Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Nathan Busenitz - The Importance of Church History

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the Bible.In this episode Nathan Busenitz, Executive Vice President, Dean of Faculty, & Associate Professor of Theology at The Master's Seminary, discusses the importance of church history.Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hi guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nathan Busnitz and I ask him about the importance of studying and knowing church history. Furthermore, I ask him about three figures from church history everyone should know and how studying these figures not only inform us about the past, but shape our lives in the present. Let's dial in. Dr. Buznes, thanks so much for sitting down once again. You know, you are an expert at church history. And I remember, I think it's Edmund Burke who says, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Now, the subject of church history is one that I've become increasingly interested in, even since taking your classes at the seminary. I want to talk to you about its importance in the life of a Christian. Why should we study church history? How would you respond to that? Yeah, that's a great question. I have actually a lot of reasons why. I have a list of 10 of them that I give at the beginning of my class every semester because, you know, history is something that people don't always naturally gravitate toward. And so guys come to my class and they're kind of like, oh, great, this is going to be a boring class because it's history. And what I like to tell them right off the bat is don't think of this so much as a history class. Think of it as a class about the church,

right? Church history. This is the story of what God has been doing in the world through the advancement of the gospel over the last 2,000 years. And if you love the church, you will love the history of the church because we love the history of the things that we love. So church history is about the church. It's not boring. It's not dry. It's incredibly compelling. The other thing that I would emphasize is so often evangelical Protestant Christians are ignorant about their history. They're ignorant about their spiritual heritage. And that ignorance is dangerous, not only because those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, but because those who are ignorant of history

are often exposed and vulnerable to the claims of other movements that try and use history to attack the Christian faith. So things like apostate movements, Roman Catholicism, things like false movements, Mormonism or Islam, they use history. And if evangelicals are unaware of the facts of history, they're vulnerable to those kinds of attacks because they just don't know. So my encouragement is know your history because it will arm you and equip you even to defend the faith against apostate movements and false movements that

claim to be Christian but really aren't. Now, in regards to church history, maybe someone's listening and they go, I don't know where to start. There's obviously people that we could reference as far as historical figures in the church. But if you had to maybe condense all of your study or even all of your personal favorites, and if I was to ask you, what are your three most influential figures in church history, maybe just upon your own life and why other people would study them or should study them what would you say three famous figures that are worthy of study that have been particularly impactful on your life yeah i mean honestly that's an impossible question for what's your favorite kid yeah yeah it is like choosing among my kids in some ways.

But, Johnny, in honor of people who are named John, I'll pick three whose names are John. Okay. All right. So we have John Chrysostom, the great expository preacher of the fourth century, who exhibits in the late fourth, early fifth century, an approach to the Bible that takes the Bible literally. It takes the Bible for what it says. And he was known as Golden Mouth. That's what Chrysostom means. He was like the prince of preachers of his age. And I just love the fact that all the way back in the late fourth, early fifth century, there's somebody who is teaching the Bible verse by verse, and his sermons are still available today, translated in English. You can go and read, how did he understand this verse? And because this hermeneutic is sound,

almost always his understanding of the verse would be our understanding of the verse. It's so cool. Then if we move forward from a church father to the Middle Ages, John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, a scholar at Oxford who recognized the importance of getting the word of God into the language of the people. If the people don't have access to the word of God, how are they to be saved? How can they hear without a preacher, right? Romans chapter 12. And John Wycliffe and his fellow scholars at Oxford, all the way back in the 14th century, they're translating the Bible into English. It's just awesome. And then if we move to the Reformation itself, John Calvin, the Reformed theologian, who, again, set out to explain biblical truth and then to categorize it under theological themes in a way that was so helpful even for us today. So John Chrysostom, John Wycliffe, John Calvin, three men that would

be worthy of further study for anybody who's listening to this. Now, one of the things for me in studying church history is that I'm reminded that even when you study the Great Awakening, that it's never been pragmatic strategies that have wielded a movement of God. It's been what you mentioned, even the earliest, John, just the faithful teaching of the Word of God. And so I'm just thinking even in closing, Dr. Booz, and it's in Hebrews 12, it says we've been surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. And obviously it's referring to the scripture. But even as a Christian, we can reflect back on church history and go, man, there's been so many faithful men and women over the last 2000 years that have paved the way. Maybe just personally speaking, how has studying church history motivated you to live a

life of faithfulness, knowing that you follow a long line? I think it's Steve Lawson that says it's a long line of godly men. How has that fueled you in your pursuit of the Lord, your love for the truth, and your devotion to the church? Yeah, that's a great question. Hebrews 11, I love because it's that hall of faith. It's looking at Old Testament saints. And you get to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, and the author of Hebrews looks back at all of those faithful individuals. And he says, we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, these examples, these testimonies that demonstrate the faithfulness of God to those who seek to walk in faithfulness to Him.

But that passage doesn't stop there, right? It doesn't stop with us looking back. It goes on in the next verse to say that as we run the race with endurance, with all of these great examples sort of having paved the way for us, we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith. What I love about church history, and biography is a great way to get engaged in church history, right? People sometimes say, I don't like history, but I like biography. Well, biography is just history well told. So that's a great way to dip

your toe in the water. What those biographies do is they don't just put our eyes on that person. They put our eyes past that person on the one to whom that person was also looking, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I love. They're examples of compelling faithfulness ultimately point us past them to Jesus. Well, that's so helpful, Dr. Budenitz. I've been personally enriched even by my own study of church history, and I'm thankful for your impact on my life in that regard, and I'm thankful for your time.