Category Archives: Church History

To the Pope-mobile

On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II went into St. Peter’s Square in Rome to bless some 20,000 worshippers. As he entered, a man named Mehmet Ali Hagca pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot the Pope four times from 15 feet away. Although Il Papa survived the assassination attempt, what resulted was a new cultural icon — the Pope-mobile. Continue reading

Who is the Paraclete?

Ever since there has been a Christian church, there have been people who take the concepts of Christianity and run off in some weird ways with them. One of the earliest can be seen in Acts 19:13-16 when the seven sons of Sceva borrow Jesus and Paul’s names to cast out demons. The end result involves a beating and fleeing in the nude. Continue reading

The Layman’s Prayer Revival

There have been many interesting individuals who have labeled New York City as the modern day Babylon. In fact some faithful to the Bible Code thought that Manhattan would be hit by a nuclear bomb in May of 2006. Continue reading

How To Forge Ancient Documents

One of the more common arguments against Jesus is that all of the evidence for him is found in the Bible, which of course is going to support him. In rebuttal, you might direct them to a book written by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus called Antiquities of the Jews and a passage that has become known as the Testimonium Flavianum. Continue reading

Go West Young Man

In the 1990s, Michael W Smith released a compact disc that not only helped us find our place in this world, our place in the world…but he also told us to “Go west young man”. Even though his music makes every modern Christian blush with embarrassment now, Smitty may have stumbled onto an interesting trend found not only in the Bible, but in Christian history. Continue reading

Devout Pillar-Sitting Saints

A man now known as Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite entered a monastery early in his life and began displaying his devotion in some very strange ways. Once he was found unconscious with a girdle of palm fronds tied so tightly around his waist that he had to soak for days to remove the fibers from the wound. Continue reading

Except First And Second Kings

The Visigoths were known as barbarians, but the only reason they were labeled this in history is because they tried to invade the Roman Empire. If Canada tried to invade the Roman Empire, they would probably be labeled barbaric. Well barbaric or not, a missionary named Ulfilas or Wulfila (something like that), crossed over the Danube because he thought that the Goths needed Jesus too. Continue reading