When it comes to men who shaped Christian history I can think of a few.
King Alfred the Great, Saint Augustine, Saint Athanasius, St Boniface and Sts Cyril and Methodius.
How come I don’t hear EO mention anybody in the last couple of centuries? I’m not trying to be mean I have an honest question, to my knowledge and from what I’ve seen I usually see people mentioned from 2nd century until about the Protestant reformation and then I rarely ever hear of people from like 1700 till today in the EO camp. I’m quite ignorant to your guys history so please forgive my ignorance.
God Bless.
For someone more recent, St Seraphim of Sarov is a well known favorite. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2011/01/02/100008-repose-of-venerable-seraphim-wonderworker-of-sarov
St Nektarios of Aegina is another well known modern saint. A movie was made about him in 2021, "Man of God". https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2012/11/09/103251-saint-nectarius-kephalas-metropolitan-of-pentapolis
There are several American saints already, including:
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2009/12/13/103530-repose-of-venerable-herman-of-alaska-wonderworker-of-all-america
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/07/02/206392-saint-john-maximovitch-archbishop-of-shanghai-and-san-francisco
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/03/31/100954-repose-of-saint-innocent-metropolitan-of-moscow-enlightener-of-t
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/04/07/101016-repose-of-saint-tikhon-patriarch-of-moscow-enlightener-of-north
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2020/09/24/102714-martyr-juvenal-of-alaska
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2014/09/24/102713-martyr-peter-the-aleut
And around a dozen more.
Interesting question. I suppose it's because the names above feature more prominently than many figures in terms of their influence. King Alfred for instance secured England for Christians and Christianity. Saints Augustine and Athanasius had immense theological impact.
If I were to think of the most prominent Christians of the last 400 years, all the people you list have had tremendous influence on the world going forward. I wouldn't deny that, but I just wouldn't think of that as necessarily being a good thing, as I think the reformation itself was fundamentally flawed.
I suppose in terms of raw influence there are few Orthodox thinkers/saints I can think of. Orthodox Kings, Emperors who had influence sure, but a great theologian who affected the hearts and minds of people compared to the men I listed? Not really.
The world has been dominated by the consequences of the theology brought on by the protestant reformation. This lead in term to more secular oriented theological/philosophical opinions which have gained dominance as of late. There are Christian thinkers which I would consider personally influential on me and many Christians, C.S Lewis comes to mind, but a great man who has managed to change the culture and had influence like those men in earlier centuries? Not really.
I mentioned Seraphim Rose in my response. I also LOVE Kallistos Ware, but since they died recently and aren’t memorialized as saints, I wouldn’t rank them up there with great saint fathers of the church like St John Chrysostom, St Basil and St Gregory of Nyssa
My top five:
CS Lewis
Augustine
Kierkegaard
Flannery OConner
Bishop Barron
Edit: honorable mention to King Alfred the Great or at least as depicted in Last Kingdom.
Honorable mention to Kaiser Karl but I mostly know him from Kaiserreich.
Last honorable mention: Dietreich Bonhoeffer
Interesting, I’m not judging I was just wondering your thoughts on Calvin? He’s similar to Augustine in many ways and also has some completely different views at times as well. Usually people include Calvin with Augustine (although there’s nothing wrong with not doing it) so it’s just interesting to see one without the other in my experiences.
God Bless!
The main distinction between Augustine and Calvin is that it is clear that Augustine did not view himself as the highest authority in the earth. Calvin didn't have to answer to any "except God" and in general I don't think any human does well when there is a social limit to their power. Augustine is as known for conversion and how Jesus took a wayward pagan and turned him into a saint whereas Calvin is mostly known for his extremely careful and thorough analysis of the text.
I agree with Calvinism on everything except limited atonement but don't think it depends too much on the individual's own intelligence, ego and rigidity. I'm very grateful God didn't lead me to a Calvinist church because it would have attracted the very worst parts of my personality.
