Tertullian – born

ON THIS DATE    

Tertullian is thought to have been born 4/27/c.155 (160?) AD at Carthage (now in Tunisia) to pagan parents; his father a Roman centurion, perhaps part of an African-based legion assigned to the provincial governor.  His works indicate he received a good Carthaginian education including (but not necessarily limited to) grammar, rhetoric, literature, philosophy. He later traveled to Rome possibly to further his training (although Carthage was second only to Rome in culture & education) & may have studied law while there.   

One thing he did “learn” in Rome was the way Christians were being executed. He saw the courage which sustained them as they faced hideous deaths.  This startled him into investigating their Belief & eventually led to his conversion to Jesus Christ 197-198(?).  He was definitely married (addressed two books to his wife) but her name is lost in the dusty past. Tertullian was the first Christian penman to use Latin as a writing language but of his 31 extant works at least 3 were written in Greek.

Tertullian definitely did NOT (nor the Roman Catholics) create the concept of a Trinity. At least 13 verses list All Three of the God-Head in one verse but he appears to first to pen “trinity” described as “One God in Three Persons” (classic trinitarian formula). He was unhappy with compromise he witnessed coming into the church & wrote against encroachments rather than producing a systematic theology. His honesty did not win him friends among the “Churchmen” & one source said he died (c. 225-240) “separated from full communion with the bishops of the Catholic Church” a positive (rather than a negative) assessment.

Tertullian Quotes:

“One Person in Two Natures” – describing Christ

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” – another of his famous phrases 

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” – as pagan philosophies came – a question we still need to hear!

 

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Bryan – converted to Jesus Christ

ON THIS DATE

Edgar A Bryan was converted to Jesus Christ, 4/26/1956, in the village of Bremen, OH.  It was at the old  Pilgrim Holiness Church, (in town) then pastored by the impressive J D (John Denver) Webb, Sr. (father of evangelist Orlow C Webb).  It was a Thursday night revival service.  The evangelist is not remembered but could have been Bro Howard Williams as the Williams were at Bremen more than once in those years.

Yours truly was raised (youngest of four) in the Christian home of Clyde D & Ruth E Bryan & knew better than to use “four letter” language around them, but had picked up a foul-mouth habit, which was practiced at school in Somerset.  The next day on lunch break four or five of us were returning to campus from eating “down town” when I, from habit used the word “h_ _ l.”  It was said without thinking but immediately I felt badly.  I told the rest of the guys to go on & as I walked slowly up the alley I asked God to forgive me – He did, restored the joy to my heart, & to God be the glory, I have never said that word “as a bad word” since.  I cannot testify that I never sinned after that Spring Thursday night but I can say it was THE major turning point.  Though at times I yielded to temptation the set of my soul was toward God & heaven.

That conversion kept me through the last weeks of the 7^th grade, all the 8^th grade, & propelled me toward God’s Bible School.  The decision to go there (some 140 miles of two-lane road away) was a mutual one between my God-loving parents & 14½ yours truly. All four years of high school were spent at God’s Bible School.  There I made many life-long friends.  There I participated in the famous Thanksgiving Dinners. There I held my first job (off campus) at Jewish Hospital.  There I attended my first IHC – never forgot the night I heard H Robb French. And, there I met my life-love, the former Martha M Scarbrough.

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Cromwell – born

ON THIS DATE

Oliver Cromwell was born 4/25/1599 at Huntingdon, England.  He received his education at the grammar school in Huntingdon (now Cromwell Museum) & at Cambridge.  He converted to being a Puritan at 28.

In August of 1620, Oliver Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier, born in 1598 the oldest of 12. Their marriage was a happy one.  While on a campaign in Scotland, Oliver wrote Elizabeth, ‘Thou art dearer to me than any creature; let that suffice’ & ‘My Dearest, I could not satisfy myself to omit this post, although I have not much to write; yet indeed I love to write to my dear, who is very much in my heart. It joys me to hear thy soul prospereth; the Lord increase His favours to thee more and more…The Lord bless all thy good counsel and example to all those about thee, and hear all thy prayers, and accept thee always’.  Only one letter to Oliver survived (December 1650) in which Elizabeth writes, ‘Truly my lif is but half a lif in your abseinse, deid not the Lord make it up in heimself, which I must ackoleg to the prase of heis grace’.

