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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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
Hornblower Series #11
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Al Capone Does My Shirts
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Beat to Quarters
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Between the Forest and the Hills
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Beyond the Desert Gate
Bethlehem Books Young Adult Bookshelf
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Captain, My Captain
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Charis in the World of Wonders
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Code Name Verity
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Defender of the Faith
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 2
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Reformation Trail Series #13
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Huguenot Inheritance Series #7
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A Young Royals Book
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Driven into Exile
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Escape
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Fiddler's Gun
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William and Mary Trilogy Volume 3
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Hardest Thing to Do
Hawk and the Dove Series #4
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by Jeanette Ingold
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Hornblower Series #5
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Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower Series #3
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from Little, Brown & Company
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Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower Series #4
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Hour Before Dawn
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How They Kept the Faith
Huguenot Inheritance Series #3
by Grace Raymond
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Hubert Ellerdale
Reformation Trail Series #01
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I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys
from Philomel Books
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I Serve
by Rosanne E. Lortz
from Anno Domini
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I Will Maintain
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 1
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
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Ides of April
Bethlehem Books Young Adult Bookshelf
by Mary Ray
from Bethlehem Books
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If The South Had Won The Civil War
by MacKinlay Kantor
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Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
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Journey Through the Night
by Anne De Vries
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by Brandon G. Withrow
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Laddie
by Gene Stratton-Porter
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Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper
Reprint from Penguin Classics
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Les Miserables
Modern Library
by Victor Hugo, translated by Julie Rose
from Modern Library
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Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower Series #2
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Little Women
by Lousia May Alcott
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Lord Hornblower
Hornblower Series #10
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from Little, Brown & Company
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Lovely War
by Julie Berry
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Lysbeth
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Master Puppeteer
by Katherine Paterson
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Morbid Taste for Bones
Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters
Reissue from Mysterious Press
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Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Hornblower Series #1
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My Own Lightning
by Lauren Wolk
from Dutton Children's Books
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Night Divided
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
from Scholastic Press
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Not for Crown or Sceptre
Reformation Trail Series #15
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
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$25.95
Ocean-Born Mary
by Lois Lenski
1st Edition Thus from Purple House Press
for 3rd-10th grade
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One Corpse Too Many
Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters
Reissue from Mysterious Press
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Pearl Maiden
by H. Rider Haggard
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Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
Reprint from Penguin Classics
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Prince and Heretic
Prince of Orange Nassau Volume 1
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
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$17.95
Princess Ka'iulani
by Sharon Linnea
from Eerdmans
Biography for 7th-Adult
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Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by W. S. Kuniczak
from Hippocrene Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$24.95
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$14.95
Refugees
Huguenot Inheritance Series #6
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Inheritance Publications
Historical fiction for 7th-10th grade
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$15.96
Remember Me
Hawk and the Dove Series #6
by Penelope Wilcock
3rd Revised edition from Lion Publishing
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$14.99
Romance of Tristan and Iseult
by Hilaire Belloc
from Dover Publications
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$6.95
Rose Under Fire
by Elizabeth Wein
from Little, Brown & Company
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Saga of Eric Brighteyes
by H. Rider Haggard
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$29.95
Scottish Chiefs
by Jane Porter
from CreateSpace
Historical Epic for 8th-10th grade
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$14.95
Secret Mission
Huguenot Inheritance Series #2
by A. Van der Jagt
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Sherwood Ring
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Ship of the Line
Hornblower Series #7
by C. S. Forester
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Pearl / Sir Orfeo
by Anonymous, J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator)
from Mariner Books
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$16.99
Soldier of Virginia
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
Biography for 9th-12th grade
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$12.95
Spanish Brothers
Reformation Trail Series #10
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-12th grade
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$14.95
Squalls Before War
by Ned Bustard
from Veritas Press
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Story of King Arthur and His Knights
Howard Pyle's King Arthur series book 1.
by Howard Pyle
from Dover Publications
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 7th-10tth grade
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$14.95
Story of Liberty
by Charles Coffin
from Maranatha Publications
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Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur
Howard Pyle's King Arthur series book 4
by Howard Pyle
from Dover Publications
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 7th-10th grade
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$9.50
Story of the Trapp Family Singers
by Maria Augusta Trapp
from HarperCollins
Biography for 7th-10th grade
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$16.99
Tale of the Cid: and Other Stories of Knights and Chivalry
by Andrew Lang
from Dover Publications
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$9.95
The Robe
by Lloyd Douglas
from Houghton Mifflin
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The Thunder
by Douglas Bond
from P&R Publishing
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$14.99
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
from Harper Perennial
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$16.99
Under Drake's Flag
by G. A. Henty
from Dover Publications
for 6th-10th grade
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$6.99
Under the Inquisition
Reformation Trail Series #11
by Elizabeth H. Walshe
from Inheritance Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Reformation Trail Series (Location: FIC-WH06)
$15.95
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