👆Click and listen to this training as you get ready or drive somewhere.
When we open the Bible, one of the first things we notice is that God is not just concerned with individual moments. He is deeply invested in memory. He repeatedly calls His people to remember what He has done, to rehearse His mighty works, and to pass them down from generation to generation. This is not merely sentimentality. For God, memory is tied to faithfulness. Forgetfulness leads to drift, while remembrance leads to renewed devotion.
Consider the command in Deuteronomy 32:7: “Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.” This was not optional advice for Israel; it was a command. God expected His people to be students of their history. Why? Because in remembering, they would see His hand, His faithfulness, His deliverance, and His justice. Every feast day, every monument, every retelling of the Exodus was meant to cement in their hearts that their story was not random — it was a story authored by God.
This theme continues into the New Testament. Jesus, on the night before His crucifixion, instituted the Lord’s Supper with the words: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The central act of Christian worship is rooted in remembering. Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 11, reminding believers that every time they eat the bread and drink the cup, they are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes. Memory is at the core of faith.
Now, apply this to church history. If Israel was told to remember the generations before them, and if Christians are commanded to remember Christ’s death and resurrection, then surely remembering the last 2,000 years of God’s work through His people also matters. Church history is not primarily about studying human failure or institutional development. It is about tracing the faithfulness of God in every age.
Think of the first centuries after the apostles. The Roman Empire tried to stamp out Christianity through wave after wave of persecution. Nero blamed Christians for the fire of Rome in AD 64. Domitian demanded emperor worship and punished those who refused. Diocletian launched one of the most brutal campaigns against the church around AD 303, burning Scriptures, demolishing churches, and imprisoning leaders. From a human perspective, the church should have been snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
And yet, history tells us the opposite. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. Tertullian, an early Christian writer, observed that persecution only made the church grow faster. Ordinary believers, empowered by the Spirit, bore witness even in death. The empire’s efforts to erase Christianity failed because God was faithful to His promise: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).
Looking back, we don’t just see brave men and women; we see God’s preserving hand. Remembering this strengthens our confidence that He will sustain us, no matter what opposition we face today.
Another testimony to God’s faithfulness in history is the preservation of His Word. In the ancient world, documents decayed, were lost, or were deliberately destroyed. Yet, against all odds, the Scriptures were copied by hand, century after century, by monks and scribes who saw themselves as servants of the Word.
When the printing press was invented in the 15th century, one of the very first major works published was the Bible. And when reformers like William Tyndale translated the Scriptures into English, he paid for it with his life. Yet today, the Bible remains the most printed, most read, and most translated book in human history.
That is not coincidence; it is providence. God’s Word has endured because God has been faithful. Jesus declared in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Looking at history proves this promise true.
History also shows God’s faithfulness in correcting His people. The medieval church became entangled with wealth, power, and corruption. Superstitions replaced Scripture. Salvation was distorted by the sale of indulgences. For many, the gospel of grace was hidden under layers of ritual and control.
But God raised up reformers. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and many others stood boldly to proclaim that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The Reformation was not just a human movement; it was God renewing His church and restoring His Word to His people.
The same pattern can be seen in revival movements — the Great Awakening in America, the evangelical revivals in England, the missionary movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. Again and again, when the church drifted, God was faithful to breathe new life into His people.