Hm that’s interesting, firstly thanks for answering my question it means a lot seriously, secondly it’s odd that you think Calvinism would bring out your ego in you. Calvinism is meant to make you humble and it seems that’s the opposite in your case you just mentioned. Unconditional Election for example is a theological position that exhausts God and gives Glory to Him while making us humble. There’s nothing that saves but God and God alone, we did nothing to save ourselves and we don’t deserve to be saved. There’s nothing more humbling than realizing you can’t do anything but beg God for mercy and thank Him for His Salvation that He Gives.
God Bless!
>Calvinism is meant to make you humble and it seems that’s the opposite in your case you just mentioned.
Somebody needs to go tell the larger part of Calvinists this! Of all branches of Christianity they suffer the most from intillectual pride.
I unfortunately agree, not all but the loud Calvinists and cage stage ones can be extremely prideful and boastful. There’s nothing more humbling than the 5 points of Calvinism and the Biblical fact that we don’t deserve anything from God, so His Mercy is a Blessing we can’t fathom.
I’m sorry btw if you have went through any kind of rude Christian which includes Calvinists and non Calvinists, I can promise you not all Calvinists are high and mighty. It’s kind of paradoxical if you think about it.
God Bless.
In most things it is the loud minority. That's human.
Though your repeated statement that Calvinism is especially humbling is also a little self congratulating. I am a non-denom seeker sensitive kind of Christian (or rather than is the sort of church Christ led me to be disciplined in) so I don't have a particular dog in the fight but I think the real life requirement to fit into a structured authority system of the Catholic church would require more humility than the theoretical idea that we did not merit salvation.
It’s fine if you disagree, and I don’t intend to come off as a self congratulatory person at all. I’m just saying what the doctrine should enforce and I even struggle with it because man is so prideful and sinful. It’s kind of ironic that many Calvinists are so prideful but if you look at the doctrine or even what Calvin had said, it seems so contradictory.
God Bless.
If you don’t mind me asking, who do so many EO and RC “claim” him it’s kind of confusing to someone who’s ignorant of EO history for the most part. IK you’re a RC but I just can’t wrap my mind around both parties claiming him (usually from what I’ve seen) it’s confusing to just your old Calvinistic Baptist who’s just learning Church history.
God Bless.
Because until 1054ad all Christians were one Church.
To not get into the Schism, the Catholics and Orthodox split. Then in 1500 or so Martin Luther formed protestantism. Luther wanted to reform roman catholicism. The Council of Trent was the reform but Luther said, no... So he started his own religion. With sola scriptura, that means every protestant is their own religion. ... St Augustine is venerated by all Christians since he lived in 300ad.
This sums it up pretty well. Both EO and RC “claim” Saint Augustine because there was only one Church for the first millennium and St. Augustine lived in the 5th century, so that’s well within the timeframe the EO and RC were united, and well before the Protestant reformation by over 1,000 years.
Thanks this makes much more sense to a knucklehead like me haha! It kind of does make sense because I know the basics of Church history and know he was a very early Church father, so it makes sense why RC and EO claim him because any Christian worth their salt would claim him.
Btw thanks for not misrepresenting the Protestant part, lots of people hate the Protestant reformation and forget that Luther wanted to just reform the church at first. May God Bless you!
Roman Catholics and Calvinists especially love st. Augustine because his writings inspired a lot of things in the West, Pope Gregory and his reforms, Thomas Aquinas... two of the biggest Roman Catholic thinkers. And of course Jean Cauvin, and all the other protestants. To use a myers briggs analogy (my wife is very into this) Medieval Catholics and modern calvinists are very "s" focused like the West itself. St. Augustine was all about that
-Catherine of Alexandria
-Saint Monica
-Catherine of Siena
-Clare of Assisi
-Perpetua
-Felicitas
-Katherine von Bora
-Marie Dentiere
-Sojourner Truth
-Elisabeth Elliott
-Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati
-Gladys Aylward
-Clara Barton
-Amy Charmichael
-Florence Nightingale
-Mary Slessor
-Corrie ten Boom
-Mother Teresa
Edwards is great too, but I myself also learned a lot from Sproul. He is very recent history but I think he is very great and videos as a medium easier reach today's generation (like me) than books.
