Church History

  • Passionate Complacency by Burk Parsons

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    Sir Edmund Burke is quoted as having said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”— a true statement indeed. For as the history of civilization has shown, when we stand by …Read More

  • Theology Has Consequences

    FROM TABLETALK | April 2006

    Richard Weaver first made a name for himself when he published his seminal work, Ideas Have Consequences. It is a brief work with ideas that are still reaping consequences. He was to the secular academic world something of a Francis …Read More

  • The Definition of Orthodoxy by Nick Needham

    FROM TABLETALK | April 2006

    The Arian controversy in the fourth century was arguably the greatest theological controversy in the history of the church. As Protestants, we might think that the Reformation controversies of the sixteenth century were the most momentous. Without wishing to minimize …Read More

  • Machen’s God-Centered Vision by John Piper

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    J. Gresham Machen wielded his powers against modernism as an historian and as a student of the New Testament. He argued on historical grounds that from the beginning the church was a witnessing church (Acts 1:8) and a church …Read More

  • Confounding the Postmodern Mind by Gene Edward Veith

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    Back in the last century, lots of churchmen were intimidated by modernism — with its triumphant science, dogmatic rationalism, and trust in progress. They figured that if Christianity is going to survive, it has to adapt to the times and to …Read More

  • Our Fundamentalist Betters by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    As I write, I find myself visiting Gwinnett County, Georgia. It’s a good thing that I am only visiting. If I actually lived here, I’d find myself on the wrong side of the law. It seems the county …Read More

  • Faithful Vigilance by W. Robert Godfrey

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus about the critical need for them to be vigilant: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for …Read More

  • Holding the Line by D.G. Hart

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2006

    American Protestantism split in two during the 1920s and has not been the same since. In denominational controversies, especially among Presbyterians and Baptists, and in courtroom debates over teaching evolution in public schools, the once unified front of mainline Protestantism …Read More

  • The Lone Monk by Nick Needham

    FROM TABLETALK | August 2007

    The seventh century is something of a forgotten epoch for most Protestants. But it is well worth knowing. The creative heart of its theology lay in the East — the Byzantine Empire, centered on Constantinople. Here the Christological controversies of the …Read More

  • The Great Schism of 1054 by Stephen Nichols

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

    You had to see it to believe it. During the pope’s September 2010 visit to the United Kingdom, one protester’s sign stood out, far out, from the others. In large markered letters on the back of a pizza …Read More

  • Separation of Church and State by Nick Needham

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

    Western Europe was shaken to the heart in the eleventh century by the investiture conflict. It saw kings humbled by popes, popes driven out by kings, wars between armies, dissensions within the church, and, ultimately, a new Europe. A theological …Read More

  • The Crusades by W. Robert Godfrey

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

    The Bible can be a dangerous book if misused and abused. In the history of the church, the misunderstanding of the Bible has led to many serious problems, ranging from false doctrine to legalistic customs and misdirected lives. One of …Read More

  • Schism and the Local Church by Michael G. Brown

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

    Although the Great Schism occurred in the eleventh century, dealing with schismatic people in the local church has been a problem since the days of the apostles. Writing to the church at Corinth around AD 55, Paul said, “I appeal …Read More

  • Theology and Doxology by Michael Haykin

    FROM TABLETALK | February 2012

    In December 1967, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gave an address to what was then known as the Puritan Conference, speaking on what some might have considered an esoteric topic: the teachings of a small eighteenth-century movement known as Sandemanianism. Ever a …Read More

  • Fallacious History by Carl Trueman

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2012

    One of the most pressing but invisible threats to Christian thinking at the present time is that of fallacious history. Like carbon monoxide, it can kill; you just do not notice it is happening until it is too late. Fallacious …Read More