Jan. 2 in Christian History

Jan 02, 2013 04:22 AM EST

1744 - Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.'


1909 - Future Foursquare Gospel church founder Aimee Elizabeth [n‚e Kennedy] Semple [later McPherson], 19, along with her husband Robert Semple, was ordained to the ministry in Chicago by evangelist William H. Durham.


1921 - The first religious program heard over the radio was broadcast from Calvary Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh over local radio station KDKA. (The first licensed radio station in the US, KDKA had been on the air only two months.)


1968 - Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.'


1971 - A team of Israeli scholars announced the discovery in Jerusalem of a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a crucified male. Found in a cave-tomb, it was the first direct physical evidence of the well-documented Roman method of execution.


© 1987-2013, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from

Almanac of the Christian Church