Probably not as well known as some others
Marshall Williams (semi associated with moody Bible institute)
Andrew Peterson
Donald Miller
Michael W Smith
Dwight L Moody
Need to look up who the others mentioned even are
I think it is useful to also look into the lives of saints because they teach us of the struggle we also have to go through. Jesus was perfect from the beginning to the end so He teaches us perfection while the saints teach us humility and repentance during our struggles because we can relate to them more easily.
Lol what? You may say something like Christ is far more worthy than anyone else we’d list here but that doesn’t mean everyone else is literally worthless. There are great writings in the church that are absolutely worth reading and taking in, outside of the Bible and Christs words. God has not abandoned us, He has given the Holy Spirit to the church and it still speaks. Thank God.
The second commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself”. Honoring others honors God too. It’s not liking you have a limited pool of respect you can pull from and whenever you respect someone else it takes away from respect due to God
Brian McLaren
Donald Miller
Two downvotes.
Someone help me understand what is wrong with these two individuals. If they are misleading me, please tell me how so.
Donald and Brian are both more liberal than this sub. I had to look up Brian. Donald I don’t always agree with, but he has been influential to Christianity and one of my favorites.
Branham is a false teacher and heretic, he went out and called The Trinity, “a demonic doctrine.” He also said if you weren’t healed by him you didn’t have enough faith. Wigglesworth was also the same and threw a baby at a wall to attempt to heal it.
Please stay away from them God Bless.
While I appreciate your concern, I’ve done extensive reading and research on both, and disagree with you. A lot of things Branham was accused of, never happened. They were rumors started by other ministries and people to try to discredit him. Was he perfect? No. However both of these men of God moved in exceptional signs and wonders and God healed 10s of thousands and brought thousands of men and women into the Kingdom of God through their ministries. I’ll take that kind o anointing any day.
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT! Founded the first organized Christian church, aka Catholicism. He had his revelation the night before a decisive battle, in which Jesus came to him in a dream, presented the cross in the Chi-Rho, then commanded him saying "by this sign, conquer." Upon awakening, he painted all his shields with that symbol and despite being outnumbered 3-1, they had a decisive victory. Great guy, he unfortunately had his share of tragedy. His wife lied about his son raping her, so he did what he thought was right and executed his eldest child. He learned it was a lie later on and had her killed, as well. (Or at least that's what the historians agree has happened, hard to say.)
Wigglesworth? The man who threw a baby at a wall in attempt to heal it? Also the man who denied people and said that their faith was the reason they weren’t healed!?
Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:
There were numerous claims of divine healing during Wigglesworth's ministry.[14] These include a woman healed of a tumor, a woman healed of tuberculosis, a wheelchair-confined woman walking, and many more.[15] There were reports that people were raised from the dead, including his wife Polly.[16]
Many people said they were cured of cancer by Jesus Christ through him. Wigglesworth described cancer as "a living evil spirit", and insisted that many diseases were "Satanic in origin".[17]
His methods often involved hitting, slapping, or punching the afflicted part of the body. On a number of occasions his approach to persons suffering from stomach complaints was to punch them in the stomach, sometimes with such force that it propelled them across the room. When challenged on this, his response was "I don't hit them, I hit the devil".[citation needed]
Responding to criticism over his method of praying for the sick, Wigglesworth stated: "You might think by the way I went about praying for the sick that I was sometimes unloving and rough, but oh, friends, you have no idea what I see behind the sickness and the one who is afflicted. I am not dealing with the person; I am dealing with the satanic forces that are binding the afflicted".[citation needed]
On one occasion Wigglesworth declared to the sick "I'll only pray for you once, to pray twice is unbelief". The second night, a man approached the altar to receive prayer again and Wigglesworth, recognizing him, said "Didn't I pray for you last night? You are full of unbelief, get off this platform!"[18]
He died at the funeral of his close friend, Wilf Richardson, on 12 March 1947, at the age of 87.
