Why Dead People Are Important

Picture this:

Your mind is at this moment completely wiped of all memory of your past.
I mean...ALL of it.

How would you function?

Well, apart from the fact that basic day to day activities such as eating, pooping and saving the world (for all you superheros out there) are now a LOT more difficult on your own, you would virtually have to start your life again from scratch.

Meaning, the last 20 or 30 years (or even 50 for that matter...not really sure what demographic were reaching here :S) were a complete WASTE.

Kinda sucky, isn't it?

But this is effectively what every Christian does when they choose to ignore their great forefathers in the faith and simply choose to grab a bible and figure life out on their own.

What we need to realise is that the Church didn't come into existence when we were born; it existed more than 2000 years before that. And it would be a huge shame for all the progress made in establishing biblical truth over the past centuries to go to waste in our generation.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for trusting in God's word ALONE. We should let the bible speak for itself and all that. But please don't be so arrogant that you assume issues that you face when approaching God's word have not been encountered before.

And don't be so arrogant as to throw away the centuries of wisdom and knowledge that God has provided for you to guide you through difficult doctrinal truths.

So do yourself a favour. Learn from the dead guys. If you've never heard of Luther, Augustine or Edwards, maybe instead of wasting your night watching some chick flick, you could look these dudes up and learn stuff that will benefit you for eternity.

Again, don't get me wrong (cos people always do)...these guys are not perfect. In fact I haven't found an old theologian yet who I don't disagree with on some point or another (except for maybe Calvin...but that dude is like the 4th person of the Trinity*). But with the bible in your right hand as your ultimate authority, it couldn't hurt to see what conclusions these people who spent their lifetimes studying the Word came to.

And another thing...don't assume this is gonna be light reading. Some of these guys can be trickier than Shakespeare to read. But in my experience, the more difficult the language, the more satisfying it is when I search and find the treasure deep in their writings.

So as I'm probably gonna say in a lot of my posts:
Go read a book.

In fact, here's somewhere to start
(Click the download pdf button on the top left)

I'll leave you with this famous quote from Isaac Newton...
"If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants"

Peace

(*Disclaimer: Relax...I'm kidding...clearly Obama is the 4th person of the Trinity)