The Arrogant Journey: Hermeneutics and Church History

The Arrogant Journey is a synopsis of nearly 2000 years of church history. The first 4 chapters explore how God's Word has been interpreted from Adam until now. Chapter 5 explores the history of Ancient Apostolic Christianity in the first century AD. Chapter 6 recounts the horrific persecutions of Christians by the Roman Empire in the first three centuries. These martyrs belong to all of Christendom. Chapter 7 reveals the incredible deliverance of the helpless Christians from the vicious Roman Empire and how the state and the church even became united. This changed the church in a dramatic way.

Chapters 8-10 cover the nearly 1000 years of Medieval history. During this time, Islam arose and conquered much of the Roman Empire along with much of Christendom. The Holy Roman Empire was reestablished in the West. Both the Crusades as well as the Inquisitions belong to this time. Dissensions arose and were brutally crushed. The Great Schism deeply split the Medieval church. Toward the end of this period, the early seeds of the Reformation, that is, the reformation before the Reformation, germinated in Wyclif and Huss.

Chapter 11 explores the Reformation, and this was the starting point for Modern Christianity. This began in the 16th century with the reformers' outcries for "sola scriptura!" The Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation exploded into devastating wars of religion all over Europe lasting for more than a century. The loss of human life was horrific, and uncountable. After the Peace at Westphalia in 1648, the atheistic Age of Enlightenment followed and culminated in the French Revolution in the 18th century. We are still feeling the devastating effects of those philosophies. Protestantism fragmented horribly. The call to go back to the Bible for our authority in Christianity dates back at least 840 years. It is still alive today.