November 12, 1556
Menno Simons
Dutch Anabaptist (re-baptizer) leader, Menno Simons, explained in a letter: “I can neither teach nor live by the faith of others. I must live by my own faith as the Spirit of the Lord has taught me through His Word.”
November 4, 1646
The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law making it a capital offense to deny that the Bible was the Word of God. Any person convicted of the offense was liable to the death penalty.
October 21, 1532
Martin Luther
German reformer Martin Luther declared: “For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a might tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant.
October 17, 1910
Death of Julia Ward Howe (b. 1819), American writer and social reformer. Prior to the War Between the States, she helped edit an abolitionist newspaper. During the U.S. Civil War, she wrote the hymn that became the theme song of the Union armies: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
September 25, 1493
Twelve Spanish missionaries set sail for the New World to formally introduce Christianity to the Americas. Their initial chapel was built at Port Conception on Hispaniola (the island of present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) where in December of 1493 they conducted a Christian worship service for the first time in the New World.
