Category: On This Day

Henry Barclay Swete (March 14, 1835 -1917) was an Anglican theologian whose long career took place during the decades when the waters of destructive liberal criticism were rising all around traditional Christianity, and seemed to be coming in right up to the soul of the church. Liberalism was advancing, and the epochal reactions against it…

Charles E. Cowman was the founder of an important missions organization, originally under the name Cowman-Kilbourne mission around 1902, then under the name Oriential Mission Society, and still thriving as OMS International. He was a whirlwind of a man, organizing a plan to take the gospel to every person in Japan. His life story was…

Balthasar Hubmaier (born around 1480) was martyred on March 10, 1528. Hubmaier was trained in Roman Catholic theology on the eve of the Reformation, earning a doctorate with the Johann Eck who would later be on the front line of attacking Luther. He became convinced of Protestant doctrines and allied himself with the Zwinglians at…

Christian History magazine reports an unusual event in American religious history on this date: Evangelist Sam Jones took his crusade to Toledo, Ohio, with the permission of the Mayor of Toledo: another Sam Jones. How odd. Sam (evangelist) Jones scolded Toledo by saying that if the Devil were mayor of the town, he wouldn’t change…

Bernard Gilpin (1517-1583) was a English priest and theologian all through those years when it was hard to keep from being burned at the stake no matter what your theological views were. A man of peace born into a time of war, he had to engage in controversy and put his life on the line,…

A lot of people who use the perennially popular devotional book Streams in the Desert think it is by somebody named Charles, because the title page is signed “Mrs. Charles Cowman.” As an author, she successfully concealed herself under her married name, her late husband’s name. Her full name was Lettie Burd Cowman (1870-1960). And…

This is the day John Wesley died. Wesley’s influence was vast: Some historians have ventured the idea that he was instrumental in a revival movement that did so much good in England that it preserved the nation from suffering its own version of the French Revolution. That would be hard to demonstrate, but he really…

Lewis Sperry Chafer (February 27, 1871 – August 22, 1952) is famous for his role in promoting and consolidating dispensational theology. That pigeonholes him well enough, and he was happy enough to bear that label. In fact, he was proud to have been the first theologian to take up the task of thinking through all…