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April 8, 1857: A small group of Dutch immigrants, meeting in Zeeland, Michigan, organize the Christian Reformed Church.
April 8, 1901: After nearly 30 years of successful church
planting in New Guinea, Presbyterian missionary James Chalmers
(accompanied by missionary Oliver Tomkins, who had just arrived in the
field) sets out to explore a new part of the islands. No one ever saw
the two again. A rescue party learned the men had been clubbed to death
and eaten by cannibals.
April 9, 1626: English philosopher of science Sir Francis Bacon
dies. After a dizzying rise to political power (he was named lord
chancellor in 1618) and a bribery scandal, Bacon retired to writing. He
introduced the essay form to the English language and wrote The New Atlantis,
which mixed his scientific approach and his Christian beliefs.
"Knowledge is the rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator and the
relief of man's estate," he wrote. "A little philosophy inclineth man's
mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to
religion" (see issue 76: Christian Face of the Scientific Revolution).
April 9, 1816: Richard Allen and others organize the African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. The next day he was named
the denomination's first bishop, thereby becoming the first black
bishop in the United States. A few years earlier, Allen and his
colleagues had left the Methodist Episcopal Church when it removed
blacks from "white" seats during prayer (see issue 62: Bound for Canaan).
April 9, 1906: In Los Angeles, Holiness minister William Seymour
and several associates experience what they called the "baptism of the
Spirit," marked by speaking in tongues. This launched the three-year
"Azusa Street Revival," considered the first major public event of
Pentecostalism (see issue 58: Pentecostalism and issue 65: The Ten Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century
April 9, 1945: The Gestapo hangs German theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, after discovering his plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Christoffer's last recorded words were, "This is the end—for me, the
beginning of life" (see issue 32: Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
April 10, 1829: English evangelist William Booth, founder and
first general of the Salvation Army, is born in Nottingham. In 1865,
Booth and his wife, Catherine, set out to reach the desperate poor and
unchurched by conducting open-air meetings with lively music; preaching
in theaters, bars, and jails; and creating large-scale plans to relieve
poverty. His organization launched what became one of the most
successful religious revivals in the modern era (see issue 26: William
and Catherine Booth).
April 11, 1836: George Mueller, leader of the Plymouth Brethren
movement, opens his famous orphanage on Wilson Street in Bristol. By
1875, Mueller's orphanage provided care for over 2,000 children, a work
sustained not by regular fund raising but by thousands of "answers to
prayer.
April 12, 1850: Adoniram Judson, pioneer Baptist missionary to
India and Burma, and Bible translator, dies during a sea voyage. He and
his wife, Ann, were the foremost American missionary heroes of their
day.
April 13, 1742: Handel's famous oratorio Messiah premieres in Dublin's Fishamble Street Musick Hall and is met with critical praise.
April 13, 1986: Pope John Paul II visits a Jewish synagogue in Rome, marking the first such visit by a pope in recorded history.
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The
Olympic Games are becoming quite political again. Maybe it because the
year ends in the numeral 8 that is giving the games their political
edge. You may
recall that the 1968 Olympic Games had Tommy Smith and John Caros on
the victory stand after running the 200m race. They raised their
blacked gloved fists over their heads during the playing of the
National Anthem in protest. Silver medalist 
