Oct. 27 in Christian History

Oct 27, 2011 04:00 AM EDT

1553 - In Switzerland, Spanish physician Michael Servetus, 42, convicted for promulgating anti-Trinitarianism, was condemned for heresy and blasphemy, and burned at the stake in Geneva.


1771 - Landing at Philadelphia, pioneer bishop Francis Asbury, 26, first arrived in America. He had been sent from England by John Wesley to oversee Methodism in the American colonies, and stayed all of his remaining 45 years, till his death in 1816.


1889 - The first Lithuanian Church in America was organized in Plymouth (near Wilkes-Barre), PA. Rev. Alexander Burba was its first pastor.


1963 - One month before his death at age 65, English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Autumn is really the best of the seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life.'


1977 - American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'The unforgivable sin is not something done once and for all and which when done is without remedy. it is the constant, unremitting resistance of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for salvation.'

© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from

Almanac of the Christian Church