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Christian History

Today in Christian History

June 19

June 19, 325: Bishop Hosius, a delegate at the Council of Nicea, announces the newly written Nicene Creed. Countering Arius, who taught that "there was a time when the Son was not," the creed describes Christ as "God from very God, begotten not made" (see issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church).

June 19, 1566: James VI of Scotland, who later became King James I of England, is born. He wrote treatises on the divine right of kings, witchcraft, biblical themes, and set into motion a translation of the Bible known as the King James Version (see issue 43: How We Got Our Bible).

June 19, 1623: Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and scientist as well as an apologist for Christianity and for Jansenism, is born (see issue 76: Christian Face of the Scientific Revolution).

June 19, 1834: Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers and orators of the nineteenth century, is born (see issue 29: C. H. Spurgeon).

June 19, 1987: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Louisiana law requiring public schools to teach creationism if they taught evolution.

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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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