Riches from History

Christianity was not invented yesterday. It behooves us to respect and honor those, who, through the ages, have sought to be faithful to the truth of Scripture and to articulate those truths which are most precious and necessary. There is something very important about knowing the “ancient landmarks.” We must know Scripture and history if we are to follow the admonition of Jude (1:3), “…to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Scripture is our only infallible guide for faith and practice. However, I believe there is great benefit in understanding the challenges faced by the Church Fathers and other leaders who have then responded to the doctrinal issues of their day. In this section, we have included a few of the most memorable sections of sections of Scripture, along with some of the early Church creeds and other defining documents that have been produced throughout the history of the Church.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn rightly said, “If we don’t know our own history, we will simply have to endure all the same mistakes, sacrifices, and absurdities all over again.”

B.H. Carroll also wisely said, “There never was a man in the world without a creed. What is a creed? A creed is what you believe. What is a confession? It is a declaration of what you believe. That declaration may be oral or it may be committed to writing, but the creed is there either expressed or implied.”

Key Sections of Scripture

• The Ten Commandments
• The Twenty-Third Psalm
• The Ninety-First Psalm
• The Beatitudes
• The Lord’s Prayer
• Peter’s Sermon on the Day of Pentecost
• Stephen’s Sermon Before Being Martyred
• Paul’s Sermon on Mars’ Hill
• Paul’s Great Chapter on Love
• Qualifications for Bishops, Elders, and Deacons

Other Defining Documents from Church History

• The Edict of Milan
• The Didache
• The Apostles’ Creed
• The Nicene Creed
• The Chalcedonian Creed
• The Athanasian Creed
• The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
• Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace (St. Francis of Assisi)
• Martin Luther’s 95 Theses
• The Mayflower Compact
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism
• The Somerset Confession of Faith
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Jonathan Edwards)
• Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God: Intro and Section 1 (Jonathan Edwards)
• Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God: Section 2 (Jonathan Edwards)
• Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God: Section 3 and Conclusion (Jonathan Edwards)
• The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards
• John Wesley’s Letter to William Wiberforce
• Wesley vs. Whitfield: Brothers in Conflict
• George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
• Do Scriptures Forbid Women to Preach? (Henry Ward Beecher)
• Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
• Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible is the Word of God (R. A. Torrey)
• Why God Used D. L. Moody (R. A. Torrey)
• After Pentecost (Donald Gee)
• Extremes Are Sometimes Necessary (Donald Gee)
• My Consecration as a Christian (John G. Lake)
• The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niehbur)
• I Have a Dream (Martin Luther King Jr.)
• Why Leaders Fail
• Great Thoughts Regarding the Cross, and the Suffering and Death of the Lord Jesus Christ
• The Lausanne Covenant
• Are the Heathen Lost? (D. James Kennedy)
• Mother Teresa’s Message to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.
• The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy