The First Jewish-Roman War
Rome and Jerusalem are not particularly deep friends. Three times they revealed their hostility to the world – in the First Jewish-Roman War, the Kitos War, and the Bar-Kochba Revolt. Both nations emerged triumphant. Rome triumphed in power, defeating the…
Why Christians Need History
“There is nothing, perhaps, that has so detracted from the glory of God as the history of His people in the church. That is why I am going to deal with this subject of learning from history. Hegel’s famous dictum…
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
Last year, I shared how we like to read George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation as a family each Thanksgiving. While Washington’s proclamation is great to read (you should read it now if you haven’t!), I’d like to introduce you to Abraham Lincoln’s…
Reformation Propaganda
Happy Reformation Day! Today marks the 500 year anniversary of the date that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. This action touched off a spiral of events that led to the Protestant…
A Christian Sailor in the First World War
“It seems that, after HMS Cressy, Hogue, and Aboukir had been torpedoed, two exhausted sailors, swimming about in the water, at last came upon a spar which, while sufficiently buoyant to keep either of them afloat, sank under the combined…
Four Modern Myths about Ancient Eras
The past was very different. No one would disagree with that. Even people who know little about the past (think: most modern Americans) understand that the past was different. What they don’t understand is how different things once were. I…
Renaissance Culture as Depicted by Hans Holbein
This article is an analysis of a famous painting titled ‘The Ambassadors’ that I created for a recent project. You can view the full painting by clicking here. The Ambassadors (Holbein, 1533) is a painting from the Renaissance period by…
Lessons from Passchendaele
One hundred years ago today, at 3:50 AM, thousands of British soldiers began to advance across hundreds of feet of no-mans-land. This was July 31, 1917, the first day of the great battle of Passchendaele (pronounced as PASSION-dale). The attack…
Video: The Act of Toleration of 1689
May 24, 1689 is an important date in the history of religious freedom. It marks the anniversary of the signing of the Toleration Act of 1689, which provided legal religious freedoms to many in Great Britain. I’ve begun to mark…
Victory in Death: Narrative of the Death of Thomas Halyburton
When he was still young, Thomas Halyburton’s family moved from Scotland in 1685 to avoid a bloody persecution, started by the British king, against all who did not attend the established church. These ‘covenanters’ were guilty of the ‘crime’ of…
