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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1066: The Year of the Conquest
by David Howarth
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1776
by David McCullough
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Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches
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Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt
by Theodore Roosevelt
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by Virgil, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
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Aeneid
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Aeneid Of Virgil
by Virgil, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
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Aeschylus II: The Oresteia
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
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And There Was Light
by Jacques Lusseyran
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Penguin Classics
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Oxford World's Classics
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Antigone
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Scribner Illustrated Classics
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Band of Brothers
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Basic Works of Aristotle
by Aristotle
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Oxford History of the United States
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Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
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Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings
Signet Classics
by Benjamin Franklin
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Beowulf
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Beowulf
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Beowulf
Dover Thrift Editions
by Anonymous, translated by R. K. Gordon
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Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by Seamus Heaney
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Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by Douglas Wilson
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Betty Before X
by Ilyasah Shabazz with Renee Watson
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Birth of the Modern
by Paul Johnson
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Social Commentary for 10th-Adult
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Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire
by James Headlam
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Bluestocking Guide - Ancient Rome
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Bondage of the Will
by Martin Luther, translated by J. I. Packer and O. R. Robinson
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Bondage of the Will
by Martin Luther, translated by Henry Cole
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Bonhoeffer
by Eric Metaxas, foreword by Timothy J. Keller
Revised and Updated from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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Book of Discovery
by M. B. Synge
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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
by Richard Halliburton
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Breath of Peace
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Brethren
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Bridge to the Sun
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Brightest Heaven of Invention
by Peter Leithart
from Canon Press
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$21.00
Brit. Lit. Volume 9
by P. G. Wodehouse
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$12.00
Bruchko
by Bruce Olson
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Bruchko and the Motilone Miracle
by Bruce Olson
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Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology
by Thomas Bulfinch
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By Far Euphrates
by Deborah Alcock
from Inheritance Publications
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C. S. Lewis: A Life
by Alister McGrath
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Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
from Back Bay Books
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1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
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Call of Duty
Leaders in Action Series
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Call to Conscience
by Martin Luther King, Jr., Edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard
from Grand Central Publishing
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$16.00
Canterbury Tales
Penguin Classics
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Nevill Coghill)
from Penguin Classics
Medieval Poetry for 8th-12th grade
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$11.00
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by David Wright
from Oxford University
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$8.95
Captain Blood
Penguin Classics
by Rafael Sabatini
from Penguin Classics
Historical Romance for 7th-Adult
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$16.00
Carver: A Life in Poems
by Marilyn Nelson
from Boyds Mill Press
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2002 Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Award
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$16.95
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
50th Anniversary Edition from Simon and Schuster
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$18.99
Chance to Die
by Elisabeth Elliot
from Revell Publishing
Biography for 8th-12th grade
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$22.99
Chang Cheng
from Z-Man Games
Historical Strategy Game for Ages 10 and Up
$29.00
Charis in the World of Wonders
by Marly Youmans
from Ignatius Press
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$17.95
Christian Survey of World History - Compact Disc Set
by R. J. Rushdoony
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$90.00
Churchill
by Paul Johnson
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
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$17.00
Citizen Soldiers
by Stephen Ambrose
from Simon and Schuster
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$20.99
City of God
Penguin Classics
by Augustine of Hippo (translated by Henry Bettenson)
from Penguin Classics
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$18.00
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Penguin Classics
by Julius Caesar
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$14.00
Civil War Between the States
by Tom Spencer
from Logos School
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$21.50
Civil War Stories
by Ambrose Bierce
from Dover Publications
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$5.00
Civil War: A Narrative - 3 Volume Set
by Shelby Foote
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$88.00
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Co. Aytch
by Sam Watkins
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by Elizabeth Wein
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$10.99
Colonial Experience
A Basic History of the United States Volume 1
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
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$17.00
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