Why church history matters

I've been doing a study of the second-century Ebionites for an on-again, off-again project I've had simmering for a few years. The term was originally used of Jewish-Christians in general, but came to be applied to groups that were more focused on law, and some of whom even denied the deity of Jesus. Ebionism died out fairly early in the history of the church, but the Ebionites or their predecessors may have been one of the groups Paul criticized in his epistles.

The study of this group is a fascinating study in and of itself, and I certainly don't want to imply that you shouldn't study something just because it fascinates you. Sometimes I think too much of what we study (and by "we" I mean "me" especially) is done for practical purposes. I do a lot of teaching, and some preaching, and I'm always looking at the texts I'm using and digging into them for those purposes. It's fun to study something just for the sake of study. Yet as I looked into the Ebionites and their beliefs, I found that there is still a relevance to examining their beliefs.

The most prominent difference between the second-century Ebionites and orthodox Christians was their focus on the Law. It may have begun as a specifically Jewish observation among those who had become followers of Jesus as Messiah, but it turned into a requirement for salvation. To the Ebionites, it wasn't enough to be saved by faith in Jesus; you also had to observe the Law to be in right standing with God. This belief may have led to some of the more extreme forms of Ebionism, like the groups that denied Jesus' divinity. The Law became far more important than grace.

So why do I find this relevant? You can probably find a church near you that claims to believe in salvation by grace through faith but has its own "law" you have to keep to really be saved. I have been in and around a number of churches that certainly seem to preach salvation by your good works, even as they gave lip service to God's grace. To be a "genuine" Christian, you have to show it by living up to the standards they have set up. Jesus just isn't enough.

That is no more true today than it was in the second century. I don't depreciate the value of good works, since we're told by Jesus that they are evidence of the change in our hearts. But you don't get to heaven by being good, and you certainly don't get to heaven by keeping man-made rules that some church decides are the right ones. I also think that, just like the Ebionites, churches that focus on "law" tend to move theologically away from the truth about the person and work of Jesus Christ. If I need to keep a law or set of rules to be saved, then Jesus' death is essentially irrelevant.

I don't want to go too far in drawing the parallels here, but I think an awareness of the ways the church and groups connected with it have gone astray is a powerful reminder to us that it's easy to put our own ideas in the place of God's Word. Some modern heresies and questionable teachings actually have historical precedents, and it's our ignorance of our own past that allows them to proliferate.

What's the answer? Of course I'm going to say we need to study and learn church history, but even a simple awareness of our own tendencies to wander from the truth should keep us on guard. We need to subject everything to the teaching of the Scriptures. When we focus on the Word Incarnate and the Word revealed we will have strong help in remaining faithful to God. Then we can learn from the mistakes of the past, and set our future to be as faithful to God as we seek to follow Him.