1950 HT: Dan Graves IN DECEMBER 1941 Mitsuo Fuchida led the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. When he sent up a green flare, the bombers accompanying him knew it was the moment to attack. When his plane radioed “Tora, Tora, Tora,” the Japanese knew the air attack had achieved complete surprise. For the duration of…
1742 HT: Dan Graves At twelve noon, on this date, April 13, 1742, the world first heard the lovely overture, memorable arias and majestic choruses of the most famous oratorio ever written. There has not been a year since then that George Frederick Handel‘s Messiah has not been performed in concert halls around the world. Usually it appears…
1802 HT: Dan Graves Christmas Evans lived in terror of death from the time he was nine years old until he discovered he could have peace in Christ Jesus. Born into a poor Welsh family, he’d been sent to live with a uncle when his father died. The alcoholic uncle was cruel to the boy, worked…
1592 John Robinson, English Separatist, matriculates at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He will lead the group of Puritans from whom the first New England settlers derive. 1761 Death of English devotional writer William Law. His Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life had greatly influenced George Whitefield and John Wesley. 1933 HT: Dan Graves…
1860 HT: christianity.com During his college years at Leipzig, Germany, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther faced two crucial events. The first was a spiritual crisis in which, with the help of Martin Stephan, he came to an assurance that God had justified him by his grace. Shortly afterward, Walther nearly died from a lung disease. He had to interrupt his studies for six…
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.”…
1528 HT: Dan Graves When Luther sparked church reformation in Germany, there was bound to be a backlash. In those intolerant days, when church and state acted together, there was no choice in matters of faith. Someone had to be the first to die for the new ideas. One of the first two martyrs was…
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…
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…