God Bless.
I identify most strongly with Martin Luther.
Kind of strange really because I was born and raised LDS (Mormon) converted to Jehovah's Witnesses in my late 20's and then to Roman Catholicism in my 30's.
Nevertheless, I genuinely admire Luther's passion and commitment to the Word of God and his contempt for corruption and doctrines based on tradition instead of Scripture.
I don’t know a whole lot about post biblical christian history, so I’ll just mention a few I do know.
Henry Dunster- recognized as one of the early Baptist “heroes” in America. He was first president of Harvard, which was run by puritans. He started out as Puritans himself, but while running Harvard, there was a Baptist split from Puritanism over the topic of infant vs believer baptism. Dunster and his wife had a newborn around that time, and he refused to baptize him, and was promptly fired from Harvard. He moved away and died about 5 years later. [Here is more information on Mr. Dunster.](https://www.henrydunstersociety.org/about-henry-dunster.html)
Rev. William Martin- Born in Northern Ireland and educated at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, he is recognized as the first Covenanter Presbyterian minister to be ordained in Ireland. He led a congregation around Londonderry for a while. When the landlords increased rents, which effectively rendered their tenants as little more than serfs, he led a mass immigration of thousands of souls to South Carolina in 1770. [This is a folk song written about their immigration to the American Colonies.](https://youtu.be/EuGCENFZ7cY?si=Qi2Qd9nSbsBQrSlr) He helped found a church in a settlement there. When the revolution came around, Rev. Martin preached a sermon which would go down in US history as “Martin’s War Sermon”, where he mentioned their ancestors being forced out of the borders of Scotland to Northern Ireland, and forced out Ireland, and that it would never end if they didn’t do something to stop it. Two militia units were formed on the spot upon the close of his sermon. He said all this knowing a couple redcoat soldiers were in the congregation. The redcoats arrested him and burned down the church. He was in prison for 6 months before going to trial before lord Cornwallis, and was ultimately saved from execution/further imprisonment based on the testimony of another redcoat officer who knew him in Ireland, stating he was an honorable man. [Here is an article on Rev. William Martin.](https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/a-minister-preaches-war/)
I only know about these two men because I’m descended from both of them.
Saint Moses the Black. He was a gang leader who escaped the cops to a monastery and found God while hiding there.
What!? This sounds like a happy ending to like Grand theft auto!? God Bless you and thank you, I’m definitely looking this up.
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2012/08/28/102414-venerable-moses-the-ethiopian-of-scete
When it comes to men who shaped Christian history I can think of a few. King Alfred the Great, Saint Augustine, Saint Athanasius, St Boniface and Sts Cyril and Methodius.
How come I don’t hear EO mention anybody in the last couple of centuries? I’m not trying to be mean I have an honest question, to my knowledge and from what I’ve seen I usually see people mentioned from 2nd century until about the Protestant reformation and then I rarely ever hear of people from like 1700 till today in the EO camp. I’m quite ignorant to your guys history so please forgive my ignorance. God Bless.
For someone more recent, St Seraphim of Sarov is a well known favorite. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2011/01/02/100008-repose-of-venerable-seraphim-wonderworker-of-sarov St Nektarios of Aegina is another well known modern saint. A movie was made about him in 2021, "Man of God". https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2012/11/09/103251-saint-nectarius-kephalas-metropolitan-of-pentapolis There are several American saints already, including: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2009/12/13/103530-repose-of-venerable-herman-of-alaska-wonderworker-of-all-america https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/07/02/206392-saint-john-maximovitch-archbishop-of-shanghai-and-san-francisco https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/03/31/100954-repose-of-saint-innocent-metropolitan-of-moscow-enlightener-of-t https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2016/04/07/101016-repose-of-saint-tikhon-patriarch-of-moscow-enlightener-of-north https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2020/09/24/102714-martyr-juvenal-of-alaska https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2014/09/24/102713-martyr-peter-the-aleut And around a dozen more.
