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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Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg
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Biography for 5th-8th grade
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And the Word Came With Power
by Joanne Shetler, Patricia Purvis
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
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Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary
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Beyond the Sacred Page
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Biography of James A. Garfield
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Black Heroes of the American Revolution
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Boy's War
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Buffalo Bill
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Come On, Seabiscuit!
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D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths - Audio CD
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Daniel Boone
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Davy Crockett
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Diary of a Young Girl
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Explorers Who Got Lost
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Explorers Who Got Lost
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Father to Nobody's Children
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For God and Country
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Forty-Acre Swindle
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George Washington
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George Washington & the Founding of a Nation
by Albert Marrin
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Glimpses of Truth
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Going Solo
by Roald Dahl
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Harriet Tubman
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Heart Strangely Warmed
by Louise A. Vernon
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Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
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Hero Tales
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History of US Book 7
History of US Book 7
by Joy Hakim
3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
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In the Days of Queen Victoria
by Eva March Tappan
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J. Pierpont Morgan
by Michael Burgan
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John Bunyan
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John Paul Jones
Sterling Point Books
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Kitty, My Rib
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Life of General Stonewall Jackson
by Mary Williamson
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Life of Washington
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Lincoln: A Photobiography
by Russell Freedman
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Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
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Luther the Leader
by Virgil Robinson
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March (Book One)
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Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Winner, Coretta Scott King Honor Book
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March (Book Two)
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March - Boxed Set
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Mary Slessor
Women of Faith
by Basil Miller
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Michael Faraday
by Charles Ludwig
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Mystery On Everest
by George Mallory
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Outrageous Women of the American Frontier
Outrageous Women
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Piece of the Mountain
by Joyce McPherson
from Greenleaf Press
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River of Grace
by Joyce McPherson
2nd edition from Greenleaf Press
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Sacajawea
by Joseph Bruchac
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by William Rang
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Separate Battle
Young Readers' History of the Civil War
by Ina Chang
Reprint from Puffin Books
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Separate Battle
Young Readers' History of the Civil War
by Ina Chang
from Scholastic Reference
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Small Steps
by Peg Kehret
from Albert Whitman & Company
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Stonewall Jackson
Famous Figures of the Civil War Era
by Martha S. Hewson
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Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
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Story of Eli Whitney
by Jean Lee Latham
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This Was John Calvin
by Thea Van Halsema
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Thunderstorm in Church
by Louise Vernon
from Herald Press
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Tommorow You Die
International Adventures
by Reona Peterson Joly
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Trial and Triumph
by Richard Hannula
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Triumph on Everest
by Broughton Coburn
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Virginia's General
by Albert Marrin
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What Really Happened in Ancient Times
by Terri Johnson, editor, illustrated by Darla Dixon
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What Really Happened in Ancient Times
by Terri Johnson, editor
Revised from Knowledge Quest
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What Really Happened In Colonial Times
by Terri Johnson, editor
from Knowledge Quest
Biographies for 4th-8th grade
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
What Really Happened In Colonial Times
by Terri Johnson, editor
Revised from Knowledge Quest
Biographies for 4th-8th grade
in Colonial America (1690-1765) (Location: HISA-17COL)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
William Bradford
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Eerdmans
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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With Custer's Cavalry
by Katherine Gibson Fougera
from University of Nebraska
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
World of the Trapp Family
by William Anderson
1st edition
for 6th-9th grade
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Zlata's Diary
by Zlata Filipovic
from Scholastic Inc.
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$3.00 (1 in stock)