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Devotional

Spiritual leprosy has befouled many (1900)

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him th...

Events

1320

Baruch of Toulouse appears in court to beg for mercy as a heretic because he has continued to live as a Jew after Christian baptism—a "conversion" from which he flips and flops several times.

Authority for the date: Christian History #133

1552

Death of the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier in China, where he had contracted a fever while awaiting permission to preach. He had been one of the founding members of his order and a soul winner from Portugal to Japan.

Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.

1557

Under the leadership of John Knox, Protestants in Scotland sign their First Covenant at Edinburgh, uniting Presbyterians under the name: “Congregation of the Lord.”

Authority for the date: Vincent, Benjamin. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates. Putnam, 1911.

1659

Torture and execution of Gabriel, the Orthodox metropolitan of Ganos and administrator of Prousa. Jews had accused him of baptizing a Muslim convert into the Christian faith. He could have escaped torture by converting to Islam but refused to deny his faith.

Authority for the date: Wikipedia.

1706

Death of hymn writer Aemilie Juliane of Schaumburg. She had written about six hundred hymns, including “The Lord Hath Helped Me Hitherto.”

Authority for the date: www.lutheranhistory.org.

1833

Presbyterian Caleb Mills organizes the first classes of Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, with twelve young men. Earlier, as an agent for a Sabbath-schools in Kentucky and Indiana he had become familiar with the educational needs of the region and determined to undertake a campaign for schools.

Authority for the date: Putnam, Douglas P. “Indiana.” The Church at Home and Abroad. (March 1984) 183.

1834

Daniel Lindley leaves Boston for South Africa, where he will do notable work as a  missionary.

Authority for the date: Davies, Horton. Great South African Christians. Oxford University Press, 1951.

1879

Baptists in Liberia accept two churches formed by African American missionary Harrison N. Bouey into their conference. The members had migrated with him from the United States.

Authority for the date: Martin. Black Baptists and African Missions

1886

John Byington, early leader of the Seventh-day Adventists, and president of their first General Conference in 1863,  writes, "This is a day of comfort and peace. I have felt my sins were very many; have asked and found mercy of the Saviour, and would declare His loving-kindness to all."

Authority for the date: Lest We Forget: Adventist Pioneer Library, Vol. 2 No. 1 (1992).

1903

(Probable date) Miserable after burning a Bible, Sundar Singh sees a vision of Christ. The teenager will immediately begin to preach the gospel to others at great risk to himself and be poisoned and expelled from his home.

Authority for the date: Davey, Cyril. Sadhu Sundar Singh. Moody Press

1926

Death of Mok Lai Chi, a Chinese Pentecostal evangelist, educator, and editor. 

Authority for the date: Fenggang, Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.

1990

Execution in Iran of Assemblies of God pastor Hossmein Soodmand, who had refused to leave his country and his Christian followers to work in a safer region of the world.

Authority for the date: http://www.executedtoday.com/

2011

Hindus burn the Christu Sabha Church building in Tamil Nadu state, India, one of hundreds of incidents of Hindu persecution of Christians in India that will occur in this same year.

Authority for the date: Persecuted: the global assault on Christians.

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