The online Bible teaching ministry of John Brand

Church History (Page 7)

This Day in HIS-story: March 3

1877 HT: Dan Graves William Strong was born on this day, March 3, 1877, to Presbyterian parents. His father had done mission work in South America for two years, but a breakdown in health sent him back to America. There he founded an insurance company. Following in his father’s footsteps, William sold insurance, too. He joined a church…

This Day in HIS-story: March 2

1724 HT: Dan Graves If Beethoven is the poster child for unexpected results from a faulty ancestry, Henry Venn could stand for predictable results from a good line. His great-great grandfather William Venn became a Protestant clergyman during the Reformation. William’s son Richard was dispossessed of his church position by Parliament because he favored the…

This Day in HIS-story: March 1

1534 HT: Dan Graves William Farel was a fiery Reformation evangelist in Western Switzerland. Born in France in 1489, he converted to Protestant beliefs in part through the teaching of Jacques Lefèvre d’ Étaples, a French philosopher and Biblical scholar. Without formal ordination, Farel immediately began to preach the gospel zealously in Paris and throughout…

Minnie Watson, the Forgotten Heroine of Kenya

Of his latest article about Scottish missionaries, Paul James-Griffiths of Christian Heritage Edinburgh writes, “This week’s article is about a remarkably courageous Scottish woman called Minnie Watson. Most people have never heard about her, but her story deserves to be told.“ Sometimes in history significant people remain hidden in the shadows of a more popular personality. Such was the…

This Day in HIS-story: February 18

1678 HT: Dan Graves Next to the Bible, John Bunyan’s allegory of a pilgrim toiling toward the Celestial City is the best-selling Christian book ever written. Like the King James Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress gave the English language many phrases. “Vanity Fair,” for example, became the title of William Makepeace Thackeray’s best-known novel and of a British magazine.…