Category: Today in Church History
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Today in Christian History: July 17
On this date in 1674, Isaac Watts was born. Watts changed the way the English church worshiped. Before he came along, Protestant churches in England and Scotland would only sing hymns that were rhymed translations from the book of Psalms. Which isn’t a bad practice, unless, of course, you want to talk about Jesus, the…
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Today In Christian History: July 8
On this date in 1939, after just a month in America where he was to lecture, Dietrich Bonhoeffer went back home to Germany. Writing to Reinhold Niebuhr, he explained his decision: I have made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people…
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Today in Christian History: June 14
On this date in 1910, the World Missions Conference opened in Edinburgh, Scotland. There were 1200 delegates, primarily from North America and Northern Europe. People were optimistic and hopeful. The 1800’s was a century of great missionary expansion, with the world’s population of Christians expanding from less than 25% to greater than 35% (note: these…
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Today in Christian History: June 10
On this date in 2005, Kenneth Taylor, author of The Living Bible, died at the age of 88. Taylor, the father of ten children, was burdened that his children couldn’t understand the King James Version of the Bible. So he began work on a paraphrase, using the KJV and the American Standard Version as his…
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Today in Christian History: June 9
Two deaths happened on June 9, separated by about 1800 years. One was an emperor; the other a missionary. Both contributed to the spread of Christianity. In AD 68, the Roman emperor Nero cut his own throat at the age of 30. Nero was a notorious persecutor of Christians. According to Tertullian, he was responsible…
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Today in Christian History: June 6
On June 6, 1844, George Williams began the first Young Men’s Christian Association in London. Williams was concerned that young men, drawn to urban centers for work, were abandoning their religious upbringing when they met with the temptations of the big city. So the 23 year old Williams began meeting for Bible study and encouragement…
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Today in Christian History: June 4
On this date in 1820, hymn writer Elvina Hall was born. Her best known hymn came about as a result of being bored in church. Sitting up in the choir loft, thinking to herself how long-winded her pastor was that morning, she wrote these words on the fly leaf of her hymnal: I hear the…
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Today in Christian History: June 1
On this date in 165 AD, Justin Martyr was scourged and then beheaded after he refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Justin was born in the biblical city of Shechem, and early in his life followed the philosophy of Plato. But his life was changed when he realized God was pursuing a relationship with…
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Today in Christian History: May 30
In 1972, Née Shu-Tsu, better known as Watchman Nee, died in a Chinese prison. As the founder of over 400 local churches, Watchman Nee was a threat to the new Communist regime, and so spent the last twenty years of his life in prison, allowed no visitors except his wife. When the authorities cleaned out…
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Today in Christian History: May 29
G.K. Chesterton was born on this day in 1874. Chesterton was a larger-than-life personality (literally–6’4 and over 300 pounds). He was a great influence on CS Lewis. His best known work, Orthodoxy, is the source for some of my favorite quotes: The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,…