Tag: church history

God at Work, Using People and Nations to advance Truth and Liberty: The Story of Liberty

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The Story of Liberty: So You Will Comprehend What Liberty Has Cost and What It Is Worth by Charles C. Coffin

storyofliberty“If while reading this “Story” you are roused to indignation, or pained at the recital of wrong and outrage, remember that out of endurance and sacrifice has come all that you hold most dear; so will you comprehend what Liberty has cost, and what it is worth.”


In my younger years, history was probably my least favorite subject. In school, I just couldn’t see the purpose in learning about a bunch of random events and dead people and hated having to memorize dates and names. It wasn’t until after having my children, and my husband and I were exploring homeschooling that I discovered what is called the Providential view of history.

In 1876 in an annual election sermon, Reverend S.W. Foljambe defined history as:

The autobiogra­phy of Him ‘who worketh all things after the counsel of His will’ (Eph 1:11) and who is graciously timing all events after the counsel of His Christ, and the Kingdom of God on earth. It is His-Story.

This is in line with Christ’s own words in John 5:17, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” When I began to see history in this way, and understood that every person and event throughout time is part of God’s ultimate plan to bring about His purposes, suddenly history mattered. We can believe that even if we don’t see the whole picture during our lifetime here on earth. Continue reading “God at Work, Using People and Nations to advance Truth and Liberty: The Story of Liberty” →

Canons of Dort – What is it?

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Canons of DortReady for a little church history lesson? I’d like to recommend an important document that I believe every Christian should be familiar with known as the Canons of Dort (full text available here).

The Canons of Dort is a collection of doctrinal statements that were documented by a committee that assembled in the Netherlands in 1618. When the teachings of Jacob Arminius (1506-1609), a theology professor at Leiden University, were systematized into a document called “The Five Articles of Remonstrance“, controversies arose to such a serious level that they could not be ignored. In Creeds Of Christendom, Philip Schaff wrote,

The controversy was purely theological in its nature, but owing to the intimate connection of Church and State it became inevitably entangled in political issues, and shook the whole country. The Reformed Churches in France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Scotland took a deep interest in it, and sided, upon the whole, with the Calvinistic party; while the Lutheran Church sympathized to some extent with the Arminian (Vol. I).

Continue reading “Canons of Dort – What is it?” →