April 14
73: In a shocking incident, 967 Jewish zealots commit mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this night, once they were sure that the walls will be breached by the attacking Roman soldiers, as reported by the Jewish historian Josephus. Two women and five children escaped the mass suicide by hiding in a cistern, and were later released by the Romans.
1521: Ferdinand Magellan instructs and baptizes Raja Humabon, regarded as the wisest and bravest man in the Philippines; the preacher could baptize another eight hundred Filipinos in the following week.
1682: Avvakum Petrov, one of Russia’s Old Believers and his fellow prisoners are locked in a log cabin which was set on fire, at the order of Tsar Theodore.
1902: J.C. Penney opens his first Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, committing himself to the highest ethical standards, especially in business. He pledges to run his business on biblical principles: selling only quality products at a fair price, taking only a fair profit, and doing the transactions only for cash.
1906: The Azusa Street Revival, the forerunner of all modern Pentecostal movements in the world, gets an official beginning when its services are moved into a building at the Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
1928: Demise of Henry Beard Delany, the first African-American bishop of North Carolina and the second African-American bishop in the Episcopal Church within the United States.
1940: Arthur W. Pink, English Bible expositor, reflected in a letter, “Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord.”
1942: Father Charles E. Coughlin, the Detroit radio priest, is censured for anti-Semitism, because of his broadcasts against the ‘godless capitalists, the Jews, the Communists, international bankers and plutocrats.’
1950: Mitsuo Fuchida, who had broadcasted “Tora, Tora, Tora” from Pearl Harbor over radio, becomes a Christian.
1993: Passing away of Joseph C. Wong, a Chinese-born pastor in Minnesota, founder of the North Central Chinese Winter Conference, and general secretary of the Chinese Christian Mission. From him we have the quote, “The Gospel is not designed to be expressed by the culture in which it blossoms, but its purpose is to transform the very culture in which it blooms.”
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org