Monday 5 January 2015

Calvinist Methodists Met to Make Arrangements - January 5, 1743

John Cennick
John Cennick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Calvinist Methodists Met to Make Arrangements - January 5, 1743

Eight Methodist leaders gathered in Waterford, South Wales, on this day January 5, 1743 to hold the first Calvinist Methodist Conference. They met at the home of Thomas Price, a layman preacher who served as Waterford's Justice of the Peace.

  Muscle-builders and pregnant women know that anyone who grows too fast is liable to get stretch marks. Organizations that grow too rapidly can get stretch marks, too. That was the case with the Welsh Methodists in the early 1740s. Converts were coming in so fast that revival leaders were unsure how to manage the growing number of "societies" (groups of believers).

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Chief among the lay preachers was Howell Harris, the man whose enthusiasm had originally sparked the Welsh revival. Then there was John Cennick. On one occasion, wrote Cennick, he and Harris were attacked at Swindon, England. "Mr. Goddard, a leading gentleman of the town, lent the mob his guns, halberd and engine [water pump] and bade them use us as badly as they could, only not kill us." Guns were fired so near the two that they were blackened with powder. Dust was flung on them and stinking ditch water. While the mob sprayed Harris, Cennick preached; and when they sprayed Cennick, Harris preached. Afterward, the two were burned in effigy. Cennick later became a Moravian. As for Joseph Humphreys, Whitfield used him as an assistant and exhorter.

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King Edward the Confessor's 2 Successors - January 5, 1066

King Edward the Confessor's 2 Successors - January 5, 1066
 Bayeux Tapestry scene1 EDWARD REX.jpgEdward the Confessor became the only English king ever to be canonized (officially named a saint) and was the builder of one of the most celebrated churches in the Christian world. Edward was next to the last of the Saxon kings. He married Edith, daughter of Godwin. On his deathbed, Edward named Edith's brother Harold to succeed him as king. But Harold could not hold the throne. Ten months after Edward's death, French from Normandy invaded England under William the Conqueror.  ...

Sunday 4 January 2015

Reformed Churches Muzzled but Protest at Barmen

49. day of birth of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) :...
49. day of birth of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) :*Graphics by R. Klein :*Ausgabepreis: 12+38 Pfennig :*First Day of Issue / Erstausgabetag: 13. April 1938 :*Michel-Katalog-Nr: 664 (Deutsches Reich) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Reformed Churches Muzzled but Protest at Barmen - January 4, 1934
Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany was one of the most heinous in all history. However, when it first came to power, it was welcomed by many German church members. One church leader even said that Hitler's rise was a gift of mercy from God's hand. We can understand his thinking only if we remember that it was still early in Hitler's rule and that many Germans were afraid the Communists would take over their country if not opposed by the Nazis. 
 
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The so-called "German Christians" elected Ludwig Müller, a fervent Nazi, to head it. In July, he placed two restrictions on the clergy. A clergyman (1) must be politically reliable and (2) must accept the superiority of the Aryan race. Hundreds of clergy accepted these demands. A small group of church leaders did not. They openly opposed those German Christians who did accept the government's terms. The dissidents insisted that the church must obey Christ apart from political influence. In September, 1933, Martin Niemoeller sent a letter to all German pastors, inviting them to join a Pastor's Emergency League to oppose the unified church. Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were among those who joined him. In October, Niemoeller asked pastors to bind themselves by the scripture and the old confessions of faith. They pledged themselves to protest certain violations of the faith, to stand with the persecuted, and to acknowledge that Aryanism (with its claim of racial superiority) was a violation of Reformation and Christian teaching.


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Blind Louis Braille Gave Reading to the Blind

"Louis Braille" in braille
"Louis Braille" in braille (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Blind Louis Braille Gave Reading to the Blind - January 4, 1809
At four o'clock in the morning on this day, January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France, a local midwife eased tiny Louis Braille into the world. Louis was the fourth child of his mother, Monique, and his father Simon, a leather worker. The pair formed a sturdy middle-class couple, devout and prosperous. But the boy appeared frail, so they arranged to have him baptized right away. Louis quickly showed himself to be a bright-eyed child, prying into everything. The early death that had been feared for h... Read More

Translation of the Torah into Greek for King Ptolemy

A Sefer Torah rolled to the Song of the sea.
A Sefer Torah rolled to the Song of the sea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seventy sages translated the Torah into Greek for King Ptolemy. That day was as difficult for the people of Israel as the day on which the [Golden] Calf was made; for the Torah could not be properly translated

- Talmud, tractate Sefer Torah 1:8
 
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