Cromwell was a notable military leader in England’s “civil war” & became “Lord Protector” (1653 to death). He, who’s been called “Chief of Men” & a “Brave Bad Man,” is said to have made the following contributions: 1) established a period of peace in England, Scotland & Ireland,  2) made England an “world power,”  3) established non-conformity i.e. living separate from the established church.  He died 9/3/1658.

Cromwell Quotes:

“No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.”

“What is all our histories but God showing himself, shaking & trampling on everything that he has not planted.”

“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”

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Charles Darwin – died

ON THIS DATE  

Charles Darwin died 4/19/1882, at Down House (is this a prophetic-related name for the end of this wicked man?) London. He was born the 5^th child (of 6) to wealthy D R Darwin, MD, in a village called Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.  Charles Robert got his middle name from his father Robert & his dad wished also that he would follow him into medicine.  When that seemed out of the question Robert wanted his son to be a minister. But Charles chose to study “nature” rather than to be associated with nature’s Great Creator.  

On 12/27/1832 Charles was on board the HMS Beagle (was this also a bit prophetic – he was ‘”going to the dogs” J) when it lauched on its 5 year round the world voyage.  His visit to the Galapagos Archipelago made the world aware of its existence & his collection of specimens gave him “evidence” for his distorted plan.  As is too often the case, we “find” that for which we were looking.

Some good people have put hope for his soul in a rumor of a death-bed conversion (I surely do not hope he is in the bad place) but the following quote is worth noting, “Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a phantasy.”  – Charles Darwin, Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229 (endnote as quoted on Animals that Defy Evolution Part III).  

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Titanic minister – died

ON THIS DATE

John Harper died 4/14/1912, in the icy waters near the Titanic.  He was a Baptist preacher from Glasgow, Scotland who was returning to preach again at Moody Church where he had previously ministered a three month period. He & his daughter, Nana were aboard when she “struck an iceberg” about 11:40 PM.  John wrapped Nana in a blanket & handed her over to go into a lifeboat.  He handed his own life-jacket to another passenger.

A survivor clearly remembered that John shouted “Women, children & the unsaved into the lifeboats.” It was John, according to book, The Titanic’s Last Hero, who called upon the band to play “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”  He prayed on deck “with holy joy on his face.”  When the ship started lurching he jumped into the water swimming from one to another urging them to call on Jesus & be saved.

One, Aquilla Webb, told four years later how John had come near him (both floating on wreckage) asking if he was saved.  Webb said he was not to which John said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ & thou shalt be saved.” A wave pushed John away but God allowed him be swept by Webb again & John asked “Are you saved now?” When Webb answered in the negative John repeated the verse & shortly after was claimed by hypothermia & slipped under the cold water. Webb said, “I am John Harper’s last convert.” 

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Re-writing history?

Re-writing history? It is not just something nations or political groups do.

People re-write their own history:

making some things blacker than they were,

making some things rosier than they were.

– eab, 6/18/14

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“Edict of Nantes” – granted

ON THIS DATE

Henry IV (of Navarre) King of France, 4/13/1598, granted Huguenot Believers “The Edict of Nantes” (rhymes with font) a city in Brittany. This “too little, too late” law granted a degree of liberty to his “Protestant” subjects upholding some freedom of conscience and permitting Believers to hold public worship in parts of France – but not in Paris. “Protestants” could keep places they held in August 1597.

Catholicism was restored in ALL places where its practice had been interrupted & expanding true worship in France was made legally impossible. Cardinal de Richelieu & Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes.  The Huguenots remembering the “St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre” (8/23/1572) in which thousands (estimates run from 5000 to 30,000 were killed) emigrated—to the British Isles, Prussia, Holland, & the New World, leaving France 400,000 people short in the very important industrious/commercial groups.

