TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 13 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: THE RIGHT TO INFILTRATE (1995)

“One thing you must grant to these ideologues: They know that they are in a...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: FELIX FACES PROBLEMS (483)

His attempt to extend Roman rule eastward led to a 35-year schism.

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2002

Death of Yusuf Jatau, a popular radio preacher in the Hausa language and for fifty years a mission leader of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. He had extended Baptist work in the northern regions of the country, many times escaping death at the hands of enemies only through the grace of God.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

1925

The State of Tennessee passes House Bill No. 185, the “Butler Bill” prohibiting any teaching that contradicts the Genesis creation account. This will lead to the Scopes Monkey Trial the following July.Authority for the date: Public Acts of the State of Tennesse.

1904

Located on the Argentina-Chile border as a memorial to peace, the bronze Christ of the Andes statue is dedicated.Authority for the date: Maus, Cynthia Pearl. Christ and the Fine Arts. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1938.

1895

Death of Robert William Dale who worked vigorously to improve health, housing, sanitation and living conditions in Birmingham, England. The clergyman had been an advocate of free public education, social improvement, the extension of the voting franchise, the recognition of trades unions, and understanding the links between poverty and crime.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1892

Pastor Charles Henry Packhurst preaches a sermon in which he lays out documentation proving the corruption of Tammany Hall in New York City.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of American Biography.

1785

At the Burg-theatre, Vienna, Mozart’s cantata Davidde Penitente receives its first performance. This is called a “half-mass” because its ten movements include a Kyrie and Gloria. The work had been commissioned by the committee of the society for the relief of the widows and orphans of musicians.

Authority for the date: 

Upton, George P. The Standard Cantatas. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Co., 1888.

1569

At the Battle of Jarnac, Marshal Gaspard de Tavannes defeats the Huguenots, whose leader, the prince de Condé, is killed in the aftermath.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

857

Ruderic and Salomon are executed in Cordoba on the charge of apostacizing from Islam.

Authority for the date: 

Haines, Charles Reginald. Christianity and Islam in Spain.

846

Eighteen years after the death in exile of Patriarch  Nicephorus, who had defended the use of icons, Empress Theodora has his body brought back to Constantinople with great pomp.

Authority for the date: 

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nicephorus_I_of_Constantinople.

536

Emperor Justinian I appoints Menas patriarch of Constantinople. He will be actively engaged in the issues of his day as an opponent of monophysitism and of Origen’s teachings, but largely subservient to the Roman pope who had deposed his predecessor.

Authority for the date: 

Betz, Hans Dieter, et al. Religion Past and Present.

536

Pope Agapetus issues a synodical letter in which he announces he has deposed Anthimus, the monophysite patriarch of Constantinople.

Authority for the date: 

Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature...

452

Roman Emperor Marcian issues an edict against the Eutychians, whose teachings are seen to undermine Christ’s humanity and ability to stand in our place.

Authority for the date: 

Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature...

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 12 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: HOW ONE BUSINESS LEADER PROMOTED CHRIST (1888)

“If you are not saved my dear friend—flee to the merciful Savior, as you...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: AUGUST FRANCKE: PIONEER OF FAITH MINISTRY (1663)

Francke never solicited funds, but always took his needs directly to the Lord.

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2000

Pope John Paul II asks God’s forgiveness for the sins of Roman Catholics through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women, and minorities.

Authority for the date: 

“Pope Says Sorry for Sins of Church.” The Guardian (13 March 2000).

1950

Pope Pius XII issues an encyclical “for combating atheistic propaganda throughout the world.”

Authority for the date: 

Anni Sacri. www.papalencyclicals.net.

1947

Death of British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth, a Pentecostalist.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1925

Death of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, who had made some claim to be a Christian and who will be given a private Christian funeral.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.

1734

Protestant refugees from the Catholic city of Salzburg land in Georgia where five days later they will found the town of Ebenezer.

Authority for the date: 

Georgia Salzburger Society.

1672

Death of evangelical hymnwriter Ludaemilia Elisabeth, Countess of Schwarzburg, from measles. The best known of her two hundred hymns was “Jesus, Jesus, Only Jesus.”

