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JUNE

27, 444 --Egypt. In Alexandria, Archbishop Cyril dies. He has closed the Church of the Novatians who taught there was no forgiveness for those who lapsed in their faith in time of persecution. He has gained the attention of Theodosius II and Pulcheria, his wife, and has made a defense of the faith in writing against the attacks of Julian, the Apostate. Cyril will be called the “Seal of the Fathers” since he has presented the final form of the doctrine of the Trinity.

27, 1519 --Germany. At Leipsic, a disputation is held between Johann Eck, a Roman Catholic theologian of the Old School, and Carlstadt, the defender of historic Christianity—“the faith once delivered unto the saints.”      

         Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein Von Carlstadt speaks:
“Before conversion, the will of man is incapable of doing good; every good work comes entirely and exclusively from God Who gives first the will to do and afterwards the ability to perform.”

      Mr. Eck: “I grant that the will has not power to do a good work, but receives it from God. …Every good work comes from God, BUT NOT ENTIRELY. … I acknowledge in conversion the first impulse comes from God, and that the human will is entirely passive.”

     Mr. Carlstadt: “I acknowledge that after this first action on the part of God, something must come from man, something which St. Paul calls ‘the will’ and which the Fathers designate by ‘consent.’

      Mr. Eck: “This consent of man comes partly from our natural will and partly from the grace of God.”
 
      Mr. Carlstadt: “No, this will in man is entirely created by God.”

      Mr. Eck: “Your doctrine makes man a stone or a block incapable of any counteraction . . ..”

      Mr. Carlstadt: “What? Does not the faculty of receiving the powers, which God produces in
him (a faculty which we admit he possesses) sufficiently distinguish him from a stone and a block?”

     Mr. Eck: “But by denying man all natural power, you contradict experience.”

     Mr. Carlstadt: “We deny not that man possesses certain powers and has in him a faculty of reflecting, meditating, and choosing. We only consider these powers and faculties as mere instruments incapable of doing anything that is good until the hand of God set them in motion. They are like the saw in the hands of the sawer.”

On July 4th, Martin Luther will enter the debate with Dr. Eck and will refer to him as “Dr. Geck” or “Dr. Crazy”, and also as “The Bavarian Pig.”

27, 1736 --England. George Whitefield preaches his first sermon. It is entitled, “The Necessity and Benefit of Religious Society.” He has sent a copy of it to an experienced minister to show himself unfit for the ministry. The seasoned preacher will like it and will pay Mr. Whitefield five dollars and eleven cents to use it.

27, 1819 --Burma. Adoniram Judson has labored here for six years. Today he baptizes Moung Nau the first Burmese convert.
       In 1828, the first member of a hill tribe called the “Karens” will be baptized. This tribe has had a tradition that once they knew the true God and that foreigners would restore to them this lost knowledge, and the Book containing it. Mr. Judson will find this Karen a slave, and will redeem him.
 

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