November 2: Today in Christian History

November 2, 1600

Death at Bishop’s Bourne, England, of staunch Anglican theologian Richard Hooker, author of Ecclesiastical Polity. His last words are “God hath my daily petitions, for I am at peace with all men, and He is at peace with me...and this witness makes the thoughts of death joyful.”

November 2, 1637

Trial begins for Anne Hutchinson, who will be exiled as a result and become a founder of Rhode Island. She had led religious meetings in her home and advocated a covenant of grace.

November 2, 1752

Death of Johann Albrecht Bengel, German Lutheran theologian and Bible scholar, author of Gnomen Novi Testamenti. It marks the beginning of modern textual criticism (so-called lower criticism).

November 2, 1885

Death from consumption of Jimmie Aoba, Florence Young’s first convert in her work among the Island recruits who served on Queensland plantations. After becoming a Christian, he had pleaded for nightly classes so that he might learn more quickly, and always brought other “boys” with him.

November 2, 1918

Martyrdom of Ananius Aristov, who had been serving as village priest in Serginsky, and resisted the socialists who were murderous enemies of the Russian Orthodox Church. He and his two sons Andrew and Hosea are killed in the garden of the Perm theological seminary.

November 2, 1942

Death of Bud Robinson, Nazarene evangelist.

November 2, 1972

Americans intercept a Pathet Lao communication ordering the deaths of twenty-five year old Evelyn Anderson and thirty-five year old Beatrice Kosin, missionaries in Kengkok, Laos. Their bodies are later found burned to death. The Pathet Lao were Communists who hated Christianity because it contradicted the fundamental teachings of Marxism and posed serious problems to their control of people.

November 2, 1982

Almost 8,000 "missionary bottles" were launched from the "Loarraine W." 50 miles off the California coast. The bottles contained gospel tracts. A year earlier, the same organization had launched 20,000 "missionary bottles" stuffed with Christian literature. A letter from the Philippines was the only response ever received from those thousands of "missionary bottles" launched into the Pacific Ocean on three occasions.

November 2, 1992

Death of Bamidele Olusegun Ijagbulu, a Baptist minister and author in Nigeria who founded the Olu-Ibukun Foundation to intervene in troubled marriages and teach youth to live pure lives.