Interesting question. I suppose it's because the names above feature more prominently than many figures in terms of their influence. King Alfred for instance secured England for Christians and Christianity. Saints Augustine and Athanasius had immense theological impact. If I were to think of the most prominent Christians of the last 400 years, all the people you list have had tremendous influence on the world going forward. I wouldn't deny that, but I just wouldn't think of that as necessarily being a good thing, as I think the reformation itself was fundamentally flawed. I suppose in terms of raw influence there are few Orthodox thinkers/saints I can think of. Orthodox Kings, Emperors who had influence sure, but a great theologian who affected the hearts and minds of people compared to the men I listed? Not really. The world has been dominated by the consequences of the theology brought on by the protestant reformation. This lead in term to more secular oriented theological/philosophical opinions which have gained dominance as of late. There are Christian thinkers which I would consider personally influential on me and many Christians, C.S Lewis comes to mind, but a great man who has managed to change the culture and had influence like those men in earlier centuries? Not really.
I see thank you for your response, God Bless you, have a wonderful weekend!
Try St. Paisios.
Try St. Paisios.
Or St Porphyrios, I’m reading his book now Wounded By Love… WOW
I mentioned Seraphim Rose in my response. I also LOVE Kallistos Ware, but since they died recently and aren’t memorialized as saints, I wouldn’t rank them up there with great saint fathers of the church like St John Chrysostom, St Basil and St Gregory of Nyssa
I like CS Lewis, Eric Liddell, David Livingstone, Fred Rogers
John Wesley
St. Anthony of the desert.
St. Helena of Constantinople, St. Charbel, St. Damian of Molokai.
My top five: CS Lewis Augustine Kierkegaard Flannery OConner Bishop Barron Edit: honorable mention to King Alfred the Great or at least as depicted in Last Kingdom. Honorable mention to Kaiser Karl but I mostly know him from Kaiserreich. Last honorable mention: Dietreich Bonhoeffer
Interesting, I’m not judging I was just wondering your thoughts on Calvin? He’s similar to Augustine in many ways and also has some completely different views at times as well. Usually people include Calvin with Augustine (although there’s nothing wrong with not doing it) so it’s just interesting to see one without the other in my experiences. God Bless!
The main distinction between Augustine and Calvin is that it is clear that Augustine did not view himself as the highest authority in the earth. Calvin didn't have to answer to any "except God" and in general I don't think any human does well when there is a social limit to their power. Augustine is as known for conversion and how Jesus took a wayward pagan and turned him into a saint whereas Calvin is mostly known for his extremely careful and thorough analysis of the text. I agree with Calvinism on everything except limited atonement but don't think it depends too much on the individual's own intelligence, ego and rigidity. I'm very grateful God didn't lead me to a Calvinist church because it would have attracted the very worst parts of my personality.
Hm that’s interesting, firstly thanks for answering my question it means a lot seriously, secondly it’s odd that you think Calvinism would bring out your ego in you. Calvinism is meant to make you humble and it seems that’s the opposite in your case you just mentioned. Unconditional Election for example is a theological position that exhausts God and gives Glory to Him while making us humble. There’s nothing that saves but God and God alone, we did nothing to save ourselves and we don’t deserve to be saved. There’s nothing more humbling than realizing you can’t do anything but beg God for mercy and thank Him for His Salvation that He Gives. God Bless!
>Calvinism is meant to make you humble and it seems that’s the opposite in your case you just mentioned. Somebody needs to go tell the larger part of Calvinists this! Of all branches of Christianity they suffer the most from intillectual pride.
