This electronic text has been derived through scanning and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of the printed text of Valiant In Fight by B.F.C. Atkinson, M.A., PhD., as published by InterVarsity Fellowship; reprinted in June, 1950.
I have found this little volume a great encouragement and a warning. This small volume provides a good overview of church history from the ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the early 20th Century. As such, it is a good introduction to church history. Dr. Atkinson constantly reminds us that the church today can easily repeat the errors of the past, particularly those that lead to the corruption of the church and the spiritual darkness of the middle ages. His voice has not been heeded in the half century since its publication. This warning needs to be heard again!
The text of this book would not be considered "thoroughly reformed". Some of Dr. Atkinson's comments a few in the reformed community may find disagreeable. The main thrust of Dr. Atkinson's warning must not be disregarded because of this. I do not agree with all that Dr Atkinson has written, but I find it on the whole very instructive.
I have done my best to ensure that I have not breached copyright by publishing this text. There is no copyright notice in the printed version of the book. I have also contacted InterVarsity Press (UK) who has stated that they don not hold the copyright to the work and do not know who does. If there is a copyright on this text, I ask those who hold it to contact me and I will request permission to publish or remove the text, as they wish.
Apart from the headings at the beginning of each chapter, the headings within the text originally occurred at the top of the pages of the book. I have endeavoured to place these headings in the flow of the text to the best of my ability. I am sure that these may in some cases not coincide with the author's original intent. There are portions of the text that would lend themselves to the insertion of additional headings for greater clarity, however, I have refrained form doing this in order to present the text as closely to that originally as possible.
I do not claim copyright to the text of "Valiant In Fight", however, it is copyright in the form found here in the HTMLHelp file [© M. T. Smith 2005]. All the versions of "Valiant In Fight" are distributed as FREEWARE. This means that you are free to copy it, distribute it and give it to others etc., as much as you like without legal restriction, as long as the product is distributed "as is", that is, that it is not modified or changed in any way. Valiant In Fight comes with no warranty what so ever. You use it at your own risk.
I would like to acknowledge the love, encouragement and patience of my wife and my children shown towards me during the many hours at the keyboard which this project involved.
The various forms in which I have published this text can be downloaded from my web site, A Reformed Baptist's Disk.
Mark Smith, January 2005
mcjemisc@hotmail.com