TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l Community Bible College l VIDDEVOCHURCH

TODAY

 PREVFRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2015NEXT 

IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: PASTORS AGAINST RACISM (1899)

“Resolved , By the Ministerial Alliance of the City of  Denver, that the...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: BIRTH OF HEROIC MISSIONARY LUDWIG NOMMENSEN (1834)

Nommensen took God at his word and promised that if he were made healthy again, he would become a missionary.

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1910

Death in Washington, DC, of Harriet Eugenia Peck Buell, author of the hymn “A Child of the King.”

Authority for the date: 

Cyberhymnal.

1876

Admission of Daniel Olubi as a priest in Nigeria’s Anglican Church. He had already shown himself an effective worker in the Anglican mission and will become even more influential as the years pass, establishing the gospel among his people.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

1870

Death of Mary Groves Müller, the faith-filled and godly wife of George Müller.

Authority for the date: 

Rusten, E. Michael and Sharon O. Rusten. One Year Christian History. Tyndale House, 2003.

1812

On a bitterly cold day, Adoniram Judson, Gordon Hall, Luther Rice, Samuel Newell, and Samuel Nott are ordained for foreign service at Suleiu, Massachusetts, the first foreign missionaries of the United States.

Authority for the date: 

Beaver, R. Pierce. Pioneers in Mission. Eerdman’s, 1966.

1564

Calvin preaches his last sermon. His mouth fills with blood and he has to leave the pulpit. He had been carried to church in a chair. Three months later he will die.

Authority for the date: 

Morgan, Robert J. On This Day. Nelson, 1997.

1481

First auto-da-fé in Spain, a ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates. Such events would often be accompanied by execution of “heretics.”

Authority for the date: 

Durant, Will and Ariel. The Reformation. The Story of Civilization.

897

(Probable date) Death of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, one of the most learned scholars of his day. He had been an enemy of Rome and excommnunicated Pope Nicholas I and his associates, one of the events that led to the schism between the eastern and western branches of the church.

Authority for the date: 

Fortescue, Adrian. “Photius of Constantinople.” Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Appleton, 1911.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l Community Bible College l VIDDEVOCHURCH

TODAY

 PREVTHURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015NEXT 

IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: STRONG EVIDENCE OF GOD AT WORK (1838)

“The work of God is still going on here. Three men requested baptism last...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: PAUL MIKI AND OTHERS ACCEPT MARTYRDOM IN NAGASAKI (1597)

Hideyoshi feared Christians might serve as a fifth-column.

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1918

Russia’s Communists issue a Decree on the Separation of Church and State that strips the church of legal rights and the power to hold property.

Authority for the date: 

Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church.

1900

Death of Pandit Kharah Singh. He had wandered India preaching Christ.

Authority for the date: 

Adrews, C.F. North India. London: A. R. Mowbray, 1908.

1864

Fanny Crosby writes her first piece for William Bradbury, “A Home Beyond the Tide,” the beginning of a long and fruitful hymnwriting relationship.

Authority for the date: 

Duffield, Samuel W. English Hymns. Funk & Wagnalls, 1886.

1851

Death in Hackney, of Congregationalist John Pye-Smith who had shown ways of reconciling geology and Scripture and been active on social issues such as the corn laws and slavery.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1849

After the success of Mazzini and his followers and the flight of Pius IX from Rome, an Italian assembly declares the temporal power of the Pope abolished.

Authority for the date: 

Horne, Charles F., ed. Great Men and Famous Women.

1835

Twelve American Congregationalist missionaries first see Africa from the deck of a ship through a mist. Among them is Daniel Lindley who will win renown educating Africans and pleading with the Dutch-descended Boers to ease their inflexible racism.

Authority for the date: 

Davies, Horton. Great South African Christians. Oxford University Press, 1951.

1812

Rev. Jonathan Allen preaches a sermon “on the occasion of the young ladies about to embark as wives of Rev. Messieurs Judson and Newell, going Missionaries to India,” “ordaining” Harriet Atwood and Ann Hasseltine as assistant missionaries.

Authority for the date: 

Robert. American Women in Mission.

1705

Death of German theologian and clergyman Philipp Spener, author of Pia desideria known as the “Father of Pietism.”

Authority for the date: 

Encyclopedia Americana, 1956.

1631

Roger Williams arrives in Massachusetts. Five years later he will flee to Rhode Island after questioning the fusion of church and state in Massachusetts. At Providence, he will established the first Baptist church in America and his writings on religious liberty will influence the development of religious tolerance in the colonies.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l Community Bible College l VIDDEVOCHURCH

TODAY

 PREVWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2015NEXT 

IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A SONG OF CONSECRATION (1874)

“Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart,...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: BAKHT SINGH BAPTIZED (1932)

He knelt down and immediately he felt the power of Christ.

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1928

In South Africa, the parents of teenager Manche Masemola kill her and bury her by a granite rock. Masemola had refused to abandon Christianity, worshiping in the Anglican Church at every opportunity. Decades later, she will be honored with a statue at Westminster Abbey.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

1798

Elizabeth Fry, reared a Quaker, has a conversion experience. She will become a notable prison reformer.

