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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Adam and His Kin
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Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
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Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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Cornet of Horse
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by G. A. Henty
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by Isaac Bashevis Singer
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Defender of the Faith
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 2
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Doctor Adrian
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Done and Dared in Old France
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Driven into Exile
Huguenot Inheritance Series #5
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Crown & Covenant Series #1
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Escape
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Faith and Freedom
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Faithful, But Not Famous
Emma Leslie Church History Series
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False Coin, True Coin
by Lois Hoadley Dick
from Bob Jones University Press
Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Fiddler's Gun
by A. S. Peterson
1st edition from Rabbit Room Press
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by Paul L. Maier
2nd edition from Kregel Publications
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Flight into Spring
by Bianca Bradbury
from Bethlehem Books
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For God and the King
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 3
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For Name and Fame
by G. A. Henty
from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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For the Temple
by G. A. Henty
from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
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Forgotten Daughter
by Caroline Dale Snedeker
from American Home-School Publishing
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1934 Newbery Honor Book
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Forgotten Daughter
by Caroline Dale Snedeker
from Bethlehem Books
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1934 Newbery Honor Book
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Fortune of War
Aubrey/Maturin #6
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$6.50 (1 in stock)
Friends Though Divided
by G. A. Henty
from Robinson Curriculum
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in G. A. Henty Books (Location: FIC-HEN)
From Glencoe to Stirling
Tales of a Scottish Grandfather Volume 3
by Sir Walter Scott
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Historical Non-Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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Girl in a Cage
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Glimpses of Truth
Book of Books #1
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God's Mountain Man
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Gold Rush Dogs
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Golden Age
by Kenneth Grahame
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by Laura Amy Schlitz
from Candlewick Press
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2008 Newbery Medal Winner
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by Laura Amy Schlitz
2nd edition from Candlewick Press
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Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Classics
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Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
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by Ron Tagliapietra
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