1869 HT: Dan Graves The Molokans were a Russian sect dating from the late 18th century. Molokans believed the Bible was the soul’s guide for salvation and rejected the rituals, icons, fasts, ornate churches, and worship of relics that were common in the Orthodox Church. They were called Molokans or “milk people” because they drank milk…
1796 HT: Dan Graves Don’t you sometimes feel there could be a lot more to your Christian life? When Hans Nielsen Hauge was nearing twenty-five, he felt that way. The young carpenter had done a lot of religious reading. He was afraid of hell and longed to be established on “the spiritual rock, Jesus Christ.”…
1860 HT: Dan Graves For years, Rodney Smith did not know when he had been born. He was the son of a Gypsy, had no records and would not have known how to read them if he had. “A good aunt of mine took the trouble to get someone to examine the register of Wanstead…
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…