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

1622

Gregory XV issues the bull “Decet Romanum Pontificem” which regulates the ceremonial for papal elections and introduces the secret vote. It is the second bull the pope has issued to bring order to and break deadlocks in papal elections.Authority for the date: Ott, Michael. “Pope Gregory XV.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.

1022

Death of Symeon the New Theologian, of dysentery, after thirteen years of exile. He had emphasized the importance of experiencing directly the grace of God and described his own mystical experience with “Divine Light.” Although contemporary church authorities had condemned his teachings, later generations in the Eastern Orthodox Church will declare him a saint and honor him with the rare title “theologian.”

Authority for the date: 

Wikipedia.

604

Death of Pope Gregory the Great, known for his dialogs, his teachings, his revision of the worship service and promulgation of Gregorian chant, as well as the evangelization of England.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

417

Death of Pope Innocent I, who acted in international affairs, such as excommunicating Pelagius, defending Jerome, and negotiating with barbarians.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 11 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: VALE OF TEARS (1772)

“ ‘Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: WILLIAM CAREY’S WORK WENT UP IN FLAMES (1812)

Twelve years of missionary toil went up in flames.

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2001

Leonid Zwicki is installed as bishop of the newly-created Belarusian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

1923

Death of hymnwriter Mary Ann Thomson. Her best-known hymn was “O Zion Haste, Thy Mission High Fulfilling.”

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

1897

Death of Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelist and religious writer, best remembered for his classic meditation on 1 Corinthians 13 “The Love Chapter” entitled The Greatest Thing in the World.Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1888

Samuel Zwemer preaches his first sermon—to a congregation of black people in a small New Brunswick, New Jersey, church. He will go on to become a notable missionary to the Arab world.

Authority for the date: 

Wilson,J. Christy, Jr. “The Apostle to Islam: The Legacy of Samuel Zwemer.”

1877

Gerard Manley Hopkins preaches his “dominical”—a practice sermon.

Authority for the date: 

Bergonzi, Bernard. Gerard Manley Hopkins.

1829

Mendelssohn revives Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin. A thousand people have to be turned away from the performance for lack of room.

Authority for the date: 

Rowbotham, Francis Jameson. Story-Lives of Great Musicians.

1559

Reformation mob burns churches in Perth, Scotland, and instructs the friars to hold mass no more.

Authority for the date: 

Documents of the Reformation.

843

After years of iconoclasm (opposition to and destruction of icons), two-dimensional images are restored for worship in the Eastern Empire, an event known as “The Triumph of Orthodoxy.”

Authority for the date: 

http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7053.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 10 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: TRIUMPHANT LAST WORDS OF A METHODIST ELDER (1816)

“On the Lord’s day morning, March 10, before I went to the chapel I called...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: DEATH OF EX-SLAVE HARRIET TUBMAN (1913)

She experienced the full brutality of the slave system.

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1897

Death of Guido Verbeck. For ten years Verbeck had worked patiently at Nagasaki, building trust, teaching English (with the New Testament and the United States Constitution as his texts) and mastering the Japanese language. When his students became leaders of a new Japanese government, they invited Verbeck to Tokyo where his advice, language skills and Western contacts proved so invaluable to Japan that the Japanese award him the Third Order of the Rising Sun.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

1880

After an eventful voyage during which an engine broke down, Commissioner George Scott Railton, assisted by seven young women, “invades” New York. Their hats are emblazoned with scarlet ribbon and gilt letters, reading “The Salvation Army.”

Authority for the date: 

Chesham, Sallie. Born to Battle; the Salvation Army in America. New York, NY: Salvation Army, 1965.

1879

Death of Paul of Taganrog, who had given up a large inheritance and titles of nobility in order to make pilgrimages and eventually to settle at Taganrog and practice an ascetic lifestyle. He had been greatly admired by the common people who came to him for advice and the Russian Orthodox Church will declare him a saint.

Authority for the date: 

Wikipedia.

1867

Baptism and first communion of Chuang Ching-feng, a young Taiwanese Christian. At nineteen years of age he will die at the hands of a mob after unwisely trying to force his fifteen-year-old wife to go to church with him.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.

