History\Future

[patrickplante]

How is church hystory linked to church future?

 

[linden branch]

Difficult to answer without further detail, but here is one very obvious example.

Christ's incarnation, including his life, death, resurrection and subsequent ascencion are all historical events that have radical consequences for the future.

 

[StAnselm]

I tend to view history as going in a spiral. In some ways it repeats itself, and so we can learn from history; but we also have to remember that history is going somewhere - I hate to sound trite, but history is "his story".

Regarding church history, we see a constant series of ups and downs - sometimes the church has ben stronger, sometimes weaker. But in the midst of all this, Christ has been teaching a sanctifying his Church.

Have you read The Screwtape Letters? Do you remember what the devil Wormwood says?

One of our greatest allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately that is quite invisible to these humans

So to answer the question, in some ways we can expect more of the same - we can expect more heretics, more revivals, more back-sliding, more persecution, more reformation. But at the same time, we know this isn't going to keep on going forever - Jesus is coming back, and he's going to sort everything out.

 

[Inge87]

I tend to view history as going in a spiral.

Ditto.

What is happening now has happened in a similar way in the past, and will happen again in some form as well. For example, there have always been periods of moral and spiritual decay, but there is always a backlash against it eventually. It's that show why people need to learn their history, so they don't go and do the same stupid things that others have already done.

 

[RVincent]

(Eccl 3:15) That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.​

Consider the book of Jeremiah. Not only do we have verses in the close of the book which sound remarkably similar to Revelation, but we have this phenomenon as well:

(Jer 51:41) How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!​

Sheshach: The Massorah explains that this word is "Babel" (= confusion), being a cypher by which the last letter of the alphabet is put for the first, and the next to the last for the second, & continuing, by which SH SH CH becomes B B L "Babel".

This same phenomenon is found in 25:26.

Putting the last for the first enforces the thought of a future fullfilment, when the antichrist comes with spiritual Babylon, personified as a harlot (Rev. 17:15).

Now condider the church of Jeremiah's time. In spite of warning after warning, the pastors of that time adamantly denied that the king of Babylon would take them. Babylon took them. Today, not all, but a large part of the church adamantly denies that the antichrist will take them. The antichrist will take them.

(Eccl 3:15) That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.​