Today in Christian History

[MaKettle]

Nov. 24, 1838

Canadian Sulpician missionary Franois Blanchet, 43, first arrived in the Oregon Territory. A native of Quebec, he spent 45 years planting churches in the American Northwest, and is remembered today as the "Apostle of Oregon."

[MaKettle]

Nov. 25, 2348 BC

According to Archbishop James Ussher's Old Testament chronology, the Great Deluge ("Noah's Flood") began on this date.

[MaKettle]

Nov. 30,  1554

Roman Catholicism was (briefly) restored to England, under the reign of Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. In the process, "Bloody Mary" had Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and nearly 300 other Protestant leaders burned at the stake.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 1, 1909

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Bob Jones College (University), in Panama City, FL. This Protestant Fundamentalist college later relocated its campus to Greenville, SC.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 2, 1946   

Rev. E.V. Steele founded the European Christian Orphanage and Mission Society in Alberta, Canada. Its name was changed in 1953 to World Missions Fellowship and has been headquartered since 1961 in Grants Pass. OR.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 3, 1902

Birth of Mitsuo Fuchida, the pilot who flew the lead plane in Japan's air attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941). Following WWII, through representatives of the Pocket Testament League, Fuchida was converted to Christianity in 1950.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 4, 1854

Birth of Mary Reed, American Methodist missionary. She died in 1943, having spent the last 52 years of her life ministering to the lepers of India.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 5, 1848

Death of Joseph Mohr, 56, Austrian Roman Catholic vicar and author in 1818 of the enduring Christmas hymn, "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night").

[MaKettle]

Dec. 8, 1981

In one of its major rulings regarding the issue of the separation of Church and State, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of student organizations holding religious services at public colleges and universities.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 9, 1840

Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone, 27, set sail on his first journey to Africa. (He had been accepted to serve under the London Missionary Society two years earlier.)

[MaKettle]

Dec. 11, 1792

Birth of Joseph Mohr, the Austrian Roman Catholic vicar who, along with the Oberndorf Church organist Franz Gruber, on Christmas Eve of 1818, authored the enduring Christmas hymn, "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night").

[MaKettle]

Dec. 12, 1712

The South Carolina colony passed a "Sunday Law" requiring "all...persons whatsoever" to attend church each Sunday, to refrain from skilled labor, and to do no traveling by horse or wagon beyond the necessary. Infractions of this law were met with a 10-shilling fine and/or a two-hour lock-up in the village stocks.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 13, 1835

Birth of Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal clergyman. Though he produced ten volumes of sermons, he is better remembered today as author of the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," written in 1868 for the children of his Sunday School.

[MaKettle]

Dec. 14, 1955

Catholic religious leader, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, 60, was quoted in "Look" magazine on this date as stating that 'an atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.'

[MaKettle]

Dec. 15, 1957

British apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'May it please the Lord that...faith unimpaired may strengthen us, contrition soften us and peace make us joyful.'