Historical Writings

German Reformer Martin Luther, 38, was excommunicated by Pope Leo X for challenging Catholic Church doctrine. Luther soon after began translating of the Bible into the German language.

Shogunate warriors defeat Christian and peasant rebels who retreat to Shimabara where they capture the fortress at Hara. After the rebellion is put down, Christianity will be outlawed in Japan.

The famed Methodist "Christmas Conference" concluded in Baltimore, MD. Having opened on Christmas Eve, 1784, this body brought into being the Methodist Episcopal Church (in America), and elected Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke the first two American "general superintendents."

Death at Bennington, Vermont, of Annie Sherwood Hawks, Baptist hymnwriter, best known for the hymn “I need thee every hour.”

Fray Luis (Dr. Walter Montaño), having fled a Dominican monastery, kneels in prayer beside Protestant missionary Charles A. Patton, and yields himself to Christ as Savior. Montaño will become a well-known Protestant evangelist throughout Latin America.

American Congregational missionary Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: 'I have done nothing but open windows - God has done the rest.'

At Barmen-Gemarke, in Germany, 320 pastors of the German Confessing Church met to draw up a theological statement opposing the Nazi German Nationalist Church. Led by Karl Barth and Martin Niem”ller, the gathering led to the formula afterward known as the Barmen Declaration.

The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1870, officially changed its name to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination is headquartered today in Memphis, TN, and comprises a membership of nearly 500,000.

Peter Vashchenko and several other Russian Christians, desperate after years of mistreatment, which included having their children sent to juvenile homes to live with unmanageable delinquents, overwhelm the policeman at the gates of the American embassy in Moscow and enter, seeking asylum in the West. Their complicated story will cover three decades.