Authority for the date: 

Kent, John. Elizabeth Fry. B. T. Batsford, 1962.

1686

Muslims execute Joseph of Aleppo, claiming he had promised to become a Muslim but reneged. He seals his fate by testifying against Islamic beliefs at his hearing.

Authority for the date: 

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/02/saint-joseph-new-martyr-of-aleppo.html

1555

English reformer John Rogers is burned at stake at Smithfield, the first of many martyrs in the reign of Mary Tudor.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

856

Death of Christian educator, encyclopedist and archbishop Rabanus Maurus.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l FEB 3rd l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

TODAY

 PREVTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015NEXT 

IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: WHAT DID LINCOLN BELIEVE? (1842)

“Dear Speed:—Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. You well...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: HENRIK SCHARTAU’S FINAL BATTLE WITH SATAN (1825)

A national spiritual awakening followed Schartau’s preaching.

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2005

The Islamic city council of Demre, Turkey (formerly the Christian city, Myra), votes to replace the town’s traditional bronze statue of St. Nicholas of Myra with an effigy of a fat man with a red fur suit.

Authority for the date: 

Christian History 86 (2005).

1998

Execution of Karla Faye Tucker, a murderess, who converted to Christianity on death row and died praising Jesus. Movies and documentaries will be made about her life.

Authority for the date: 

Wikipedia.

1985

Desmond Tutu of South Africa becomes Johannesburg’s first black Anglican bishop.

Authority for the date: 

New York Times.

1943

The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester is torpedoed by a German sub near Greenland and goes down with a loss of 600 lives. The event is notable for the selflessness of four chaplains, Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi), who gave up their lifejackets to save other men.

Authority for the date: 

http://www.greatships.net/dorchester.html

1832

Death of George Crabbe, a Church of England vicar and  notable poet.

Authority for the date: 

Hatfield, Edwin. The Poets of the Church. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1884.

1788

Richard Johnson, first Christian cleric appointed to Australia, preaches his first sermon in that country.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1767

The British House of Lords rules against the Corporation of London which, to raise money, had established heavy fines for anyone refusing to stand for office if nominated, and then nominated many dissenters, knowing that they could not take the oath required under the Test Act.

Authority for the date: 

Dale, R.W. History of English Congregationalism.

1738

John Wesley arrives in London, having fled the colony of Georgia, where his ministry was a serious failure.

Authority for the date: 

Bangs, Nathan. A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1469

Death of Johannes Gutenberg, a developer of movable type, which will become a powerful factor in the spread of the Protestant Reformation. 

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

1238

Mongols surround the city of Vladimir, where the citizens and Orthodox Christians vow to resist to the last man to defend God’s churches. The city will fall on the fourteenth of that same month.

Authority for the date: 

Curtin, Jeremiah. The Mongols in Russia.

865

(traditional date) Death of Anskar, an early English or Irish missionary who had tried repeatedly to evangelize Scandinavia.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l Community Bible College l VIDDEVOCHURCH

TODAY

 PREVMONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015NEXT 

IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: CONFORMITY ONE WAY OR ANOTHER (1644)

“Whereas a covenant for the preservation and reformation of religion, the...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: GIOVANNI DA PLANO CARPINI HEADS EAST (1245)

Giovanni da Plano Carpini undertook one of the most extraordinary travel adventures of all time.

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1911

College teacher Eliza George has a vision of Africans passing before the judgment seat of Christ, weeping and moaning, “But no one ever told us You died for us.” Two years later she will leave her teaching position and establish a mission in Liberia.

Authority for the date: 

http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/black.htm

1902

Macedonian rebels release Ellen Stone, an American missionary to Turkey from the Congregational Church. They had held her and an associate for five months demanding a large ransom. Friends and the American public raised the money.

Authority for the date: 

Wikipedia.

1900

Death of temperance leader Annie Wittenmeyer. She had been active in home missions, founded orphanages, edited Christian periodicals, written hymns, and authored several books. Among her significant roles was as the first president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which grew to 1,000 chapters under her leadership.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

1864

Death of hymnwriter Adelaide Anne Procter in London, England. Charles Dickens had published many of her verses and she had been a favorite of Queen Victoria.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

1829

York Minster burns all day, set on fire by Jonathan Martin, a Methodist who had escaped from a lunatic asylum and hidden in the Cathedral when it was closed the night before.

Authority for the date: 

An Account of the Alarming and Destructive Fire in York Minster, on February 2, 1829.

1784

Death of Henry Alline, an American Free Will Baptist evangelist who had fostered growth of the “New Light” movement Canadian and New England churches.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=1731

1738

Young George Whitefield departs for Georgia, intending to become a permanent missionary to the American colony.

Authority for the date: 

Christian History 38 (1993).

1650

Beheading of Jordan of Trebizond by Muslims after he had mocked their prophet and refused to convert to Islam when brought to trial.

Authority for the date: 

pontosworld.com/index.php/pontus/history/christianity/304-saint-jordan-of-trebizond