Five events from Church history every pastor should know by Tony Chute

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Years ago the editors of Christian History magazine devoted an issue to the "100 Most Important Events in Church History." They struggled over which events to include but the problem was not lack of material. Spanning from the fall of Jerusalem to the civil rights movement some important events were necessarily left out. My task is more difficult since I am excluding 95 of their choices and the ones they left out! Still, I am helped by the fact that pastors are my target audience and virtually every major event in church history has significance for church life. Subjective as this survey may be, here are my picks: Event # 1: Athanasius writes a letter

Some have since argued that the church created the Bible, but the truth is that even bishops like Athanasius believed their own authority was derived from and not superior to Holy Scripture."
Tony Chute, assistant professor of Church History at California Baptist University and author of A Piety Above the Common Standard: Jesse Mercer and the Defense of Evangelistic Calvinism

Think of all the newsletters you have written and you can appreciate why Athanasius made history. Your words were derived from the Bible while his essentially defined the Bible. As bishop of Alexandria (a major center of Christian activity, second only to Rome at the time) Athanasius had serious clout among churches as he defended Christian orthodoxy. In 367 he wrote a letter listing books considered as inspired and authoritative for all churches everywhere. His list is the first confirmation we know of that includes all 27 books in our New Testament. Moreover, the list excluded books that fell short of orthodox theology (evidently Dan Brown never got the memo!). Some have since argued that the church created the Bible, but the truth is that even bishops like Athanasius believed their own authority was derived from and not superior to Holy Scripture. Event # 2: Augustine steals a pear Most people would consider taking a pear from a neighbor's tree as the equivalent of popping a grocery store grape into one's mouth it's no big deal. But Augustine could not escape the fact that he had taken the pear for no real reason. It was not because he was hungry; it was simply because he could. For Augustine, this was a twisted attempt to imitate God who alone has freedom to act without concern for punishment. Years would pass before he became a Christian (c. 386) and still more time would pass before he was recognized as the most important theologian between the Apostle Paul and Thomas Aquinas. Yet it was this event that Augustine recalled when he wrote about God's pursuit of him in his Confessions. Who would have thought that a pear-stealing, womanizing, philosophizing, theater-loving, astrologist-in-training could be so transformed that he would utterly demolish the idea that sin can be overcome by mere willpower?

For further reading on Church history (from Tony Chute):

If you want to read more about church history from a book that lives up to its title, see Bruce Shelley's, Church History in Plain Language (Waco, TX: Word, 1995). A more detailed but very well-written text is Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity by Jonathan Hill (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006). I also recommend anything written by Stephen Nichols. His most recent works, The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2007) and Pages From Church History: A Guided Tour of Christian Classics (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R, 2006) are absolutely fantastic.

Event # 3: Martin Luther gets married

Any pastor counts his wedding day among the most important personal events, but Martin Luther's marriage had added significance. He was once an Augustinian monk who embraced celibacy to demonstrate that he was married to God. However, his road to reformation led him to conclude that priestly celibacy was taught by the Catholic Church but not Holy Scripture. Finding no passage that forbade priests to marry, Luther began playing matchmaker as numerous monks and nuns came to him after renouncing their vows of celibacy. He led them in turn to exchange vows of matrimony. In 1525 he himself married Katherina von Bora whom he affectionately called "my rib" and of whom he declared, "I would not exchange my Katie for Paris or all of France, for Venice or all of Italy, for God has given her to me and has given me to her." For Luther, his marriage meant two things he would finally please his father by giving him grandchildren and he would irritate the pope by providing a visible expression of sola Scriptura, the idea that the Bible alone is our final authority. Event # 4: Jonathan Edwards gets fired No, it was not for upsetting people when he preached that sermon about sinners and an angry God. His congregation in Northampton, Mass., was plenty used to that kind of preaching. He was fired on June 22, 1750, because he wanted to reverse his church's policy of serving Communion to people of good moral standing whether or not they were Christians. His grandfather had started this practice in hopes of converting people to the faith but Edwards concluded that the Lord's Supper was for believers only. His congregation did not agree and thus relieved him of his duties after 21 years of ministry. Consequently, Edwards became pastor of a much smaller congregation while he also served as a missionary to local Native Americans. However, it was during this time that he wrote some of his most important works including Freedom of the Will and Original Sin. Many of his sermons have yet to be transcribed but the writings he produced after his firing have profoundly influenced evangelicals to this day.

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Event # 5: Billy Graham gets on his knees

We would expect nothing less from "America's Pastor," but it is the occasion that matters. Prior to his 1949 Los Angeles Crusade (the event that first made him famous) Graham experienced doubts about the validity of the Bible. He had tried to answer questions from skeptics, but he felt that he lacked the intellectual ability to prove them wrong. Moreover, he decided that he could not continue preaching if he did not fully believe the Bible. As he was considering whether to return to the only life he knew outside of ministry (dairy farming), he knelt down and confessed his doubts to the Lord. But he also decided to submit his doubts to the Lord and believe the Bible by faith. He was now at peace and during the Los Angeles Crusade he peppered his sermons with "The Bible says . . ." The revival was originally scheduled for three weeks but ended strong eight weeks later. What can pastors learn from these events? From Athanasius we learn that no leader in the church is superior to the Word of God. So, pastor, keep studying. From Augustine we learn that non-Christians have private struggles that God may use to bring about conversion. So, pastor, keep praying. From Luther we learn that taking our stand on the Bible is not always a lonely task. It can also bring wonderful personal fulfillment. So, pastor, keep standing. From Edwards we learn that even in our most difficult circumstances we can still be used by God. So, pastor (or, former pastor!) keep working. From Graham we learn that trust in God is a requirement for all who seek to be used by him. So, pastor, keep trusting.