FEBRUARY 24
Start of Diocletian's Great Persecution (303)
“It is ordered, That there be a uniformity throughout this colony both in substance and circumstance to the canons and constitution of the Church of En...”
Quoted at Virtual Jamestown, “Laws and Documents relating to religion in early Virginia, 1606-1660.”
Behold Your Suffering King (1884)
I will strike down the king alone, 2 Samuel 17:2 (NASB). Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be on me, but not o...
Events
1582
Pope Gregory XIII issues his famous bull Inter gravissimas which decrees our present Gregorian calendar.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1860
Viscount Dungannon moves a resolution condemning prayer meetings in the theatres of Southern England where revival services are booming.
Authority for the date: Orr, J. Edwin. The Second Evangelical Awakening. London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1949.1873
A longstanding edict against Christianity is revoked in Japan.
Authority for the date: Kitchin, W. C. "Christianity as a factor in Japanese Politics." The Chatauquan (June 1891) 346.1886
Death at Longmeadow, Massachusetts, of Samuel Wolcott, a Congregational clergyman and author of numerous hymns, among them “Christ for the World We Sing.”
Authority for the date: www.hymnary.org.1915
Death at Sebring, Florida, of Amanda Smith, an African-American evangelist known for her powerful singing. Her autobiography will be frequently referenced in women’s studies.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1930
Internationally-known evangelist and Bible expositor, Harry A. Ironside, is issued a unanimous call (which he will accept) to pastor the Moody Memorial Bible Church in Chicago.
Authority for the date: www.lutheranhistory.org.1946
Death in Topeka, Kansas, of pastor Charles Monroe Sheldon, author of the popular Christian novel In His Steps, from which we get the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1949
After trying unsuccessfully for many years to stifle Christianity, the government of Bulgaria passes a law acknowledging that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the traditional church of Bulgaria and inseparably united with its history.
Authority for the date: Hutten, Kurt. Iron Curtain Christians. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1967.