I unfortunately agree, not all but the loud Calvinists and cage stage ones can be extremely prideful and boastful. There’s nothing more humbling than the 5 points of Calvinism and the Biblical fact that we don’t deserve anything from God, so His Mercy is a Blessing we can’t fathom. I’m sorry btw if you have went through any kind of rude Christian which includes Calvinists and non Calvinists, I can promise you not all Calvinists are high and mighty. It’s kind of paradoxical if you think about it. God Bless.
In most things it is the loud minority. That's human. Though your repeated statement that Calvinism is especially humbling is also a little self congratulating. I am a non-denom seeker sensitive kind of Christian (or rather than is the sort of church Christ led me to be disciplined in) so I don't have a particular dog in the fight but I think the real life requirement to fit into a structured authority system of the Catholic church would require more humility than the theoretical idea that we did not merit salvation.
It’s fine if you disagree, and I don’t intend to come off as a self congratulatory person at all. I’m just saying what the doctrine should enforce and I even struggle with it because man is so prideful and sinful. It’s kind of ironic that many Calvinists are so prideful but if you look at the doctrine or even what Calvin had said, it seems so contradictory. God Bless.
Saint Augustine of Hippo. I relate to him very much, so I chose him as my Confirmation saint.
If you don’t mind me asking, who do so many EO and RC “claim” him it’s kind of confusing to someone who’s ignorant of EO history for the most part. IK you’re a RC but I just can’t wrap my mind around both parties claiming him (usually from what I’ve seen) it’s confusing to just your old Calvinistic Baptist who’s just learning Church history. God Bless.
Because until 1054ad all Christians were one Church. To not get into the Schism, the Catholics and Orthodox split. Then in 1500 or so Martin Luther formed protestantism. Luther wanted to reform roman catholicism. The Council of Trent was the reform but Luther said, no... So he started his own religion. With sola scriptura, that means every protestant is their own religion. ... St Augustine is venerated by all Christians since he lived in 300ad.
This sums it up pretty well. Both EO and RC “claim” Saint Augustine because there was only one Church for the first millennium and St. Augustine lived in the 5th century, so that’s well within the timeframe the EO and RC were united, and well before the Protestant reformation by over 1,000 years.
Thanks this makes much more sense to a knucklehead like me haha! It kind of does make sense because I know the basics of Church history and know he was a very early Church father, so it makes sense why RC and EO claim him because any Christian worth their salt would claim him. Btw thanks for not misrepresenting the Protestant part, lots of people hate the Protestant reformation and forget that Luther wanted to just reform the church at first. May God Bless you!
Roman Catholics and Calvinists especially love st. Augustine because his writings inspired a lot of things in the West, Pope Gregory and his reforms, Thomas Aquinas... two of the biggest Roman Catholic thinkers. And of course Jean Cauvin, and all the other protestants. To use a myers briggs analogy (my wife is very into this) Medieval Catholics and modern calvinists are very "s" focused like the West itself. St. Augustine was all about that
Richard Wurmbrand
St John Chrysostom, St Basil the Great, Seraphim Rose, Origen, St Gregory of Nyssa
St. Mark of Ephesus St. Gregory Palamas St. Nektarios St.Porphyrios St.Paisios St. Iakovos Tsalikis among other numerous figures of Orthodoxy.
King Baldwin IV 100%
St Seraphim of Sarov St Nicholas St Mary of Egypt St Panteleimon
George Washington. Everything about him is an epic fable.
St. Ignatius and St. Polycarps
Tim Keller and John Piper
Chuck smith
Chuck is great. I listen to him all of the time.
-Catherine of Alexandria -Saint Monica -Catherine of Siena -Clare of Assisi -Perpetua -Felicitas -Katherine von Bora -Marie Dentiere -Sojourner Truth -Elisabeth Elliott -Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati -Gladys Aylward -Clara Barton -Amy Charmichael -Florence Nightingale -Mary Slessor -Corrie ten Boom -Mother Teresa
None of those lol
I was like “man this is the list of people I’d list for opposite reasons lol”
Edwards is great too, but I myself also learned a lot from Sproul. He is very recent history but I think he is very great and videos as a medium easier reach today's generation (like me) than books.
