An understanding of church history is essential for the vitality of any true church. A church, or Christian, severed from history – both the heritage of their own tradition and the history of the universal church – is like a ship without an anchor, prone to be tossed about by any wind of doctrine and practice. It is to be feared that many in the present day are held in bondage by unhelpful man-made traditions while being lamentably ignorant of the wider traditions and doctrinal heritage of the church, and unfamiliar with the actions of men and women of God throughout history. To study church history is not to go to the extreme of the Roman Catholics and begin to give authority to tradition; rather, it is to recognise that we have a God-given heritage from which we can draw wisdom, encouragement, and inspiration.

• Biblical example

The first reason to look back on and study church history is because we are clearly called to do so in Scripture. The Bible places great emphasis on remembering and recalling the works of God in history to support our faith and inspire our praise in the present. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, God exhorts the people of Israel to remember His commandments and His works of deliverance: ‘And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no’ (Deuteronomy 8:2). This task of remembrance is taken up by the Psalmist, who in Psalms 105 and 106, among others, recounts God’s dealings with His people over the course of their history. He begins by calling them to ‘make known his deeds among the people’ (Psalm 105:1), and he ends Psalm 107 with the words, ‘Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord’ (v. 43). Notably, the Psalmist condemns the Israelites for their failure to remember God’s works: ‘Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies’ (Psalm 106:7).

Clearly, Scripture exhorts us to remember God’s work in history. In the first and foremost place, this relates to salvation history: God’s dealings with His Old Testament people, delivering them from their enemies, which is a picture of the church’s deliverance from sin and Satan through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. However, it surely also relates to how God has worked through His church in the New Testament age. The book of Acts takes up the thread of salvation history in the Old Testament and continues it in the New Testament age, relating the works of the Apostles and the early expansion of Christ’s church. As God’s chosen people, the church, like the Israelites, is called to continue to remember and declare the mercies of the Lord. While we cannot trace God’s providence with the confidence that David writing inspired Scripture could, we can see through God’s work in the history of His church that He has fulfilled His promise to build His church, that He has preserved it from the attacks of the Devil, and that He has consistently raised up godly Christians and faithful ministers to preach His gospel.

• Correction and reflection

Secondly, the study of church history has an important purpose in causing us to reflect on our doctrine and practice as Christians today. Through the history of the church, God has worked to preserve the central doctrines of our religion and to bring a renewed love for the truths of the gospel. If we cut ourselves off from church history, we risk running into dangerous theological waters as we wrestle with great mysteries, such as the doctrines of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ, without the collective wisdom of our forebears. In our own Particular Baptist tradition, we have constantly faced the danger of heretical teaching, whether over the pre-existence of the human nature of Christ, the eternal Sonship of Christ, or – in our own day – a denial of the true humanity of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, we are at constant risk of ‘accidentally’ falling into error in our prayer and preaching if we are not grounded in the central historic creeds and confessions of the church, which articulate and defend the truths of God’s word and the heart of the gospel.

Church history also allows us to reflect on our practice as Christians in the present day, providing a point of comparison which helps us to ascertain the central features of Christian life and worship. We must constantly ask ourselves why we do what we do, and ensure that what we do is according to the teaching of God’s word – yet we are so often clouded by the forces of culture and tradition. Studying church history enables us to see the different practices of past Christians, even within our own tradition, allowing us to reflect on our own practice in the present day. These differences challenge us to examine what of our practice is overly influenced by culture or tradition, to return to the principles of God’s word, and where necessary provide a corrective. 

• Inspiration

Finally, and perhaps most importantly in our day, church history inspires us with the reminder that our God is powerful to save. As we read of God’s saving and reviving power across church history, and the blessing that has attended the gospel, we are reminded that ‘the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear’ (Isaiah 59:1). The same God who has acted so powerfully throughout church history ‘is our God for ever and ever’ – ‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Psalm 48:14; Hebrews 13:8). His word, His gospel, His right hand of salvation has lost none of its potency or power in this day. We see even in the history of the church in this country that God has brought revival in a godless culture, such as in the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. We see that He has blessed the preaching of the gospel even in the most desperate and difficult of surroundings – William Gadsby preached in the most deprived and depraved area of nineteenth-century Manchester, and yet his church grew from a small congregation to one of over 1000 during his pastorate. Though it may seem that in this nation we are in a ‘day of small things’, yet Jesus Christ still reigns, and ‘He hath shown his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen’ (Psalm 111:6). As we study how He has worked to build His church throughout history, may we be inspired to remember that He is the same almighty, saving God still.

[From the hymn ‘Our God, our God, Thou shinest here’ by Thomas Hornblower Gill.]

Article first published in the Gospel Standard, July 2026, MER

If you are inspired by this article to begin studying church history, here are some suggestions…

Sketches from Church History by S M Houghton

Why the Reformation Still Matters by Reeves & Chester

Shapers of Christianity by Nick Needham

Gamechangers by Robert Letham