1747

John Newton, a sailor on a slave ship, is converted to Christianity during a huge storm at sea. He eventually becomes an Anglican clergyman, the author of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” and a zealous abolitionist. “That 10th of March is a day much to be remembered by me; and I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748. For on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”

Authority for the date: 

Newton’s correspondence.

1698

Death of thirty-six-year-old Elie Neau, a French Huguenot. Because of persecution, he had fled to the New World. Captured by a French corsair, he had been returned to France where efforts were made to force him to convert to Catholicism. Having refused to give way, he was kept three years in prison, a year in the galleys, and another year in a dungeon until England obtained his release. He had said to one captor, “Sir, do not pity me, for could you but see the secret pleasures my heart experiences, you would think me happy.”

Authority for the date: 

www.winbibel.de/Leseecke/verfolgung/ElieNeau.html

1528

Balthasar Hubmaier “head and most important of the Anabaptists “ is burned at the stake in Vienna after being condemned as a heretic by Roman Catholics.Authority for the date: Dyck, Cornelius J. An Introduction to Mennonite history: a popular history of the Anabaptists and the Mennonites. Scot

673

Saint Agilbert, bishop of Paris, witnesses the charter of Clotilde’s Abbey of Bruyères-le-Châtel.

Authority for the date: 

Charter of Clotilde.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 9 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: DYING FOR A CHANGE (1621)

“At anchorage. The sickness and deaths of the colonists on shore have...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: TURKS ORDER MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS AT ALEPPO (1915)

After disarming the Armenians, the Turks began killing them.

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1956

The British send into exile Makarios III, archbishop of Cyprus, considering his outspokeness a threat to the island’s peace.

Authority for the date: 

Current Biography.

1948

Death in Atlanta, Georgia, of hymnwriter Civilla Durfee Martin whose many gospel songs include “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” “God Will Take Care of You,” and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”

Authority for the date: 

Cyberhymnal.

1913

Death in Stuttgart, Germany, of Eberhard Nestle, Bible scholar, who compared early texts of the Bible and prepared a thoughtful reconstruction of the probable original text.

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

1901

Death at Cannes, France of Methodist missionary and author William Arthur. A notable missionary to India he also wrote several successful books on his work and on the faith and was an internationally-known leader in his denomination.

Authority for the date: 

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.

1886

Baptism of Bernard Mizeki, who will become a notable missionary and martyr in Zimbabwe.

Authority for the date: 

Keifer, James. justus.anglican.org

1833

Melville Cox, coming from the United States, reaches Liberia where he hopes to do mission work but will die within four months. His courageous and intrepid attitude, and his heroic death will give an impetus to the Methodist missionary spirit.

Authority for the date: 

Smith, Larry D. “Before Africa Be Given Up!”

1761

The Boston Gazette prints criticism against the feasting and boisterous merrymaking which had taken place after the recent ordination of Dr. Cummings to the Old South Church. The criticism was sharpened by the fact the festivities took place at the home of Dr. Sewall who two years earlier had moderated a meeting to discourage such ordination revelries.

Authority for the date: 

Earle, Alice Morse. The Sabbath in Puritan New England.

1509

Martin Luther receives his Bachelor of Bible degree from the University of Erfurt.

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

1498

The signory of Florence holds a public meeting to decide what action should be taken with Savonarola, whom Pope Alexander VI had censured. Eight days later the signory commands Savonarola to cease preaching.

Authority for the date: 

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church.

1463

Death of St. Catherine of Bologna who wrote a popular Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare in which she recorded her visions of Christ and Satan. 

Authority for the date: 

Standard encyclopedias.

395

(traditional date) Death of Gregory of Nyssa, one of the three great Trinitarian Cappadocian fathers.

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

320

(traditional date) Agricola, governor of Armenia, sentences forty soldiers to die on ice for refusing to renounce Christ. They strip off their own clothes, saying, “What is death for us but an entrance into eternal life?”

Authority for the date: 

www.lutheranhistory.org.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 5 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM MONROVIA (1828)

 “I did not expect to have written to the board by this conveyance, because...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: THOMAS VON IMBROEK LOST HIS HEAD (1558)

“I am willing and ready, both to live or to die.”

