Edgar F. Parkyns on Church History - 10 Sessions

Hi GregYou really get around with your listening. :-D Edgar Parkyns was a personal friend and stayed in my home at times. For the last years of his life he was generally based in Reading in the church that I am now part of. He was a constant transatlantic commuter and much loved by all. He was a delightful character and his ability as a story-teller put him in a class of his own. He had a wonderfully gentle sense of humour and I have seen large conferences convulsed by his stories. Edgar was, broadly speaking, historicist but to the end of his life was still thinking through aspects of eschatology. We had some good times thinking through and challenging our varying positions on a number of issues. He never became sectarian in any of his views although he held them strongly; he was always generous with his 'opponents', forever giving them the benefit of the doubt. He was always gracious and patient. His thinking was captured in the book 'His Wating Bride' a small production run some years ago. It is now out of print.When I first listened to Paris Reidhead he reminded me of Edgar. God's fire burns differently in different people. In the temple you had the fierce spouts of fire fed by the fat of the sacrifices, but in the holy place you had the deep red of the incense altar. Edgar had more of the deep red glow of a life continually given to God. but it was fire nevertheless.

I'll tell you one of Edgar's stories. My telling will not do justice to it but it was intended to illustrate our need to concentrate on the Saviour rather than the Sin...In Nigeria there was a native doctor who created a special ointment. It would cure anything at all; sprained ankles, knife wounds, coughs and colds, major diseases. He guaranteed 'money-back if it didn't work and he sold the ointment with a single disclaimer. It will only work, he would say, if when you use it you don't think about red monkies...(Let me know if you don't get the point)

Brother Greg you posted:((( I am personally feeling that God is leading me to look into Church History more in depth. )))That's the same way I feel, and I've been asking Him diligently, "Why"? ... Nobody that I talk to (saved) about Church and revival history is really interested in it ... I've always been a history buff, so perhaps that's one of the reasons God knew that He could count on me to devour all that He provides me in this area, and then He made it as easy as directing me to SI ... Brother Greg do you know how powerful SI is? - "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" ... Our Lord is using you and SI to faith empower a lot of we modern saints via all this old school preaching and teachingof pillars from yesteryear.This "Edgar F. Parkyns on Church History" is a wonderful series ... I've just gotten thru "Session 2 - Growth from Antioch" and have been much more enlightened as to how fast satan infiltrated the early church via the methodology recorded in Acts 20:[30], "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after themselves" ... The other thing that struck me was how fast the Disciples forgot about Jesus instruction to flee to Samaria when persecution in Jerusalem arose, and that according to brother Parkyn's it was primarily due to their prejudice against gentiles ... The Holy Spirit has much yet to teach me regarding this. The real bombshell that our Lord has dropped into my spirit (so far) via brother Parkyns is that he states, "In the Greek "anti-christ" does not mean (against Christ), but (instead of Christ) ... This may not mean much to many, but for me it's like scales fell from my eyes ... Most Christians with any discernment at all can pretty much tell what's outright against Christ, but fewer can see what's instead of Christ, and even fewer can see what's been added along side Christ (which explains my growing discontent with man organized Christianity), which makes me see why Paul was so brash against Peter and the other Apostles who attempted to mix the mandates of law bound Judaism into the grace of Christianity ... Brother Bond in his sermon about satan said that his main thrust against the Church of Christ is to "distract us from the simplicity of Jesus and the Gospel", by introducing more complex doctrines and teachings, doctrines instead of or along side Christ's doctrine ... I think perhaps one of the things our Lord wants you and I to see is HOW the devil has slipped His Church a mickey or two, or three, because we already know that His Church is in a stupor ... In both progress and regress history shows us how we got to the state we're in today.PS - I like your new avatar!

