October 27: Today in Christian History

October 27, 312

Constantine has a Christian vision and will be victorius over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome the next day.

October 27, 625

Honorius I begins his reign as pope. His belief in Monothelitism (that Christ had only one will, not two), later condemned as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, will figure in arguments over papal infallibility

October 27, 1553

Servetus is condemned by Geneva’s magistrates to burn alive for rejecting the Trinity. Calvin, who had vowed to execute him if he ever fell into his power, later claims he attempted to have the method of execution changed to beheading.

October 27, 1614

Christians in Japan face a deadline to hand over all mission material to authorities.

October 27, 1659

Boston authorities hang two Quakers, Marmaduke Stephenson and William Robinson, for their faith. The day will later be observed as International Religious Freedom Day.

October 27, 1771

Francis Asbury lands in Philadelphia and will lead American Methodists to become the largest denomination in the United States.

October 27, 1874

Presbyterian missionary Mary Parker wrote in her diary that on this day a Japanese believer named Takahashi was sending a letter to a Japanese government ministry asking for the right to bury Christian Japanese "according to our way."

October 27, 1889

The first Lithuanian Church in America is organized in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, with Rev. Alexander Burba as its first pastor.

October 27, 1948

Farewell service is held for Dr. “Harry” Ironside who has resigned as pastor of Moody Memorial church. He will continue to serve as a world evangelist.

October 27, 1972

North Vietnamese soldiers enter the Laotian town of Kengkok, taking prisoners, including missionaries Evelyn Anderson, Beatrice Kosin, Lloyd Oppel, and Samuel Mattix.

October 27, 1977

Death of Louise Rathke, at Valparaiso, Indiana. She had been the first trained deaconess of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, to serve in India.

October 27, 1998

Eight thousand evangelicals gather in Pasig City, Philippines, to celebrate one hundred years of Protestant gospel work in the Philippines.