4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Read the transcript: https://ligonier.org/podcasts/5-minutes-in-church-history-with-stephen-nichols/church-history-resolutions-for-the-new-year/
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| 0:00.0 | It's New Year's Eve, so happy New Year. |
| 0:10.2 | If you do make resolutions, let me propose a resolution for you for 2026. |
| 0:16.4 | Take this year to take a deeper dive into church history. |
| 0:20.2 | Here are five suggestions for you to do that. |
| 0:23.6 | First is read sermons. You could say read one sermon every month or read one sermon every week, |
| 0:30.6 | but reading sermons is a great way to get into church history. A great way to be introduced to these figures and not just simply |
| 0:39.8 | read about them or hear about them, but to read them directly. And they're great. These |
| 0:46.9 | sermons have been so helpful for me, and it's as if these figures are reaching across |
| 0:51.1 | the centuries to preach to you. Second suggestion is to pick a person, a person that you've been interested in or that you hear a lot about, |
| 1:01.0 | and spend this year getting to know that person. |
| 1:04.0 | You could read stuff about them and stuff by them. |
| 1:07.0 | Start with a good, short biography, and then move again into the sermons or into |
| 1:12.6 | shorter works, and then wade out into the deep there and tackle their books. I've done this |
| 1:19.4 | in the past and over the years, and I've come to enjoy it very much. This year, I'm going |
| 1:24.4 | with Charles Hodge, one of those stalwart, Princeton theologians. |
| 1:30.1 | I suspect in 2026 we will be visiting with our new friend Charles Hodge often. |
| 1:36.7 | Thirdly, you can pick an era. |
| 1:39.2 | You could go to the Great Awakening or to the British Reformation or to Calvin's Geneva. |
| 1:45.1 | You could go to one of my favorite moments, 20th century American fundamentalism and evangelicalism. |
| 1:52.5 | But look around the centuries. |
| 1:54.3 | You could go back to the fourth century and the Christology debates and the Nicene Creed, |
| 2:00.6 | but pick an era and spend some time in it and get to know it. |
... |
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