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…
JOHN GILL was a pastor in greater London. A staunch Calvinist, he believed strongly in the sovereignty of God in all events. Gill had become a pastor as the result of a sermon he had heard when he was about twelve. His pastor, William Wallace, preached on God asking Adam in the garden of Eden…
1858 FEW MEN could have overcome the blows that rained upon John Mason Peck in 1820. For three years, he had worked diligently as a missionary along the Mississippi River—the frontier of the young United States. However, a serious bout of jaundice threatened his life and left him penniless. A beloved brother-in-law died. Death also…
1663 If August H. Francke is not exactly a household word, that is probably as he would want it. Yet he was a man of extraordinary accomplishments who dusted off faith and put it into practice. His desire was “a life changed, a church revived, a nation reformed, a world evangelized.” The orphanage he built…
1559 In response to a sermon by John Knox, a Reformation mob burns churches in Perth, Scotland, and instructs the friars to hold mass no more. 1727 IMAGINE THE STIR twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn created in Berlin when he revived Johann Sebastian Bach’s neglected masterwork, The Saint Matthew Passion. On this day, 11 March 1829, a thousand…
1528 HT: Stagger and Reel On this day, March 10th 1528, we remember Balthasar Hubmaier, a courageous theologian and reformer who lived and died for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Born into humble beginnings in Augsburg, Germany, Hubmaier rose to become a respected theologian, receiving his Master’s degree from the University of Freiburg and his…
320 AD 40 Men Died on Ice for Christ HT: Dan Graves “CONSIDER—you alone of Caesar’s troops defy him! Think of the disgrace you bring upon your legion. How can you do it?” Governor Agricola was speaking to forty soldiers in the 12th Legion of the Roman army who refused to offer sacrifice to the…
HT: Christianity.com 1837 In 1639, a non-conformist preacher named Abraham Pierson landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts. One hundred and ninety eight years later, on this day, March 6, 1837, one of Abraham’s most illustrious descendants, Arthur T. Pierson, was born in New York City. He was the ninth of ten children. Like his forefather Abraham, he became…
HT: Christian History Institute On this day, 4 March 1963, two missionary couples drove out of Saigon, South Vietnam, crowded into a Land-Rover with their five children. The Makils and Jacobsens were headed north along Route 20, toward the Makil home near Dalat. The Makils were recent arrivals in Vietnam where they planned to engage in…
HT: Christian History Institute 1546 GEORGE WISHART preached reformation in Scotland between 1543 and 1546. Cardinal David Beaton reacted violently against him and met violence himself. That, in a nutshell, is the story of the two men. Trained at the University of Aberdeen, Wishart became a teacher of Greek. Accused of heresy by the Bishop of…