Tom Nelson’s Church History: The Footprints of God

Tom Nelson is not the Thomas Nelson of the publishing house by the same name; Tom Nelson is senior pastor of Denton Bible Church, Denton, Texas, and an wonderfully clear and biblical preacher.

Covering 2000 years of church history is no easy task. I’ve listened to many series on Church History and Tom’s is one of the most concise and accessible. In fact, it’s addicting. On a recent road trip I played the first session for my family of six and we listened to 8 sessions.

This is a great series that is informative, entertaining, challenging, and refreshing. Know where your theology came from, and download this excellent series on Church History. You won’t be disappointed.

Sermon 1 – The Age of Catholic Christianity A.D. 70-312
Sermon 2 – The Age of Imperial Christianity A.D. 312-590
Sermon 3 – The Age of Imperial Christianity (Part Two)
Sermon 4 – The Age of Christendom A.D. 590-1517
Sermon 5 – The Rumblings of Reform
Sermon 6 – The Age of Reformation A.D. 1517-1648
Sermon 7 – The Age of Reformation (Con’t) A.D. 1517-1648
Sermon 8 – The Age of Reason and Revival 1648 – 1789
Sermon 9: The First Great Awakening 1720-1740
Sermon 10: The Second Great Awakening 1787 – 1810
Sermon 11: The Revival of 1857: “The Layman’s Prayer Revival”
Sermon 12: The Rise of Liberalism: The Late 1800′s to Present
Sermon 13: The Rise of Pentecostalism: 1867 – Present

Church History volume 1 >>>

Church History volume 2 >>>

Church History Outline >>>

Church History with Michael Reeves

I recently spent a few full days traveling by car and passed the time listening to numerous messages by Michael Reeves on church history.  Reeves is an excellent teacher and his Church history series will give you an excellent grasp on the crucial figures, issues and writings of the past 2000 years, from Iraneaus and Justin Martyr to Luther, Calvin and the Puritans.

Reeves approach is to break down his talks into particular focuses. First he will talk about the life and historical background of say Thomas Aquinas, and then he will look at Aquinas’ theology by examining his major writings and why they were written.

Reeves looks at the following men of Church history:  Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Martin Luther, Zwingli, & John Calvin.

I highly recommend this series as it helps us to see weaknesses in our present day theology. It’s not easily organized, so you have to poke around the Theology Network site to locate all of Reeves audio messages on Church history.

Historical Theology at Theology Network >>>

The Church Fathers

Michael Haykin, professor of church history at Southern Theological Baptist Seminary, joins the Christ the Center team to discuss the very unfamiliar subject of the Church Fathers.  If you enjoy patristic studies you won’t want to miss this.

The Church Fathers >>>

Patristics for Busy Pastors: An interview with Ligon Duncan

Patristics? For pastors?  I have to admit I know very little about the early church fathers.  However, I do hunger to understand more about the period of the early church.  What has hindered me has been unfamiliarity of the period, coupled with the inaccessibility of the reading material.  I must also admit that I harbored a very unfortunate sense that the early church was simplistic, moralistic, and because it deteriorated rapidly into two predominant forms of heresy (Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) it was therefore unecessary.

In this interview conducted by Tony Reinke, Ligon Duncan demonstrates that the early church fathers is the most relevant study of church history for our contemporary culture.  Evangelicals have, by in large, left the church fathers to the Roman Catholics.  But Duncan explains that not only did the 16th century reformers know the church fathers very well, the culture the early church fathers engaged is most like our own in the 21st century, being very pagan, pluralistic, and gnostic.

In discussing the great merits of knowing the church fathers, Ligon Duncan provides a few book recommendations:

The Spreading Flame, by F. F. Bruce, Ligon considers the best historical overview of this period.

Church History in Plain Language, by Bruce Shelley, provides a few chapters on the early church that provide a quick summary of the history and players.

Everett Ferguson’s, Backgrounds in Early Christianity, is an excellent resource book that provides bite-sized, yet very effective summaries of certain heresies and philosophical schools that influenced the culture.

Peter Brown’s biography, Augustine of Hippo, is a phenomenal work by one of the greatest Augustine scholars in the world.

J. N. D. Kelly’s, Jerome, is another biography of notable stature of an early church giant.

As far as primary writings, Ligon recommends reading these books:

Athanasias’ Incarnation is a classic, and you should try to find the version that contains C. S. Lewis’ classic introduction.

The Apostolic Fathers, edited by J. B. Lightfoot (later updated by Holmes) should also be on your list of reading.

Geoffrey W. Bromiley’s Historical Theology: An Introduction is a helpful tool for gaining background information on how certain theologies developed. 

Iraneus’ work Against Heresies is also a classic worth having.

Finally, Ligon talks about how Tom Oden had been swept up into deep liberalism, and who didn’t return to orthodox Christianity until he began to read the church fathers and discovered that the liberal view of them was wrong.  Oden wrote about what he learned in his book, After Modernity, What? which J. I. Packer writes the introduction to.

This is a fabulously informative and challenging interview that will excite your interest in the church fathers.

Patristics for Busy Pastors at Sovereign Grace Ministry page >>>

Augustine of Hippo series by Steve Lawson

I am growing more and more fond of Steve Lawson, particularly his look at church history.  This series is fantastic, and I’ll be listening to them again to get all the information.  These messages are delivered at the Friday morning ‘Men’s Seminary’ meeting at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church.  We are greatly blessed to be able to sit in on these sessions. 

In his series ‘Long Line of Godly Men’, Steve Lawson recently covered the life of Augustine of Hippo, one of the most influential men in church history.  Lawson looks intently at Augustine’s battle with the monk Pelagius, and draws some timely conclusions the church needs to hear today.  We enjoy a thousand years of history to see that the outworking of Pelagianism is secular humanism, while the outworking of Augustine is Reformed Theology.  Shortly after, a halfway house between these two theologies emerged, that being Semi-Pelagianism, which dogs the church today.

Augustine was also the writer that had a tremendous impact on Calvin and Luther.  Part 3 looks at how our understanding of the fall, man’s nature and sin directly effects everything else we believe including the Christ’s work on the cross and evangelism.  The distinctions Lawson examine are critical for a correct gospel.

The first message listed, ‘From Clement of Rome to Augustine of Hippo’ is an excellent overview of the first 400 years of church history. Unfortunately, I am unable to locate this message since CFBC has moved the audio on their website. If you find it please leave a comment with a link to this audio file.

Augustine of Hippo part 2 mp3 >>>
Augustine of Hippo part 3 mp3 >>>
Augustine of Hippo part 4 mp3 >>>
Augustine of Hippo part 5 mp3 >>>

Ancient & Medieval Church History with David Calhoun

Dr. David Calhoun’s seminary courses on church history are well known, and now are available online from Covenant Theology Seminary.  This course covers the history of the church from the book of Acts to the dawn of the Reformation.

Church history is one of the big weaknesses of most Christians, and many errors we easily fall into could be avoided with a basic knowledge of church history.  Calhoun makes church history accessable, interesting and relevant. 

Dr. David Calhoun’s Ancient & Medieval Church History lectures>>>