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1977

Death in Abeokuta, Nigeria, of James Tanimola Ayorinde, who had been a Baptist pastor, chairman of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and a respected and beloved leader of the Baptist World Aliance.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

1920

The Greek Orthodox parts of Romania and Eastern Russia adopt the Gregorian calendar on this date, moving the calendar forward by thirteen days to March 18.

Authority for the date: 

Wikipedia.

1899

Evangelist Sam Jones opens a crusade in Toledo, Ohio, where the mayor is also named Sam Jones. The mayor welcomes the publicity until Jones says, “If the Devil were mayor of Toledo, he wouldn’t change a thing.” Nonetheless, Mayor Jones will be reelected by a wide margin.

Authority for the date: 

www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thisweekinchristianhistory/march5.html

1858

Death of Maria Grace Saffary, who had been a Baptist hymnwriter and wrote “God of the sunlight hours!” as well as hymns about baptism, including one that begins “’tis the great Father we adore in this baptismal sign.”

Authority for the date: 

Burrage, Henry S. Baptist Hymnwriters and their Hymns.

1797

Henry Nott and a large missionary party, which includes artisans, arrive at Tahiti’s Matavai Bay. Sponsored by the London Missionary Society, they are to settle on the islands of Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas to teach the gospel and useful arts. When the others die, go mad, or desert, Nott remains steady. It will be twenty-two years before he sees his first convert.Authority for the date: http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/giants/bionott.html

1526

Zurich authorities commence a trial which eventuates in sentences of life imprisonment for the Anabaptists Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock. Two weeks later the three manage to escape.

Authority for the date: 

Wenger, John Christian. “Even Unto Death: The Heroic Witness of The Sixteenth-Century Anabaptist.”

1518

Erasmus sends a copy of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses to Sir Thomas More, a vigorous opponent of the Protestant Reformation.

Authority for the date: 

Smith, Preserved. The Age of the Reformation.

493

Archbishop John sallies forth from Ravenna with crosses, the Gospels, and a retinue of monks, falling at the feet of Theodoric and suing for peace—which the invader grants.

Authority for the date: 

Hodgkin, Thomas. Theodoric the Goth.

310

Christian witness Adrianus is thrown to a lion in Palestine and afterwards slain with the sword.

Authority for the date: 

Eusebius Pamphilius. Ecclesiastical History.

TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY l March 3 l Community Bible College l School of the Bible l VIDDEVOCHURCH

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IN HISTORY

QUOTE OF THE DAY: CHOOSE THE NARROW GATE (1839)

“I believe the Lord knows just what man can do and what man cannot do. And...

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IT HAPPENED TODAY: LETTIE BURD COWMAN (1870)

She compiled a year’s worth of readings, poems, and Bible texts to encourage herself.

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1963

An assembly of priests and lay people from Kenya and Uganda is held in Kampala to reaffirm the particpants’ full support of and attachment to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.

Authority for the date: 

http://www.aoiusa.org/greek-orthodoxy-the-ecumenical-patriarchate-and-the-church-in-the-usa/

1947

Joseph Adeyemo Taiwo lays the foundation stone of the Agboye Baptist Church, Oyo. He had a hand in planting this and many other churches for the Nigerian Baptist Convention.

Authority for the date: 

Dictionary of African Christian Biography.

1933

Navigators, an evangelical organization, is founded, but will not be incorporated for another decade.

Authority for the date: 

Lang, J. Stephen. The Christian History Devotional: 365 Readings & Prayers to Deepen & Inspire Your Faith

1589

A church assembly at Edinburgh asks the King of Scotland to petition Queen Elizabeth I to unburden English churchgoers of burdensome ceremonies, and to unite in a common front against Catholics in behalf of “the true Religion for defence and protection of the Word of God.”

Authority for the date: 

The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland.

1556

Roman Catholics drive two hundred Protestants out of Locarno, Switzerland. They find refuge with Henry Bullinger.

Authority for the date: 

Leben 3 No. 1 (Jan-Mar 2997) 17.

1033

Death of Cunegunda, Queen of Bavaria who had voluntarily embraced humility after the death of her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II. Having entered a convent, she insisted that no one treat her as the empress she had once been, taking the part of a servant and performing the lowest and dirtiest jobs that needed doing.Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.