St. Paul uses the Biblical story of Abraham’s children as an “allegory” to understand the contemporary situation of believers. Jesus used the example of the Jonah and the Queen of Sheba to illustrate the proper way to interpret his mission. They understood history as having much to teach the present. The same is true for us. Certainly we need to know our Bible history if we are to understand what it means to be a Christian today. And we need to know our Church history — both the glories and the failures — in order to become the what God wants us to be. All legitimate development in the Church is organic — not a change from the past but a further flowering of what has gone before.
