The Gideons were formed Jul 1st- This Week in Christian History for the week of June 30-July 6

The Gideons came about after two of their founders ended up having to share a room in a crowded hotel. John Nicholson and Samuel Beliot joined found that they had much in common, including a love of God. On the night of their meeting in Boscobel Wisconsin the men decided to form an association. In May of the next year they met again in Beaver Damn Wisconsin and they called a meeting in Janesville on July 1st at the Y.M.C.A..

At this meeting they were joined by William Knights. They chose their name, which was inspired by Judges Chapters six and seven. All three men were business travelers and wanted to know how they might impact people who were in hotels. In 1908 they came up with the goal to put a Bible in every hotel room in the United States. Only two months later a minister in Cedar Rapids Iowa was the first to support “the Bible Project,” as it was then called, and provide the Bibles for all of the local hotels.

Since then the Gideons have expanded their outreach to hospitals, convalescent homes, medical offices, domestic violence shelters, prisons and jails. The Gideons also place Bibles in the hands of students in 5th grade or above and emergency service personnel. The Gideons have placed more than 1.7 billion Bibles and New Testaments in over 190 countries.

In a stament about their ministry on their website, the Gideons say, “Having God's Word can and does lead people to faith in Christ, and those new Christians then grow by studying their Scriptures and even use them to share their faith with others. For this reason, we focus on distributing complete Bibles or New Testaments. These copies of God's Word are printed in more than 90 languages.”

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past
It is also currently available at Barnes and nobles and should be available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. The book is about Thomas Becket, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Francis of Assisi and is written in creative nonfiction style, I have excepts of the book here on my website williamdeanhamilton.net

Thank you for reading.

Bio of Evangelist Lester Roloff - This Week in Christian History for the week of June 23-29

June 17, 1914 Evangelist Lester Roloff was born in Dawson Texas. To help pay for his education he brought a cow with him and milked it to pay for his room and board. Early in his ministry Lester preached in small towns and in revival meetings. During World War II he became the pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church, and his popularity spread.

Soon after he started a radio broadcast, “The Family Altar,” which is still a successful program even years after Lester’s death. He eventually left Park Avenue to become a full-time evangelist on the radio and in revivals. He would later found Alameda Baptist Church is Corpus Christi as a base of operations for his ministry.

Lester founded the “City of Refuge” for alcoholic men and their families. Lester is quoted as saying, “this is a work of faith, entirely dependent upon the gifts of God’s people. You talk about an opportunity for evangelism! This is it, when we have men, women, boys and girls for at least ninety days to preach the gospel of deliverance to them. Some have suggested that we appeal to the state for funds, but his is a work of faith and there must be no strings attached that would keep us from preaching a full gospel and ministering to the spiritual needs of people. This is not a social institution. This is a salvation institution.”

This need to be disconnected to the state would later prove troubling for his later works.

He founded the “Lighthouse for Boys,” and the “Rebekah Home” for girls. These provided a place for troubled children, some who were homeless, addicted to drugs, alcoholic or pregnant. These homes were put under pressure because Lester didn’t want to license the homes. He argued that he didn’t take a penny from the state of Texas; they shouldn’t be able to tell him how to run his homes. Lester was willing to serve two short jail sentences to stand for his beliefs.

Fighting legal battles took a toll on Lester, and he announced on one of his last “Family Altar” programs that he had not only taken all of the money out of the bank, but had also taken a loan to keep the ministry going. Shortly after he crashed a plane he was piloting, he passed away along with his three passengers. The National Religious Broadcasters indicted Lester into their Hall of Fame.

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past
It is also currently available at Barnes and nobles and should be available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. The book is about Thomas Becket, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Francis of Assisi and is written in creative nonfiction style, I have excepts of the book here on my website williamdeanhamilton.net

Thank you for reading.

Bio of John Wesley - This Week in Christian History for the week of June 16-22

On June 17 1703 John Wesley was born. While he always considered himself a loyal member of the Church of England, he and his brother Charles founded the Methodist Church. The name Methodist came from their original legalistic viewpoint and tireless generosity and was given to “The Holy Club” by other students at Oxford University.

When John was about five he was rescued from a fire, the fire devastated his family financially. His mother, Suzanna, always told John he was “A Brand Plucked out of the Fire.” His mother taught him and the rest of the siblings, 24 were born but only 10 lived. John’s father was the rector of Epworth.

John decided to go to America to try and convert American Indians, and on the way a terrible storm struck and the mast of the ship collapsed. While John was terrified for his soul, he discovered Moravians, German Protestants who were also travelling to America, were not afraid to die, and were calm during the calamity. This was even true of their children. He was deeply affected by the contrast and began to listen to their theology.

