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JULY

    
 26, 1942 --Japan. Forty-two Pentecostal preachers are arrested by the Japanese police, and are charged with teaching that the day is coming when “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow” meaning that the Emperor himself will have to bow; thus making Christ greater than he.
     Shintoism is the state religion here and teaches that the Japanese Emperor is the incarnation of the Sun Goddess. Conflict with Christianity, which maintains God is sovereign, has been expected, especially since the State has stated, “no god should be reverenced above the Emperor.” In 1638, when Shintoists murdered thirty-seven thousand Romanists in one city, it was decreed and published throughout the country that “So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that the king of Spain himself, or the Christian’s God, or the Great God of all, if he violate this command shall pay for it with his head.”
      Is it any wonder then, “to prevent misuse of religion for political ends, and to put all religions faiths and creeds upon exactly the same legal basis” that General Douglas MacArthur took as one of his first steps of action to declare Separation of Church and State. “The problem ...is a theological one” he declared, and after excising Shinto teaching from the country’s textbooks since it taught the Emperor of Japan to be lord over all other states on account of “ancestry, descent or special origin,” Mr. MacArthur requested ten thousand Japanese Bibles be sent, as well as ten thousand missionaries.
     But horror of horrors occurred when the Federal Council of Churches in New York was asked to recommend a woman to teach the Word of God to the Crown Prince, the Council responded by sending one who denied the doctrine of the New Birth.

27, 1680 --England. In London, Stephen Charnock dies. He has served as joint pastor with Thomas Watson in a Presbyterian Church here and leaves behind him his classic work entitled, The Existence and Attributes of God.

27, 1681 --Scotland. Donald Cargill is beheaded today. He is the successor to Richard Cameron as leader of the Covenanters who refuse to acknowledge the king whom they regard as a tyrant. On account of fierce persecutions, Mr. Cargill has publicly excommunicated the king and several of the nobles. He has been hunted as an animal and was captured on July 11th, and has readily confessed to what the Council has branded as treason. When the Council divided on whether to sentence him to life imprisonment or to execute him. The Duke of Argyle decided in favor of his death.

28, 1540 --England. On April 22, 1509, King Henry VII died and bequeathed the English throne to his only surviving son, Henry VIII. Though not quite eighteen years of age, he determined at once to marry Catherine of Aragon, the widow of Arthur his brother.
      Young Henry will soon tire of his Spanish wife. In his first interview with the king, Thomas Cromwell will advise Henry to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn, and to renounce his allegiance to the Pope. The king, however, will seek a divorce because she will not give him a male heir.
     Emperor Charles V unwilling his aunt should suffer ignominy in England, will inform the Pope, Clement VII, the divorce must not be granted.
     Clement, not wishing to further alienate the English will withhold a decision as long as possible, thus leaving Cardinal Wolsey to bear the brunt of the king’s wrath. In the midst of the fuss and foment, the Cardinal will die.
     Thomas Cromwell will be made the new Chancellor and will recommend Anne of Cleves to the king. She is a Lutheran princess of whom Mr. Cromwell has received a letter stating, “The lady Anne excels her sister, the Duchess of Saxony, as the golden sun does the silver moon.” But Cromwell’s attempt to promote a political alliance between German Lutheran princes and the English throne will fail. He will pass these words regarding her beauty to the king, who when he sees her is repelled. For this, Thomas Cromwell will today lose his head.
     King Henry VIII will soon take Catherine Howard as his fifth wife. But a fourth divorce will soon follow and she will be beheaded for having loved another man.
     This was the state of the royal court and such was the general state of the society, because until his ascendancy to the throne of England, the only translation of Scripture was that of John Wycliffe, but the price of a copy was much too high for the average man. And the only prayers which might be remembered were those in Latin, in unknown tongue to the common man.

28, 1542 --Switzerland. A son is born to John and Idelette Calvin, but will live only a few days.

28, 1648 --Scotland. The Scotch Assembly adopts the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

28, 1686 --England. Thomas Watson was ejected from his pulpit in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity. At that time he continued to preach privately. He has died in secret prayer. Today he is buried at Barnsten. He leaves behind his Divine Cordial, A Body of Practical Divinity, One Hundred Seventy-six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism, and other works.

 

 

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