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Samuel Zwemer – born “Apostle to Islam”

ON THIS DATE

Samuel Marinus Zwemer was born 4/12/1867, Vriesland, MI, 13^th child of a full-blooded Dutch couple.  His father pastored the local Dutch Reformed Church & mother dedicated Samuel to God “as she laid him in his cradle.”  He graduated from Hope Academy & College (BA) & New Brunswick Seminary (BD 1890). 

Still at Hope he offered himself for work among the Muslims.  He & his classmate, James Cantine, moved to Basra on the Persian Gulf & later moved the mission to Cairo.  Arabia & Egypt were home for him from 1890-1929, first doing evangelism then writing/publishing.  He became known as “The Apostle to Islam.” Though he personally saw few Moslems converted he showed the need to reach them & inspired others.

It was while Zwemer was a part of the Church Missionary Society in Arabia (1890-1913) that he met Amy Elizabeth Wilkes.  He & this fellow missionary were married 5/18/1896. 1929-1937.  He was professor of the history of religion & Christian missions at Princeton Theological Seminary & later taught at the Biblical Seminary of New York & at Nyack Missionary Training Institute.  He died 4/2/1952.

He called Islam the “Calvinism of the Orient,” & saw their grasp of Monotheism as a great strength AND also a great deficiency; for without an “understanding of the Trinity, God was unknowable and impersonal.”

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William & Mary – crowned

ON THIS DATE

William & Mary were crowned King & Queen of England (joint monarchs) 4/11/1689, at the invitation of Parliament – an event called The Glorious Revolution.”

William was born 11/4/1650 at The Hague to William II of Orange (who died of smallpox 8 days before his birth) & his mother, daughter of England’s Charles I, (died also of smallpox when William III was 10).  Also called William Henry, prince of Orange (Dutch – Willem Hendrik, prins van Oranje) he was groomed to head the House of Orange & become a ‘Stadtholder’ (lead the Dutch Republic).  He died 3/8/1702.

Mary was born 4/30/1662, at London to King James II of England.  Her parents were converts to the Roman Catholicism but thankfully she was raised “Protestant” (i.e. was not RC).  This allowed her to form a soul union with William of Orange, a champion against the power/politics of the catholic system.  They were married 11/4/1677 (his 27^th birthday).   Sadly she also, Queen Mary II, died of smallpox, 12/28/1694.

The joint rule of William III & Mary II happily helped England remain independent of Rome, which she had not been under Mary’s father (James II), who was openly Catholic, nor under her uncle (Charles II) who was also Roman Catholic, howbeit secretly.  William and Mary College in the US was endowed by William III.  He was reportedly so admired & loved in Scotland that they called him “King Billy.”

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Lew Wallace – born

ON THIS DATE

Lewis Wallace was born 4/10/1827 at Brooksville, IN (on US 52) the 2^nd of 4 sons born to David & Esther French Wallace. His father was a West Point graduate, lawyer & governor of Indiana (1837-1840) &  mother was a daughter of congressman John Test.  Lew left school (at 16), served as a copyist & studied law before going to the Mexican War. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar and served in the Union army in the uncivil war. He was a part of the court which tried those charged with assassinating President Lincoln.

Lew met Susan Arnold Elston, proposed in ’49, & married her 5/6/1852 in Crawfordsville. Susan was the daughter of Isaac Compton & Maria Akin Elston. Isaac was a merchant of means;  Maria had a Quaker (Friends) background. Susan would play a part in her Lew’s conversion. Pres. Hayes appointed him governor of the Territory of New Mexico (1878–81).  It was in Sante Fe that he completed the manscript of Ben Hur.  Pres. Garfield made him Minister to the Ottoman Empire (Constantinople, Turkey 1881–85).

Wallace at one point considered himself an atheist. He gathered material “proof” against the Bible.  Susan believed in the Lord & prayed for him. He realized his error & was converted. He reportedly asked his wife what he could/should do with all the material he’d collected – it provided foundations for Ben Hur, A Tale of the Christ (pub.1880) which was enormously successful.  Lew died in Crawfordsville, IN, 2/15/1905.       

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