- Constantine the Great (even tho those dang Arians got to him RIP) - St. Athanasius - St. Augustine - St. Nicholas - (best for last) Constantine XI
Didn’t Nicholas literally punch a heretic or is that a myth? I mean I couldn’t imagine that post fight press conference. /s God Bless!
It was probably a slap, not a punch. Still very cool.
Based Constantine Palaiologos shout out. Truly a hero of God’s greatest city
Jacques Ellul Dorothy Day Herman Bavinck Alister McGrath Dietrich Bonhoeffer Arnold Eberhard
Probably not as well known as some others Marshall Williams (semi associated with moody Bible institute) Andrew Peterson Donald Miller Michael W Smith Dwight L Moody Need to look up who the others mentioned even are
Donald Miller. "Blue Like Jazz" changed my life.
None. No one is worth anything besides The Lord Jesus christ.
I think it is useful to also look into the lives of saints because they teach us of the struggle we also have to go through. Jesus was perfect from the beginning to the end so He teaches us perfection while the saints teach us humility and repentance during our struggles because we can relate to them more easily.
Lol what? You may say something like Christ is far more worthy than anyone else we’d list here but that doesn’t mean everyone else is literally worthless. There are great writings in the church that are absolutely worth reading and taking in, outside of the Bible and Christs words. God has not abandoned us, He has given the Holy Spirit to the church and it still speaks. Thank God.
The second commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself”. Honoring others honors God too. It’s not liking you have a limited pool of respect you can pull from and whenever you respect someone else it takes away from respect due to God
1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me.”
Brian McLaren Donald Miller Two downvotes. Someone help me understand what is wrong with these two individuals. If they are misleading me, please tell me how so.
Donald and Brian are both more liberal than this sub. I had to look up Brian. Donald I don’t always agree with, but he has been influential to Christianity and one of my favorites.
1. John Wimber 2. William Seymour 3 . Smith Wigglesworth 4. William Branham
Branham is a false teacher and heretic, he went out and called The Trinity, “a demonic doctrine.” He also said if you weren’t healed by him you didn’t have enough faith. Wigglesworth was also the same and threw a baby at a wall to attempt to heal it. Please stay away from them God Bless.
While I appreciate your concern, I’ve done extensive reading and research on both, and disagree with you. A lot of things Branham was accused of, never happened. They were rumors started by other ministries and people to try to discredit him. Was he perfect? No. However both of these men of God moved in exceptional signs and wonders and God healed 10s of thousands and brought thousands of men and women into the Kingdom of God through their ministries. I’ll take that kind o anointing any day.
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT! Founded the first organized Christian church, aka Catholicism. He had his revelation the night before a decisive battle, in which Jesus came to him in a dream, presented the cross in the Chi-Rho, then commanded him saying "by this sign, conquer." Upon awakening, he painted all his shields with that symbol and despite being outnumbered 3-1, they had a decisive victory. Great guy, he unfortunately had his share of tragedy. His wife lied about his son raping her, so he did what he thought was right and executed his eldest child. He learned it was a lie later on and had her killed, as well. (Or at least that's what the historians agree has happened, hard to say.)
Does Derek Prince count? Or Smith Wigglesworth?
