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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Ahoy There, Little Polar Bear
by Hans de Beer
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Alexander the Great
by Andrew Langley
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Angel Child, Dragon Child
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Antarctic Antics
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Apples to Oregon
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Archaeologists Dig For Clues
Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Stage 2
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Baseball Saved Us
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Adventures in Colonial America
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Blue Feather's Vision
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
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Bracelet, The
by Yoshika Uchida
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Children's Color Book of Jamestown in Virginia
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Civil War Artist
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Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
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by Mary Pope Osborne
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First Thanksgiving
by Jean Craighead George
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Freedom on the Menu
by Carole Boston Weatherford
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Going West!
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by Jean Marzollo, illustrated by J. Brian Pinkney
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Picture Book Biography for Kindergarten-3rd grade
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In 1492
by Jean Marzollo
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Outer Banks Animals Adventure Series
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Jamestown
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers
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Adventures in Colonial America
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by Michael Bania
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Liberty!
by Lucille Recht Penner
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Little Polar Bear
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Mama, Do You Love Me?
by Barbara M. Joosse
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Meet Thomas Jefferson
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by Jill Paton Walsh & Fiona French
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Persian Cinderella
by Shirley Climo & Robert Florczak
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Peter the Great
by Diane Stanley
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Pieter Brugel
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Prehistory to Egypt
by Gloria Verges, Maria Rius, Oriol Verges
1st edition from Barron's
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Renaissance - Coloring Book
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Riding the Pony Express
by Clyde Robert Bulla
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Sailing Off to Sleep
by Linda Ashman
from Simon and Schuster
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Sailing to America
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
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Salem Days
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
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Salem Days
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
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Samuel Eaton's Day
by Kate Waters
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Sarah Morton's Day
by Kate Waters
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Seeker of Knowledge
by James Rumford
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Senators of Rome
Copper Lodge Library
by Mary MacGregor, edited and introduced by Stephanie B. Meter
from Classical Conversations
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Seventh and Walnut
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
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in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
Seventh and Walnut
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
Non-fiction for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
Sky Boys
by Deborah Hopkinson
from Dragonfly Books
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DK Readers Level 2
by Deborah Lock
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Squanto's Journey
by Joseph Bruchac
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Statue of Liberty
A Step into Reading Book Level 1
by Lucille Recht Penner
from Random House
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$4.99
Sticker Dolly Dressing: Wartime Fashions
by Emily Bone
from Usborne
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Sticker Dressing: Second World War
by Lisa Jane Gillespie
from Usborne
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Stories of Knights
Usborne Young Reading
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Story of Ruby Bridges
by Robert Coles, Illustrated by George Ford
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Story of Ruby Bridges
by Robert Coles, Illustrated by George Ford
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$4.50 (2 in stock)
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
by Deborah Hopkinson
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$7.99
Tacky the Penguin
by Helen Lester
from Sandpiper Books
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Temple Cat
by Andrew Clements
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The Wall
by Eve Bunting
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Titanic Sticker Book
by Megan Cullis
from Usborne
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What You Know First
by Patricia MacLachlan
from HarperCollins
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$6.99
When Jessie Came Across the Sea
by Amy Hest, illustrated by P. J. Lynch
from Candlewick Press
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Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?
from PaperStar Books
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$6.99
Winter at Valley Forge
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Beautiful Feet Books
Non-fiction for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)
$6.95
Winter at Valley Forge
Adventures in Colonial America
by James Knight
from Troll Publishing
Non-fiction for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)