Christian History

This section is not an attempt to tell the complete history of Christianity Two thousand years of Christian history across countless countries, cultures, churches, movements, and individuals could never be adequately summarized here. Instead, I am examining several specific questions that matter for this website. First, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary beauty in Christian history: Christians who cared for the sick and poor, fought injustice, translated Scripture,

How can we discern what is of the Holy Spirit and what comes from human sin, the flesh, or even spiritual evil—particularly when considering the complexity of Christian history? God’s Word is very helpful in answering this important question. Christian history contains extraordinary beauty. Christians have cared for the poor, served the sick, forgiven enemies, fought injustice, sacrificed their lives for others, and demonstrated remarkable courage and love. Christian hi

Before examining some of the darkest parts of Christian history, I want to begin somewhere else. There is much beauty in Christian History. Across nearly two thousand years, Christians have fed hungry people, cared for abandoned children, tended the sick when others were afraid to approach them, established hospitals and shelters, educated children, visited prisoners, opposed slavery and racism, defended people being exploited, translated the Bible into the language of th

The Black Church and the Civil Rights Movement Christian courage was also central to much of the American Civil Rights Movement. Again, this history contains painful contradictions. Many white churches defended segregation. Others tolerated it. Others remained silent. Martin Luther King Jr. knew this painfully well. But Christianity was also one of the primary spiritual languages through which Black Americans organized resistance to segregation. Black churches

Should centuries of Christian agreement ever be treated as proof that a doctrine cannot be wrong? This is not a history of Christianity. It is a focused examination of one historical question: should centuries of Christian agreement ever be treated as proof that a doctrine cannot be wrong? That question matters enormously for this study. Throughout this website, I ask Christians to reconsider several major theological beliefs that have been dominant within Christianity fo

It is not just Christian leaders that are fallible. Christian institutions are fallible as well and have made some grave mistakes throughout history. That does not mean all of the Church’s theology is wrong. That does not mean God has not been at work. It does mean that Christians in every generation should continually examine the Scriptures to ensure the theology we have inherited matches with the teaching of God, Jesus, and the apostles. It does mean that there may be areas

A thoughtful Christian could reasonably object at this point: All right. Christians were terribly wrong about religious coercion. They were wrong about slavery. They mistreated Jewish people. They treated women in ways Christians today would condemn. But none of that proves that the Church was wrong about the Trinity, the nature of Jesus, eternal punishment, or any other major Christian doctrine. There is an important truth in that objection. The historical examples in

The idea that the Holy Spirit is feminine—or can properly be understood as Mother—is not new. It has deep roots in ancient Christianity, especially in Jewish-Christian and Syriac Christian traditions. Some early Christians used feminine grammar for the Spirit; some used explicitly feminine imagery; some identified the Spirit with the feminine figure of divine Wisdom; and some directly called the Holy Spirit Mother. (van Oort; Brock; Takeda 59–86) Church historian Johannes v

A Christian encountering universal salvation for the first time may understandably think: If this is really what the Bible teaches, why haven’t Christians always believed it? That is an important question. Church history does not determine what Scripture means. An interpretation is not true merely because an ancient Christian believed it, just as an interpretation is not true merely because most Christians believe it today. Scripture must ultimately decide the questio

The Historical Development of Jesus’ Divinity For many Christians, Church history feels like powerful evidence that Jesus must be God. I understand why. If the divinity of Jesus has been affirmed by the dominant streams of Christianity for roughly seventeen centuries, and if many faithful, intelligent, God-loving Christians have defended that belief, how could the Church have been wrong about something so central? That question mattered enormously to me when I began e

What History Actually Proves—and What It Does Not History does not prove that Jesus is not God. I want to be explicit about that. If Arius had been kind and Athanasius cruel, that would not prove Arius’s exegesis correct. If Constantine had been perfectly Christlike, that would not prove homoousios was biblical. If most Christians before Nicaea had believed exactly what I believe, that still would not make my theology true. Scripture must decide the theological qu

Studying Christian history has left me with both greater gratitude and greater humility. There is extraordinary beauty in the history of the Church. Across centuries, Christians have cared for the poor and sick, protected vulnerable people, translated Scripture, challenged injustice, forgiven enemies, created beauty, crossed cultures to serve others, and quietly followed Christ in ways history may never have recorded. I believe much of that beauty reflects the light of

1 Clement. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.html. Accessed 1 Sept. 2026. ADRA International. Frequently Asked Questions. Accessed 31 Aug. 2026. Anabaptist World. Suffering Church. Accessed 31 Aug. 2026. Aphrahat. The Demonstrations of Ap