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Christian History

Today in Christian History

April 12

April 12, 1204: The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, an allied city. The attack virtually destroyed the Byzantine Empire and ruined any hope of reunifying eastern and western Christians (see issue 40: The Crusades).

April 12, 1850: Adoniram Judson, pioneer Baptist missionary to India and Burma, and Bible translator, dies during a sea voyage. He and his wife, Ann, were the foremost American missionary heroes of their day.

April 12, 1914: A convention in Hot Springs, Arkansas, having founded the Assemblies of God adjourns. The assembly of God which would become the world's largest Pentecostal denomination (see issue 58: Pentecostalism).

April 12, 1944: The National Religious Broadcasters Association is founded in Columbus, Ohio, in order to represent and build the credibility of Evangelical Christian broadcasters after a set of regulations, proposed by the Federal Council of Churches, banned paid religious programming and limited broadcast personalities to denominationally approved individuals, effectively removing Evangelicals from the airwaves.

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May 2, 373: Church father Athanasius, "the father of Orthodoxy," dies. He attended the Council of Nicea, and after becoming bishop of Alexandria, he fought Arianism and won. He was also the first to list the New Testament canonical books as we know them today (see issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church).

May 2, 1507: Martin Luther celebrates his first mass (delayed by a month so his father could attend) as an ordained priest. Luther was so nervous that he nearly dropped the bread and cup. ...

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