“Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Or so the saying goes. Those that refuse to consider the past, when making choices in the present, often arrive at similarly bad conclusions. This phrase strikes a chord with many. Perhaps it’s because we’re always looking forward, seldom pausing to consider the past. Part of our DNA seems to include the belief that the next best thing is just up on the horizon. Who can blame us? Isn’t it true? At least with technology it is. The next generation computer, or Iphone or IPad is going to be better than the previous one. Things improve over time, as we discover new ways of making them faster, smaller, bigger, cheaper, and more reliable.

Many within the evangelical Christian community seem to adopt this same belief when it comes to understanding Christianity and how that applies to our corporate lives. We’re often looking for the next thing, God’s next move, a “new and improved, better than the old” way of doing things. It’s here that the saying about history applies. However, I would like to modify it to say this: “Those who fail to understand where they have come from are likely to get off track and lose their way”. This is what causes so many of the problems for the modern church. We only look at the present to guide us as we move into the future.

This is one of the reasons I love reading the Early Church Fathers. Specifically those who wrote prior to the Council of Nicaea: Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, The Didache, The Shepherd of Hermas, and the Epistle of Barnabas among others. They give us a view of how the earliest Christians understood the New Testament writings and more importantly how they lived their faith out. Every time I read through one of these letters, I am richly rewarded. Not because these guys wrote scripture.  It’s because I feel a connection to them, as brothers who went before me. As believers who followed Christ, I get to learn from them.

Many of us have no problem reading books by the heavy hitters of our own time. These guys were the heavy hitters of their time. Their writings, though not scripture, read like scripture. You will find reading them very similar to reading the New Testament.

Many of these works you can get for free on the internet. You can also buy them in book form. My favorite one is The Apostolic Fathers, Greek Texts and English Translations, by Michael W. Holmes. He also has one that contains only the English translation. It is the newest, most up-to-date and hippest version out there. Seriously, read the early church Fathers. You will be glad you did.