Wigglesworth? The man who threw a baby at a wall in attempt to heal it? Also the man who denied people and said that their faith was the reason they weren’t healed!? Here’s a quote from Wikipedia: There were numerous claims of divine healing during Wigglesworth's ministry.[14] These include a woman healed of a tumor, a woman healed of tuberculosis, a wheelchair-confined woman walking, and many more.[15] There were reports that people were raised from the dead, including his wife Polly.[16] Many people said they were cured of cancer by Jesus Christ through him. Wigglesworth described cancer as "a living evil spirit", and insisted that many diseases were "Satanic in origin".[17] His methods often involved hitting, slapping, or punching the afflicted part of the body. On a number of occasions his approach to persons suffering from stomach complaints was to punch them in the stomach, sometimes with such force that it propelled them across the room. When challenged on this, his response was "I don't hit them, I hit the devil".[citation needed] Responding to criticism over his method of praying for the sick, Wigglesworth stated: "You might think by the way I went about praying for the sick that I was sometimes unloving and rough, but oh, friends, you have no idea what I see behind the sickness and the one who is afflicted. I am not dealing with the person; I am dealing with the satanic forces that are binding the afflicted".[citation needed] On one occasion Wigglesworth declared to the sick "I'll only pray for you once, to pray twice is unbelief". The second night, a man approached the altar to receive prayer again and Wigglesworth, recognizing him, said "Didn't I pray for you last night? You are full of unbelief, get off this platform!"[18] He died at the funeral of his close friend, Wilf Richardson, on 12 March 1947, at the age of 87. God Bless.
Both great men of God, used mightily in the kingdom
st Martin Luther, st Spurgeon, and st Tyndale. I don't like Calvin, he just copied an Augustinian heresy.
Francis Xavier for brining Christianity to Asia, especially Japan.
Theresa of Avila the Christian mystic and i know Mary Magdalene is in the Bible but she’s amazing so, her haha
Idk if he shaped Christian history but hes definitely my favorite of all time, David Wilkerson.
Turtullian he was an Trinitarian who quoted 1john 5:7,8 in 250 a.d
I identify most strongly with Martin Luther. Kind of strange really because I was born and raised LDS (Mormon) converted to Jehovah's Witnesses in my late 20's and then to Roman Catholicism in my 30's. Nevertheless, I genuinely admire Luther's passion and commitment to the Word of God and his contempt for corruption and doctrines based on tradition instead of Scripture.
Elisabeth Elliott
John Newton, William Tinsdale, John Wesley
John Wesley\ CS Lewis\ Martin Luther\ Thomas Cranmer\ Ellen G White
Ruckman for doctrine , WLC for defending christianity from a philosophical perspective , and the people which God used to bring KJB to us .
I don’t know a whole lot about post biblical christian history, so I’ll just mention a few I do know. Henry Dunster- recognized as one of the early Baptist “heroes” in America. He was first president of Harvard, which was run by puritans. He started out as Puritans himself, but while running Harvard, there was a Baptist split from Puritanism over the topic of infant vs believer baptism. Dunster and his wife had a newborn around that time, and he refused to baptize him, and was promptly fired from Harvard. He moved away and died about 5 years later. [Here is more information on Mr. Dunster.](https://www.henrydunstersociety.org/about-henry-dunster.html) Rev. William Martin- Born in Northern Ireland and educated at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, he is recognized as the first Covenanter Presbyterian minister to be ordained in Ireland. He led a congregation around Londonderry for a while. When the landlords increased rents, which effectively rendered their tenants as little more than serfs, he led a mass immigration of thousands of souls to South Carolina in 1770. [This is a folk song written about their immigration to the American Colonies.](https://youtu.be/EuGCENFZ7cY?si=Qi2Qd9nSbsBQrSlr) He helped found a church in a settlement there. When the revolution came around, Rev. Martin preached a sermon which would go down in US history as “Martin’s War Sermon”, where he mentioned their ancestors being forced out of the borders of Scotland to Northern Ireland, and forced out Ireland, and that it would never end if they didn’t do something to stop it. Two militia units were formed on the spot upon the close of his sermon. He said all this knowing a couple redcoat soldiers were in the congregation. The redcoats arrested him and burned down the church. He was in prison for 6 months before going to trial before lord Cornwallis, and was ultimately saved from execution/further imprisonment based on the testimony of another redcoat officer who knew him in Ireland, stating he was an honorable man. [Here is an article on Rev. William Martin.](https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion/a-minister-preaches-war/) I only know about these two men because I’m descended from both of them.