“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past, control the future.” That is a quote from the prophetic and now infamous book, 1984, by George Orwell.
His warning for readers then and now, 70 years after he wrote the book, is essentially this: Those in the present who seek to blot out or alter the past do so with the sole intent to shape the future according to their own design.
Orwell thought it to be of utmost importance to preserve the past, cherish it, learn from it, use it and with regards to the mistakes, not repeat them. This is true for politics, as was the focus of Orwell, but it is equally true of Christianity and of the church.
We very quickly forget all the mistakes that are given to us in the Old Testament and all the times the New Testament writers referenced back to the Old Testament as a means of correction or clarification.
Even Christ himself, with the institution of the new covenant, gives us a sacrament by which we may remember the past and what was done for us.
The history of the church, which is the full story of our redemption, is far more valuable than we give it credit for. Failing to know who we truly are starts with failing to remember.
A large part of the church’s story happened about 500 years ago centering around the Protestant reformation. The church had long dealt with various heresies, false teachings and public sins that ultimately led to a need for the church to be reformed.
A part of the reformation was the drafting of confessions of faith, which unified the church in its doctrine, and Catechisms which allowed everyone to possess a clear knowledge of the word and gave them the tools for giving a defense of scripture.
Those who drafted these documents committed their lives to understanding the word and preserving the beliefs of the church so that the future didn’t repeat the same mistakes as the past.
The unfortunate fact is that the present day church has failed to remember these confessions and as a result is failing to know who it truly is.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, The Heidelberg Catechism, The Canons of Dort, and the Apostles Creed are all but forgotten in the modern church, relics of a bygone era. Inevitably, and should be no surprise, the same heresies, false teachings and public sins have once again found their way to the present because we have failed to remember that past.
The church is shrinking and slipping because we have no footing. We all think we know better than those who came before us and as a result give no credence to the words and beliefs of our fathers. This can not be, this must not be.
We in fact do not know better. Certainly our culture is different now and our circumstances have changed but the word of God has not changed, nor has what the word means for us.
We must have a grounding and we must have a view of scripture that exists outside our own personal, narrow focus. We must listen to and intimately know the voices of the past or we will be a generation who blots out the past and shapes the future based on our own desires.
Dear reader, read the creeds and confessions I have mentioned, get to know them and preserve them for the future. You may not agree with everything they say, but if you are a Protestant, they are your history and we must remember.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.