing Christians today, or a sense that certain age groups are no longer engaged with the church.
What would you say to someone who is discouraged by these trends? Church history helps us answer that question.
One of the things that strikes me as I read the testimonies of Christians from past generations is that they faced many of the same challenges we face today. If you were to read some of the seventeenth-century English Puritans, whom many of us in the twenty-first century consider among the godliest Christians to have lived during one of the church’s most fruitful seasons, you would hear them pray, “O Lord, would that the church were stronger. Would that she faced fewer persecutions. Would that she were holier.”
This longing for the church to be stronger and holier than she is has been shared by Christians for a very long time.
Church history not only gives us partners across the ages who share our longing for a stronger church, but it also shows us how Christians have found encouragement during seasons like our own.
First, we see how God has upheld his people to glorify himself even in the face of extraordinary persecution. Christians have been enabled to bear witness to Christ when facing imprisonment, hostility, and even death.
Second, church history shows us how God has always provided for his people, even during seasons much darker than our own. God has never left or forsaken his people.
Throughout the history of the church, we also see how God has been pleased, even in times of opposition, to save his people, strengthen them, and grow his church, just as Jesus promised.
