What is Christian History for Everyman?

Christian history is the most exciting stories and interesting facts of all time.

Everyman … is you!

Have you heard of the days—before electricity—when instead of TV shows and movies, there were stories around the campfire?

The storyteller was the most beloved man in the village. Children huddled around the fire in the evening, shivering not just from the cold, but from excitement.

"Grandfather, tell us about the time … "

That is Christian history.

Cursed are the men who took the world's most exciting stories and tastiest tidbits of information—for those are what Christian history is—and locked them up in the dry and dusty halls of academia.

Christian History for Everyman has taken them back for you!

This is NOT an alternative history site.

Everything you will read on this site is mainline Christian history, well-researched, and in line with current scholarship. I like to point out the parts that make others nervous, but I never make up my own history.

Stick to the real facts of Christian history, I always say. If the scholars don't know about it, it probably isn't true.

From the Very Best of Christian History …

Dirk Willems was an Anabaptist. This was dangerous in 1569, especially in the little town of Asperen, Holland. Many of his friends there had given their lives for their faith. Dirk himself was imprisoned in a castle for the same reason.

The castle was gated and surrounded by a moat. As winter set in, however, the moat froze over. Dirk tied some rags into a rope, slid out the window, and dropped onto the ice. Quickly he crossed the moat and raced across a meadow.

Not quickly enough. A guard saw him fleeing and went after him.

As they raced across the dutch landscape, Dirk cut across a dangerous section of ice. Though he made it across, his pursuer did not. He crashed through the ice, crying out for help.

Dirk was faced with a difficult choice. Helping his pursuer could result in torture and death. Many of his fellow Anabaptists had ended their lives in just that sort of glorious martyrdom for Christ.

Dirk proved himself a disciple. "For me to live is Christ; and to die is gain." He rescued his pursuer, pulling him from the frigid waters.

The obvious question is: did the guard let him go?

The story is that the guard was willing, but the Roman Catholic burgermeister (mayor) told the guard to mind his oath, and Dirk was returned to the castle. This time they were more careful, and soon after Dirk was sent to his heavenly reward by the fires of his persecutors.

… To the Very Worst of Christian History …

During the reign of the emperor Constantius (from A.D. 337 to 361), a man name Macedonius became the bishop of Constantinople, the most important see (area of a bishop's oversight) in the empire. He was an Arian, one of those who opposed the recent decision of the council of Nicea, and the city was divided over his appointment.

Besides the unrest over his reign as bishop, Macedonius had another concern. The church building that housed the coffin and remains of the emperor Constantine was ready to fall down. He wanted to move the remains, but there were many in the city that regarded the Constantine's bones as relics. They did not want them disturbed.

Macedonius, for reasons we will never know, decided that it was worth moving the coffin. Without meetings or announcements, he ordered it to be done.

Those who opposed the move were furious. They marched down to the new church building to protest, but they were met by an equal number of the supporters of Macedonius. It took very little time for the encounter to turn violent.

The result was horrifying. It's related here by the historian Socrates Scholasticus:

[They] attacked one another with great fury, and great loss of life was occasioned. The churchyard was filled with gore, and the well in the yard overflowed with blood, which ran into the adjacent portico, and from there into the very street.

Yikes!

… To the Most Interesting Facts

• The apostles' churches both kept and didn't keep the Sabbath … at the same time!
• What was the rule of faith? And why was it so important?
• Martin Luther said the Bible contradicted itself and that resolving it is impossible.
• The Bible says there are dragons in heaven!
• There is a third Corinthian letter in an Armenian Orthodox Bible
• … as well as a letter from the Corinthians to Paul
• Theophilus of Antioch predicted the fall of Rome to the decade 300 years in advance.

So why am I doing this?

There are things church leaders don't like to talk about, and theologians aren't very good storytellers.

I'll talk about them—why shouldn't you know?— and I love a good yarn.

So let's get to those stories!

You can use the buttons on the left to jump from section to section, but these are some of my favorite Christian history stories …

• An Actual Christian Debate from the Second Century
• John the Apostle Demonstrates Real Shepherding
• Michael Sattler's Example: A Real Restoration of Early Christianity