John found himself entangled in a romantic affair, which ended with the target of his romantic attention being married to another man. He left for England soon after. Charles and John also had trouble because of their strict, legalistic ways. As time passed John doubted his own salvation, but kept on seeing how what the Moravians taught seemed to be what the Bible said. John was saved; he felt a warming of his heart when he heard Martin Luther’s Preface to Romans.

This was just the beginning; he kept his vigorous schedule and travelled throughout England, Ireland, and America spreading the Word of God. He read the Bible or other books while he was riding, he wasn’t the type of man to rest. Stephen Tomkins wrote that he "rode 250,000 miles, gave away 30,000 pounds ... and preached more than 40,000 sermons.”

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past
It is also currently available at Barnes and nobles and should be available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. The book is about Thomas Becket, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Francis of Assisi and is written in creative nonfiction style, I have excepts of the book here on my website williamdeanhamilton.net

Thank you for reading.

Big Week for Presbyterian Churches -This Week in Christian History June 9-15

There were several important developments in the Presbyterian Church this week in history. As a background, here is a brief history of the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church formed in large part due to John Knox’s visiting John Calvin’s Geneva. He was impressed with it and based his theology on it. The National Church of Scotland was formed in 1560 which was basically the first Presbyterian Church. The theology spread to England and was no longer illegal in 1647 (we live in great times where we can decide for ourselves what religion to follow).

The Presbyterian Church of Wales was made of Calvinistic Methodists ministers, who were originally known as the Calvinist Methodist connexion. Scottish immigrants to Ireland helped spread the Presbyterian Church there. The name Presbyterian is not used in France, but is known as Calvinist or the Church of Scotland. There are also Presbyterians throughout the world.

This relates to this week because of the following events:

6-13-1876

The Presbyterian Church in England merged with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

06-10-1925

The United Church of Canada was formed from Methodist, Presbyterian, and 3,000 independent churches. Currently there are about 200,000 people who attend services.

06-11-1936

The Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) was organized in Philadelphia, now called the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The church was formed from objections to modern and liberal changes to the church. Modernism here means to study scriptures as you would other writings, not as the literal word of God.

6-10-1983

The United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA) and the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) reunited to form The Presbyterian Church (USA). This denomination has almost 2,000,000 members today and is the largest Presbyterian denomination.

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past
It is also currently available at Barnes and nobles and should be available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. The book is about Thomas Becket, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Francis of Assisi and is written in creative nonfiction style, I have excepts of the book here on my website williamdeanhamilton.net

Thank you for reading.

The Six Day War- This Week in Christian History- 2nd though 8th of June

On 6-5-1967 the Arab Israeli Six Day War started. While this was of more immediate importance to our Jewish friends, it was an important fulfilling of Bible prophecy. The war started when the Israeli air force bombed Egyptian air fields by surprise in response to terrorist and guerilla attacks from the PLO. There were also tensions from land and water disputes. The airstrike was very successful and it gave Israel air superiority for the rest of the war.

Meanwhile three brigades entered Egyptian territory and attacked. The Israelis thought that Egypt would be prepared for a similar attack that Israeli forces had used in the past, so they attacked with surprise timing, different routes (some were thought to be impassable) and alternative methods. While they did suffer casualties, they were successful in capturing the Sinai Peninsula.

Jordan was initially reluctant to join the war but shelled Israel. Israel contacted King Hussein telling him that Jordan would not be targeted if they stayed out of the war. Jordan escalated the fighting, joined by a few forces from Iraq. Israel captured Old Jerusalem and then overtook the rest of the West Bank.

Syria entered the war, encouraged by Egyptian propaganda claiming they were winning the war. A few of Syria’s aircraft were shot down and an airfield attacked, however when they figured out the reports that they had heard about Israel’s forces being almost completely destroyed were false, they diverted the aircraft to positions farther away from the conflict. Syria offered a cease fire, but since they had been largely responsible for the terrorist and guerrilla attacks, it was decided to attack them. Israel captured the Golan Heights area.

God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people and has promised to restore its cities; the Six Day War was part of a series of conflicts that has enabled the Jewish people to reclaim their land.

This blog is more focused in Christian history than Bible prophecy, but when I saw the Six Day War was in the week I knew I had to include it because of its huge significance.

 

My new book, would you do what they did great Christian leaders from our past is now available to order from Amazon.com here is the link: Would You Do What They Did? - Great Christian Leaders From Our Past

It is also currently available at Barnes and nobles and should be available to order now or shortly from anywhere that sells books. The book is about Thomas Becket, Martin Luther, John Wesley and Francis of Assisi and is written in creative nonfiction style, I have excepts of the book here on my website williamdeanhamilton.net