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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Book of Marvels: Marvels of the Orient
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Day and a Life
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Defender of the Faith
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 2
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Hawk and the Dove Series #4
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Hornblower Series #5
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Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower Series #3
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Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower Series #4
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Hubert Ellerdale
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I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys
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I Serve
by Rosanne E. Lortz
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I Will Maintain
William and Mary Trilogy Volume 1
by Marjorie Bowen
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If The South Had Won The Civil War
by MacKinlay Kantor
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Impossible Escape
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Signet Classics
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by Sir Walter Scott
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Leatherstocking Tales #2
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Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
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Last of the Mohicans
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by James Fenimore Cooper
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by James Fenimore Cooper, Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
from SeaWolf Press
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$11.95
Les Miserables
Signet Classics
by Victor Hugo, translated by Lee Fahnestock & Norman MacAfee
from Signet Classics
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by Victor Hugo, translated by Julie Rose
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by Victor Hugo, translated by Charles Wilbour
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Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
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Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower Series #2
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from Little, Brown & Company
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Little Women
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Lord Hornblower
Hornblower Series #10
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Lovely War
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from Christian Liberty Press
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Mary, Bloody Mary
A Young Royals Book
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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
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
Nautical fiction for 8th-Adult
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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
from Christian Liberty Press
Historical Fiction for 8th-Adult
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Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Signet Classics
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$7.95
Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
Reprint from Penguin Classics
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$15.00
Prince and Heretic
Prince of Orange Nassau Volume 1
by Marjorie Bowen
from Inheritance Publications
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$17.95
Prince and the Pauper
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
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$5.95
Princess Ka'iulani
by Sharon Linnea
from Eerdmans
Biography for 7th-Adult
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$15.00
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
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
Romulus
Makers of History series
by Jacob Abbott
from Yesterday's Classics
History for 8th-12th grade
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Rose Under Fire
by Elizabeth Wein
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$10.99
Saga of Eric Brighteyes
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1st edition from Leaves of Gold Press
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$29.95
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from Rutledge Hill Press
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$18.98
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Signet Classics
by Baroness Orczy
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by Baroness Orczy
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by Elizabeth Marie Pope
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Ship of the Line
Hornblower Series #7
by C. S. Forester
from Little, Brown & Company
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Pearl / Sir Orfeo
by Anonymous, J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator)
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$8.99
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Pearl / Sir Orfeo
by Anonymous, J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator)
from Mariner Books
Medieval Fairy Tale/Poetry for 8th-Adult
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$16.99
Snow Goose
by Paul Gallico
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-12th grade
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$19.95 $14.00 (2 in stock)
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
in Reformation Trail Series (Location: FIC-WH06)
$14.95
Story of Liberty
by Charles Coffin
from Maranatha Publications
Historical Reference for 10th-Adult
in America's Christian Heritage (Location: HISA-CH)
$19.97 $10.00 (3 in stock)
Surfman's Daughter
by Rebecca Locklear
for 6th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$7.95
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