Brother Rahman,What a tremendous encouragement you are to me! You have a way with words and the Holy Spirit just cuts right through you.Brother Greg do you know how powerful SI is? - "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" ... Our Lord is using you and SI to faith empower a lot of we modern saints via all this old school preaching and teachingAmen! Brother! Often times I feel that I am alone in attempting to describe all the incredible...depth...that is here, that perhaps it's hyperbole to go on and on, but I am not easily deterred. :-) Some most interesting observations here.The real bombshell that our Lord has dropped into my spirit (so far) via brother Parkyns is that he states, "In the Greek "anti-christ" does not mean (against Christ), but (instead of Christ) ... This may not mean much to many, but for me it's like scales fell from my eyes ...Like somebody has been cleaning fish around here, me too. Did not know this but it makes perfect sense.Most Christians with any discernment at all can pretty much tell what's outright against Christ, but fewer can see what's instead of Christ, and even fewer can see what's been added along side Christ (which explains my growing discontent with man organized Christianity), which makes me see why Paul was so brash against Peter and the other Apostles who attempted to mix the mandates of law bound Judaism into the grace of Christianity ... Amen and amen! And when you try to start cleaning the fish...(maybe that's why they have to be dead first, otherwise they start squirming all over the place)Well, all this has just peaked my interest, love all the old history, church history, Christian history, it's our heritage, I just have to learn it all. Feel as though I wasted 30 some odd years of my life in vain pursuits and now it's just necessary to get caught up, try and grasp where every thing got off track and thus the direction is backward before it's forward in a sense.Whats the old line "Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it"?Will definitely be checking out this series.P.S. Whatever you do, don't think about red monkeys! ;-)

Thanks brother Mike, If you find anything I post encouraging then I recieve that as confirmation that I'm not totally quenching and/or grieving the Holy Spirit ... He's the one that's the Encourager, the Comforter, and anyone being able to be exhorted thru me lets me know that He's able to pour Himself out from this vessel ... I feel the same about so many of you joint heirs here on SI, at times this forum reminds me of bar/b/que coals, our heat is so intense when where all piled together ... hmmmmm wonder what made me think of that analogy ... '0) ...You also posted:"Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it"?You know I hear this quoted quite often in reference to politics, governments and the military, but never towards Christianity ... There's also another quote I love by Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results" ... I pray God to wake up His Church! PS - I won't even look at the red monkey!

Wow!!! I don't think I'll ever read the book of Revelation the same way again. One question (perhaps bro Ron could answer this, having known Parkyns, personally), what's this "Harry's History" that he keeps refering to? Where can I get a copy?PS - No more monkey business from you guys :-P

HelloThis is my first posting on this forum, which I have been looking at over the last few weeks, and joined today.My family and I were also very good friends of Edgar Parkyns. He lived down the road from my parents, and when home from Nigeria or the USA he used to attend the meetings that my parents held in their home. He was a very humble, unassuming man, full of love; he was loved and respected by all who met him. We (my husband and I) briefly attended one of the Bible Schools in which Edgar was teaching in the USA and had the privilege of hearing him on Daniel and Revelation. What he said made absolute sense. And this is what I believe today.I am digressing ... Aaron, you asked about 'Harry's History' - it is "Halley's Bible Handbook". We have a copy, but it was printed the days before ISBN numbers! I have no idea whether it is still in print; perhaps you may be able to lay your hands on a second hand copy. My copy is printed in the USA by Zondervan Publishing House.There are another couple of books which also take the historicist view on Daniel and Revelation by Basil Atkinson. One is called "Times of the Gentiles - a brief commentary on the book of Daniel" and "The War with Satan an explanation of the book of Revelation". Both these books would be the same as/ similar to Edgar's teaching. I bought my copies many years ago from the Protest Truth Society in London.Sue

Thanks SueHalley's Bible Handbook is still in print it seems.

suzy wrote:I am digressing ... Aaron, you asked about 'Harry's History' - it is "Halley's Bible Handbook". We have a copy, but it was printed the days before ISBN numbers! I have no idea whether it is still in print; perhaps you may be able to lay your hands on a second hand copy. My copy is printed in the USA by Zondervan Publishing House.Thanks (and..Harry thanks you too.. :oops:)

Just glad to see this thread back up again. Have listened to the series through twice. Highly recommended. May have to get this book as well.

