1533 HT: Dan Graves When Thomas Cranmer learned he had been named Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry VIII, he balked. Visiting Germany at the time to promote the King’s interest in a divorce, he dawdled seven weeks getting back to England. Although the King’s word was law, Cranmer hesitated to accept the position. The…
1602 HT: www.christianity.com Imagine becoming the best Hebrew scholar in your nation without once speaking to a Jew. That is what John Lightfoot did. He may never even have seen a Jew, for they were barred from England until late in his life. John Lightfoot was born on this day, March 29, 1602 in an England which…
1911 HT: Dan Graves F. W. Boreham was a Baptist pastor who once held the record as Australia’s most prolific author. Many of Boreham’s essays take small things as their starting point to display the goodness of God. Boreham was born in England in 1871, on the day that the Franco-Prussian war ended. His…
1549 HT: Dan Graves Elizabeth Dirks was a trailblazer and a woman of great courage. Raised in a nunnery in East Friesland, she learned to read Latin and read the Bible through and through. She became certain that monasticism was not the way taught in Scripture. With the help of milkmaids she escaped and became…
687 HT: Dan Graves A lowly shepherd named Cuthbert became a monk after he had a vision in which he saw the soul of the Celtic missionary Aidan carried to heaven by angels. In entering the church, he was influenced by one of his playmates, who prophesied that one day he would become a bishop.…
1525 HT: Dan Graves When Conrad Grebel arrived at St. Gall Switzerland, on this day March 25, 1525, he began to speak on the need for repentance and baptism. Hundreds turned out to hear him preach and over the next few months, he baptized five hundred. What was significant about this was that most of them had already…
HT: Dan Graves 1720 John Gill is solemnly ordained as a Baptist pastor in Horsleydown in a lengthy public ceremony which involves much prayer and soul searching. Gill will remain at Horsleydown for 51 years and gain recognition as a great controversialist, sharply critical of Wesley’s theology because it placed the decision to follow Christ…
1730 HT: Dan Graves “O happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Savior and my God” begins Philip Doddridge’s most popular hymn. He made that happy choice early in life, thanks in part to his mother: Sent to a boarding school, he continued to grow in faith. Both parents died when he was…
1805 HT: Dan Graves When France suppressed its Protestant Huguenots, they scattered around the world. Many wound up in the young United States. Several presidents, the first chief justice of the United States (John Jay) and many other famous men boasted Huguenot blood. George Washington Bethune, born on this day, March 18, 1805 in New York City,…
1780 HT: www.christianity.com When the church becomes a state-supported official religion, churchmen tend to become tepid officeholders. The zeal characteristic of the Scottish clergy in John Knox’s day had become diluted by the early 19th century. Hard as it is to believe, the moderate majority of Scotland’s preachers resisted Sunday schools, saying they would put ideas…