February 5
1705 Death of German theologian and clergyman Philipp Spener, who authored ‘Pia Desideria’ (Pious Wishes) as he was the chief Lutheran pastor in Frankfurt. This marked the beginning of Pietism and he was later known as the “Father of Pietism.”
1736 The Wesley brothers John (32) and Charles (28) from England arrive in America as Missionaries to the American Indians, on the invitation of the Governor of Georgia James Oglethorpe.
1812 American missionary Adoniram Judson marries Ann Hasseltine, a schoolteacher. Two weeks later both of them sailed to India as missionaries, with the support of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
1835 Twelve American Congregationalist missionaries get a first gaze of Africa from the deck of a ship through a mist. One among them was Daniel Lindley who later became famous by educating Africans.
1851 Death of Congregationalist John Pye-Smith who had sketched out ways of reconciling geology and Scripture. He was also active in social issues such as the Corn Laws and slavery.
1887 Evangelist D. L. Moody organizes the Chicago Evangelization Society, which later established the Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions. After Moody’s death in 1899, the school was renamed Moody Bible Institute.
1918 Russian Communists issue a Decree on the Separation of Church and State, which denies the Church legal rights and the power to hold property.
1944 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and Nazi martyr, exhorts in a letter from prison: ‘Much that worries us beforehand can afterwards, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution… [That means] Things really are in a better hand than ours.’
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org