1903 HT: Dan Graves Fourteen year old Sundar Singh blamed the Christian God for the death of his mother. He threw filth on his Christian teachers, mocked their Scriptures, and interrupted classes. Then he made an ultimate gesture of scorn. He built a fire and page by page tore up a Bible and burned it.…
1553 HT: Dan Graves When Queen Mary Tudor came to the English throne in 1553, everyone expected she would restore the Roman Church to a nation which had become Protestant. Fearing brutality, some clergymen fled. One who stayed in England was John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester. Assured that he could speak freely, he debated Roman…
1737 HT: Dan Graves When Count von Zinzendorf, leader of the Moravians, became a bishop, his first official act was to ordain Peter Bohler. Neither man could have foreseen the day’s far-reaching consequences of the ceremony, which took place on this day, December 15, 1737. Peter, who had been born in Frankfort, Germany, was a graduate…
1640 HT: Christianity.com What is the best form of church government? Should there be bishops ruling in a hierarchical order, should each congregation be independent, should councils and synods establish church policy, or should a church be organized along some other lines? These issues were being fiercely debated in England in the seventeenth century. On December…
1691 Death of the English non-conformist pastor, Richard Baxter, considered the greatest preacher and probably the best-known religious author of his day. 1808 Adoniram Judson, formerly an infidel, writes in his journal: “This day I made a solemn dedication of my life to God.” He will go on to become one of America’s most famous…
521 HT: Dan Graves TRADITION SAYS Columba was born in Gartan, Ireland, on this day, 7 December 521. He was of a noble family. Originally he was named Criomhthan, meaning “fox” but later people called him Columba, “dove,” or Columbkille/Colmcille, “dove of the churches,” because of the gentle character he developed and his part in founding many…
1829 HT: The Reformation Resurgence India in the 18th century bore a scar so deep it cried out to heaven—Sati, the burning of widows alive. Women, stripped of hope and dragged to the flames, were sacrificed on the altar of cruel tradition. This wasn’t worship. This wasn’t devotion. It was murder wrapped in religion, a…
1685 HT: Dan Graves When John Wycliffe sent his barefoot preachers throughout England in the 14th-century, carrying the Scripture in English, and calling for real heart changes, his message crossed the border into Scotland. There Murdoch Nisbet heard and believed. He acquired one of the rare English-language manuscripts of the Bible. Murdoch’s son, grandson and…
298 HT: Dan Graves The merry-making was at its height that July, 298. The troops in North Africa celebrated Emperor Maximian’s birthday with feasting and drinking. As usual, there were sacrifices to the emperor, who was ranked with the gods. But not everyone was in a party mood. Marcellus, a centurion (officer over a hundred…
1882 HT: Dan Graves Never mind that father had forbidden it. Father was far away. Nine year old Titus Coan was going sledding with a friend on a frozen pond. Out onto the ice he whizzed. It broke. Titus could not find the bottom and rose to the surface, screaming for help. His friend was…