July 20, 2022

The 500th Episode with Chris Larson

Stephen Nichols & Chris Larson
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The history of the Christian faith is a story for all generations. On this special 500th episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols is joined by Ligonier President Chris Larson to discuss the beginnings of this podcast and the importance of knowing our family history as Christians.

Transcript

Stephen Nichols: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. This is a very special episode. This is our 500th episode. Our first episode was back on August 14, 2013, and here we are nine years later, 499 episodes later, with this 500th to be recorded. I am so thankful to all of you who have listened over these years, and I'm also thankful for my good friend and president of Ligonier Ministries, Chris Larson, and I've asked him to join me for this special episode.

Chris Larson: It's an honor to be with you, Dr. Nichols. I've loved this podcast ever since we began talking about it many, many years ago. I still remember that first episode beginning with the word magnus.

SN: Magnus. We have to start off with a Latin word, right, if we’re going to do this?

CL: Of course.

SN: And we started with Augustine.

CL: Yes. Those bread crumbs that you’ve been laying over the years is one of the ways that I think Ligonier has been able to serve God’s people. This podcast has been used by the Lord to introduce a whole new generation to the story of the Christian faith. This is really kind of how I came into the Christian faith. R.C. illuminated church history for me. It was the ins and outs of Martin Luther’s life and the struggles that he had that R.C. would use to teach theology. I think this 5 Minutes in Church History podcast, it is an amazing thing to see the longevity of this, and I just want to thank you for your steady-at-it work and your faithfulness in this podcast.

SN: Well, this has been a real joy for me. As you were talking, Chris, and I was just thinking about, I remember first time I read Holiness of God, and of course, these were almost companions of his, the way he brought church history forward. That’s always been my goal, my hope, is that we just don’t see these figures as encyclopedia entries or just sort of flat one-dimensional characters.

CL: Is that what you enjoy about 5 Minutes in Church History?

SN: Honestly, Chris, I think the thing I enjoy the most is when I meet kids who listen to 5 Minutes in Church History. I think this is wonderful. Here we are, we’re recording this at Ligonier’s National Conference, and every once in a while, I’ll bump into someone who’s eight or nine or ten, and I’ll try to talk to them a little bit, and they mention they like to listen to church history. It’s humbling. It’s very gratifying, too.

CL: It's been a frequent companion for me and my family as I take kids to school in the morning. It provides just one of those great, edifying moments to have a conversation, to be able to talk about something like the hypostatic union and the early church fathers. Where else can you have that conversation at 7:30 in the morning on the interstate? It's a captive audience. We're going to talk about something, son.

SN: Might as well be magnus and who God is. Well, one of my favorite things we do, speaking of conversations, is when I bring folks in and have a conversation with them, and put them on a deserted island, and ask them to take five books. Now, we got to get you back to do your own deserted island episode, and we'll do that very shortly, but let's do a sneak peek. What if you just had one book that you could take with you on this deserted island? What would it be?

CL: I know that you've got some really good books already on this deserted island.

SN: This is a theologically-stocked island.

CL: Yes. Holiness of God is already there.

SN: It's there.

CL: Calvin's Institutes is already there. Westminster Standards is already there.

SN: It's there. It's in the back of the Reformation Study Bible.

CL: This is down in the bottom of my locker then, since all those other books would definitely be at the top. The Valley of Vision.

SN: Oh, yes, of course.

CL: I would want to have that collection of Puritan prayers. As a college student, I responded to an offer from Grace to You, and they were offering The Valley of Vision, a collection of prayers. I still have that old, paperback edition from Banner of Truth. As a college student, just beginning to really understand Reformed theology, marrying what I was learning with this deep piety that you find in the Puritan prayers. It's an amazing collection. I like that they're anonymous; you don't know who all has contributed to this particular prayer. Just for my own devotional life, I turn to it again and again, and it structures a lot. I'm going to sneak one more book that's not technically a Christian book. I'd have to also have Lord of the Rings with me.

SN: Well, we will leave you to your deserted island. Thank you for joining us. I want to thank all of you, my listeners over these last nine years, over these last 500 episodes. Thanks for tuning in every Wednesday. I do hope these episodes have been helpful to you as we, together, look to the past for encouragement to live as faithful disciples in this present moment. I'm grateful for you all. I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.

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