As I have admitted in the past on this blog, I love studying church history. I so enjoy learning at the feet of our spiritual fathers and mothers who have come before us, and I consider myself a student of the sound biblical teaching that has come out of every era, in some capacity, since the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever I read something from someone who has contributed greatly to the Christian faith in the past, I feel honored to glean wisdom in any degree from individuals who were gifted with more intellect and wisdom than I will ever possess, but even with this feeling of honor, I recognize that nobody in history, yet alone in church history, was perfect. In fact, many of our Christian heroes from history had either significant personal flaws or taught something at some point that runs counter to Scripture. Imperfect people litter the entirety of church history.
But in His providence, these imperfect people have yet been used mightily by our perfect God to advance the gospel and bring glory to Himself. The Bible teaches that we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory, which means that church history giants such as Augustine, Martin Luther, and Charles Spurgeon have also sinned and fallen short of God's glory. It is a divine mystery, only explained by appealing to the grace and mercy of our Creator, that God, while needing nothing, desires to use imperfect men and women to expand His Kingdom to the ends of the Earth, and I, for one, am extremely thankful that God is still calling out people to accomplish His purposes today.
I mention all of this to emphasize an important point we must always keep in mind when studying church history and/or evaluating modern Christian leaders nowadays. When learning at their feet, we must remember that they are imperfect, and that is good for us to admit that. We should not gloss over the flaws in living or teaching they possessed, but rather, we should recognize that, while we all have flaws, we can still be used by God in spite of them. It is healthy for fellow believers to freely realize that no one in church history or in the present landscape of Christianity is above reproach. Pastors, teachers, and other church leaders are flawed and imperfect, but our perfect God uses the flawed and imperfect to carry out His will in the world, which is a remarkable blessing for every man and woman who has surrendered to the calling place upon their life.
Thus, with all this being said, you should find yourself disagreeing with figures in history as well as current figures regularly because no one from any time period has all the answers. However, while you may disagree with something they have taught in the past, a theological or practical disagreement does not mean that individual should be ignored entirety. To use a popular term from today's day and age, we should avoid cancelling people from church history just because we do not agree with everything they taught about God's Word. I tell our church as often as I can that they should not even agree with me all the time even though I serve as their lead pastor, for I, too, am imperfect and will inevitably make mistakes from time to time in my interpretation or application of Scripture. We should always take what is declared from history or from the modern pulpit and run it through the prism of the Bible to see if what is being declared is biblical or not, because at the end of the day, God and His Word, not people and their word, should be the ultimate and supreme authority in the believer's life.
If you find yourself in complete sync with any individual on matters of the Bible or theology, your spiritual red flags should come up because you, then, should be asking yourself whether you are following Scripture or if you are following a person. It is necessary for us to learn from church history and from people presently making history for God's glory today, but it is also necessary for us discern what is biblical and what is not in the words and actions of those individuals. Recognizing that everyone used by God is imperfect is imperative for us to keep in mind as we endeavor to sift through history and through the teachings of today. No one is perfect, which means no one's living or teaching is perfect, but they are all in service to a perfect God who does not call the qualified but instead qualifies the called.
Today, I am grateful, personally, that God has called me into ministry despite my numerous flaws and imperfections, and I am equally grateful that God has called men and women for centuries into His service despite their numerous flaws and imperfections as well. God does not need anyone to accomplish His purposes, but He wants to use us to accomplish His purposes, and along the way as we are used by God, our imperfections will be highlighted in order to further highlight His perfection. Even though we are broken sinners, God still uses surrendered lives to change the world through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is, inherently, the beauty of the gospel.
So next time you find yourself disagreeing with an early church father or with a modern-day evangelical, before cancelling them and ignoring all of their subsequent contributions to the Church, take a moment to pause and thank the Lord that our perfect God has chosen imperfect people to make the name of Jesus known in the world. Then, take another moment to pause and thank the Lord that our perfect God has chosen you to make the name of Jesus known in the world, for all believers are called to go and make disciples in all nations. I implore you today, believer, to surrender your imperfect life to our perfect God and just watch what He will do with a life yielded totally to Him!
For His glory,
Cody Fleenor
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