John Chrysostom was one of the greats of the ancient church fathers who wrote and preached during a critical time in the church’s history. His “last name” is the anglicized version of the Greek word that means “golden mouthed” because of his great oratory skills. He became archbishop of Constantinople on February 26, 398 and would be exiled a couple …
Too often we forget that places mentioned in the Old Testament are real places – maybe it’s because they are hard to pronounce. Ur (not hard to pronounce even for me) was the place Abram-later-Abraham came from and it was the site of a major archaeological dig that ended on February 25, 1934. The dig was conducted by Sir Leonard …
For a couple of hundred years Roman emperors had a sort of “don’t ask don’t tell” policy about Christians. Since the emperors thought they were gods the idea of worshiping someone else wasn’t high on their list, but they tended to turn blind eyes. But on February 24, 303 AD Emperor Diocletian issued what was called the Edict Against the …
A simple reading of the New Testament reveals Jesus left a lot of authority to the apostles – those 12-then-11 that followed Him in His three-year ministry. But what about the next generation after the apostles were martyred? One of the next generation church leaders was Polycarp, the bishop of the church at Smyrna. He was under the tutelage of …
One of my favorite devotional books, Streams in the Desert, was written by Lettie Cowman (also known as Mrs. L.B. or Mrs. Charles). Lettie and her husband Charles were missionaries to Japan where they would form the Oriental Mission Society. They first landed in Japan on February 22, 1901 and their tenure in the Far East was a difficult one …
Anyone who has seen the Oscar-winning movie “Chariots of Fire” recalls the true story of Olympic athlete Eric Liddell making world-wide news when he refused to run on a Sunday. He felt it was disobeying the commandment of keeping the Sabbath. He went on to set a record in the 400 meters but more importantly he followed his parents’ footsteps …
Fredrick Douglass is one of the most-recognized ex-slaves in American history and at one time he made some remarks about religion. Believe it or not – he was misquoted. Before his death on February 20, 1895, he set the record straight: “What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the ‘slave holding religion’ of …
What do you have to do to make the list of the 10 Worst Brits in the last 1,000 years? The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) History Magazine compiled a list and Thomas Arundel, the former Archbishop of Canterbury who died on February 19, 1414, joined the ranks of Jack the Ripper and King John (undoubtedly the worst king of England …
People who like American history consider it quite ironic that two of the Founding Fathers (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) both died on July 4th. But even more of a coincidence is they died on the same day in 1826 and they had this odd “love/hate” relationship (not really hate). Martin Luther and Michelangelo both died on February 18 – …
Way before anyone was worried about the internet, “mass communication” was best done via the radio airwaves. Voice of the Martyrs reached millions for decades behind the Iron Curtain of the message of Christ because of the efforts of its founder Richard Wurmbrandt who died on February 17, 2001.
