Chronological History

Sometimes we speak of world history as though it belongs to people. It doesn't—it belongs to God, and though people play prominently within the historical narrative, it always remains under God's auspices and control. The problem with losing the right perspective isn't that we'll get the facts wrong, it's that we'll fail to understand what they mean, what the purpose of past events is, and what we can look forward to.

Human history began all at once in the same place: the Garden of Eden, where God made Adam and Eve as the crown of all Creation. He told them to fill the earth and take dominion of it, and He also told them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate the fruit anyway, and mankind was removed from paradise and introduced to tension, pain, and resistance.

The story of the world is in many ways simply the story of adversity. For the enemies of God, it's adversity in the form of the failure and futility of purely human endeavor; for God's people, it's the story of fighting for the truth against secular philosophies, fighting for holiness despite the pervasiveness of sin, and fighting for the Gospel in the face of persecution and death.

Jesus Christ is our only hope. He is the Prince of Peace, the defeater of Death, and the King of the Universe, the saver of souls and the punisher of wickedness. His kingdom is the restoration and glorious fulfillment of the paradise from which Adam and Eve were removed, and we work, wait, hope and pray for the quick fulfillment of His will in all things.

This is our framework for history. While it's important to study things like the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the ancient Near East, it's only important when investigated through the lens of God's ultimate sovereignty and plan. The story of mankind is the story of redemption, and only when we analyze battles, kings, treaties, and catastrophes from God's perspective can we truly make sense of them.

Otherwise, it's all fairly irrelevant and useless. Sure, there's Napoleon's dictum that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, but a quick survey of the past will show that each successive generation does repeat the sins of their fathers, and that without Christ's real physical life on Earth as a centering point, there's no real cause for optimism or hope of any kind.

Christ's love not only makes the trajectory of history cause for hope; it reveals the truly great moments of the past, events that to the secular eye seem insignificant or even pernicious. We're speaking of the progress of the true Church, of course, and of each soul that God calls and makes His own through the agency of His Holy Spirit. These are the milestones we look for and celebrate.

We carry a lot of world history products. Because it's the story of God's work in the world and our human responses, we believe it's important to know and understand. Not everything we carry is Christian; there are plenty of secular resources here. We encourage you to use whichever ones work best for your situation, but that you do so with a view to understanding the will and work of the One who made history in the first place.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

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18 Penny Goose
An I Can Read Book Level 3
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Adam of the Road
Puffin Newbery Library
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1943 Newbery Medal winner
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King's Fifth
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Land I Lost
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Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt
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Lion to Guard Us
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Little House - Softcover Boxed Set
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Little Men
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Long Way Westward
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Mara, Daughter of the Nile
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Matchlock Gun
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Minstrel in the Tower
by Gloria Skurzynski
from Random House
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Mr. Popper's Penguins
by Richard & Florence Atwater, illustrated by Jim Madsen
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1939 Newbery Honor Book
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Mr. Revere and I
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Odyssey (retold)
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Old Yeller
by Fred Gipson
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1957 Newbery Honor Book
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On the Banks of Plum Creek
Little House Series #4
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
from HarperCollins
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1938 Newbery Honor Book
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On the Way Home
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Parallel Journeys
by Eleanor Ayers, Helen Waterford, & Alfons Heck
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Pedro's Journal
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Sarah, Plain and Tall
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30th Anniversary from HarperCollins
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1986 Newbery Medal winner
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Second Mrs. Giaconda
by E. L. Konigsburg
from Aladdin Paperbacks
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Shades of Gray
by Carolyn Reeder
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Historical Fiction for 4th-6th grade
Scott O'Dell Award
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Shakespeare's Spy
Shakespeare Stealer #3
by Gary Blackwood
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Sign of the Beaver
by Elizabeth George Speare
from Houghton Mifflin
Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1984 Newbery Honor Book
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Singing Tree
Puffin Newbery Library
by Kate Seredy
from Puffin Books
Realistic fiction for 4th-6th grade
1940 Newbery Honor Book
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$7.99
Sky at Our Feet
by Nadia Hashimi
from HarperCollins
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$6.99
Skylark
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
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Snowshoe Thompson
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Nancy Smiler Levinson & Joan Sandin
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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$4.99
So Far From the Bamboo Grove
by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
from Beech Tree Books
Historical fiction for 4th-8th grade
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Soft Rain
by Cornelia Cornelissen
from Yearling
Historical fiction for 3rd-5th grade
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Strawberry Girl
by Lois Lenski
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Realistic fiction for 4th-6th grade
1946 Newbery Medal winner
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$9.99
Sword and the Circle
Arthurian Trilogy #1
by Rosemary Sutcliff
from Puffin Books
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 4th-8th grade
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$7.99
Sword in the Tree
by Clyde Robert Bulla
from HarperCollins
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Tales from Shakespeare
Puffin Classics
by Charles & Mary Lamb
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Shakespeare Stories for 3rd-8th grade
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$8.99
Tales of Uncle Remus
Puffin Modern Classics
by Julius Lester
Reissue from Puffin Books
for 3rd-7th grade
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$7.99
Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth Enright
from Square Fish Publishing
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
1939 Newbery Medal winner
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Toliver's Secret
by Esther Brady
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Historical Fiction for 3rd-6th grade
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Trail of Tears
Step into Reading Level 5
by Joseph Bruchac
from Random House
Historical Non-fiction for 2nd-4th grade
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Trojan Horse
Step Into Reading Level 5
by Emily Little
from Random House
Greek Mythology for 2nd-4th grade
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Turn Homeward, Hannalee
by Patricia Beatty
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Twenty and Ten
by Claire Huchet Bishop
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Wagon Wheels
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Barbara Brenner
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Whipping Boy
by Sid Fleischman
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1987 Newbery Medal winner
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White Stag
Puffin Newbery Library
by Kate Seredy
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Heroic Legend for 4th-6th grade
1938 Newbery Medal winner
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Witch of Blackbird Pond
by Elizabeth George Speare
Reissue from Sandpiper Books
Historical Fiction for 4th-8th grade
1959 Newbery Medal winner
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Year of Impossible Goodbyes
by Sook Nyul Choi
from Yearling
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$7.99