I've listened to the first session and it's excellent so i downloaded the rest I've not had time to listen to anymore yet,my question is this series linked with Edgar F. Parkyns' book His Waiting Bride which can be found here His Waiting Bridethanks for this series i look forward to listeneing to the rest as i have absolutely NO knowledge of church history any other book/ sermon reccomendations welcome.God blessmatt

Hi Matt,thanks for this series i look forward to listeneing to the rest as i have absolutely NO knowledge of church history any other book/ sermon reccomendations welcome.This brought to mind an old post;10 Reasons to read Christian History:Hopefully bringing it up again might help in finding the last two legs of it ... (wink,wink) As well as foster some more recommendations. Personally... I just want to know... everything. The dynamics of this life in past saints recorded for our very own benefit. There isn't a richer history and inheritance in all the earth.It also goes a long way in seeing through the confusion that marks much of this modern days reactionary impulses. It is a priceless history!

Thanks for posting these messages, I have listened to several of them and they have caught my interest. However, the digital recording quality is very poor, the recordings were sampled at just 8 KHz which has resulted in much aliasing. This produces all kinds of noise in the recording which makes listening very difficult.Greg, did you sample these recordings yourself or did you get them from someone who has the original recordings? I would like to get a clean copy of these messages if possible.In Christ,Ron

RonGreg got them from our old website. We are slowly repopulating the site but Edgar's series is not yet available. When repopulated you will find them at mp3.biblebaseI am not sure whether or not we have them at higher qualities.

I just finished listening to Edward Parkyns' series on church history and it was GREAT! When I first looked at all the sermon headings, I was wondering, "How is it he's going to do all this church history from the Book of Revelation?" It had never dawned on me that so much of Church history has been fulfilled. Before listening to this series, I was under the modern mindset how everybody looks at end time prophecy with the pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib mentality where the great tribulation is a 7-year period of Daniel's 70th week. I had never heard anyone share with clear historical facts and compare them against Scripture before. It was a very eye-opening venture to say the least! Parkyns had pointed out how the Jews have missed the fact that Messiah has come and still look at Scripture as yet future. The bottom line when going through this difficult and highly controversial topic is, "Is this fulfilled or is it future?" The overwhelming weight of the historical evidence is that it is. And when you can go from Rev. 4 all the way through 18 and see history (obvious recorded events, not cryptic Nostradamus-like silly putty made to fit any Tom, Dick and Harry event) it is pretty convincing. Parkyns also cleared up some thinking like Antichrist, the 'man of sin' (2 Thess. 2), whether it be one individual or a dynasty. I had always thought it would be one individual. But, as he astutely pointed out, history has to bear it out whether one man is intended or a dynasty, such as the 'king of the north' of Daniel 11 (which is not a single king but a succession of them). Anyway, I found it far from being a dry study, an exciting one to see how God's hand has been behind history. It has given me a lot of insight into God's working in our recent age, why it was so long in coming for the explosive missionary activity--the 'Great Century'. As I got into it, I couldn't wait to hear the next one. I will definitely research further the Scriptures. I've always been a history buff, and now being a Christian, love the history of His Church, and what a great blessing to have this series recorded how this fits into God's revealed Word!

Anyway, I found it far from being a dry study, an exciting one to see how God's hand has been behind history. It has given me a lot of insight into God's working in our recent age, why it was so long in coming for the explosive missionary activity--the 'Great Century'. As I got into it, I couldn't wait to hear the next one. I will definitely research further the Scriptures. I've always been a history buff, and now being a Christian, love the history of His Church, and what a great blessing to have this series recorded how this fits into God's revealed Word! With you there brother, think this is a very important series as it can cut right through a number of things even as a byproduct, which you drew upon here;I had never heard anyone share with clear historical facts and compare them against Scripture before. It was a very eye-opening venture to say the least! He is honest where he has unsureties and leaves it to the individual to decide or to leave it be.It is a very refreshing approach. Highly recommended.