-3500(until 2500) Four ancient river valleys produced the first organized societies: Euphrates (Middle East), Indus (India), Nile (Egypt), & Yellow River (China).

-3200 Writing, (cuniform) is invented in Sumer, making history, and a consciousness of the past possible.

-3000 (Until 1100 BC) Minoan culture flourished on Crete.

-2800 Papyrus developed by the Egyptians for use in writing.

-2500 The Great Pyramid of Cheops built covering 13 acres and containing 2,300,000 stones.

-2100 (Approximate date) Abraham believed God and became the father of a great nation. He was given the promise from God that "All nations would be blessed" by his seed.

-2000 The Bronze Age marks the end of the stone age. During this period the Celts were in France and Western Germany.

-2000 (Until about 1100 BC) Mycenaean Civilization dominated Greece. Indo-European people from the north, they were primarily known by their fantastic legends composed by later Greek writers, Homer, Aeschylus, Europides, and Sophocles. These include the house of Atreus, Menelus, Helen of Troy, Jason and the Argonauts, and the Trojan Wars. They absorbed Minoan civilization around 1450 BC, and eventually controlled Greece.

-2000 (Until 1400 BC) Stonehenge built in England.

-1850 The epic of Gilgamesh is written down

-1845 Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." (Gen. 15:20)

-1792 (Until 1750 BC) Hammurabi ruled Babylon. "I made an end to war. I promoted the welfare of the land. I have governed them in peace. I have sheltered them in my strength." (Babylon is the mother race of the Kurds, and was situated in present day Iraq.)

-1700 Palace at Knossos built by the Minoans on Crete. According to Homer, Crete was a prosperous Island surrounded by a "wine-dark" ocean. Somewhere on the Island was a great city with a labyrinth haunted by the "Minataur," a creature, half bull, half man.

-1625 Greek Island of Thira (present-day Santorini) destroyed by a great volcanic eruption. This may have been the basis for Plato's writing about the lost continent of Atlantis.

-1445 Moses and the Exodus. Three million Hebrews supernaturally delivered from slavery in Egypt.

-1350 (Until 1334) Egyptian King Akhenaton rejected other gods and declared the sun god, (Aton) to be the only God. He abandoned Thebes as the capitol and built a new capitol, Akhenaton. After his death, Egypt quickly reverted back into polytheism.

-1347 (Until 1338) Tutankamon rules Egypt.

-1300 Illyrians, people of Indo-European stock (ancestors of the Albanians) settled the northern and eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea.

-1220 Rameses II of Egypt builds the Temple of Amon at Karnak.

-1200 Trojan Wars between Greek city-states, Troy and Mycenaea. Homer later wrote of the "Trojan Horse."

-1011 (until 971) King David the shepherd-king, reigned during Israel's golden era. From this time came the Psalms.

-1000 The Picts, a short, dark people, arrived in Scotland from the continent.

-900 Beginning of the Iron Age.

-876 (Until 852) Elijah prophesies to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In about 853 BC Elijah faces the prophets of Baal in a contest on Mt Carmel.

-852 (Until 796) Elisha carries on with a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

-850 Homer, Greek epic poet wrote the Iliad, and the Odyssey.

-753 Rome founded.

-722 Ten Northern tribes taken captive to Assyria (present day Syria & Iraq). The Assyrians learned to make iron from the Hittites. Their fierce armies were paid by what they could loot from their enemies, and sometimes carried off the bones of their enemy's long-dead kings - just so they would never rest.

-715 Hosea prophesies to the Northern Kingdom of Israel of God's continuing love in spite of the nation's faithlessness. "Then the LORD said to me, 'Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts'" (Hosea 3:1)

-700 (until 400 bc) Etruscans from central Italy conquer neighboring lands. From 600 until 200 they rule Rome.

-690 Isaiah prophesies to Judah of the coming Messiah, "But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. By his stripes we are healed!" (Isaiah 53:5)

-630 Persian religious leader, Zoroaster (Zarathustra) born. In an age of polytheism, he believed that a good spirit, Ahura Mazsa ("Lord Wisdom") guided the world. The dualism was balanced by an evil god called "Angra Mainyu." People must choose between the two gods. (Approximately 10,000 Zoroastrians still live in Iran.)

-629 Jeremiah prophesies under Judah's last five kings declares "Your own wickedness will punish you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to forsake the LORD your God, having no fear of him." (Jer. 2:19) These prophesies were fulfilled in 597 BC.

-610 Greek philosopher, Thales teaches the importance of using reason and observation to understand the world.

-605 Daniel and friends taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. (Babylon = Chaldea). The Babylonians were the world power until 539 bc.

-605 (Until 562) Nebuchadnezzar ll Extends his (Babylonian) empire and builds the legendary Hanging Gardens. Later, God humbled him by driving him out to live with the wild beasts. (Daniel 4:28).

-600 Sappho, Greek lyric (female) poet. Considered one of the greatest of antiquity. Also Alcaeus, who invented Alcaic verse.

-600 Aesop, probably a freed slave, composed his famous fables in Greece.

-597 The Babylonian Captivity (until 538) because for 490 years the Jewish people did not honor the Sabbath years, (70 of them), so God allowed the people to be taken captive, while the land enjoyed its Sabbath.

-586 Destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple, fulfilling the prophecies of Jeremiah.

-580 Pythagoras formulated theories of numbers and laid the foundation for mathematics. (The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides). His philosophical doctrines strongly influenced Plato.

-551 (died 479) Confucius taught that rulers can be great only if they themselves lead exemplary lives and are willing to be guided by moral principles. Then their states would inevitably prosper.

-540 (Until 480) Parmenides and Heraclitus: Parmenides taught that a) nothing changes and b) our sensory perceptions are unreliable. He introduced the concept of "universal forms." Reality is constant, ideal, and unchanging. He was the pioneer of rationalism. Hericlitus taught that: a) everything changes (all things "flow") and b) our sensory perceptions are reliable. He introduced the idea that you could never step into the same river twice because it was contantly changing along with everything else. He also taught that the "something," the "universal Reason" that was the source of everything is called God or "Logos." Plato later combined these two thoughts to account for the whole of reality. And he taught that true knowledge is found on the level of the unchanging forms.

-539 Cyrus II the Persian (Iranian) conquered Babylon (Iraq) and allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. His successor, Darius I begins building Persepolis. The Medo-Persians were the world power until 334 BC when they were conquered by the Greeks under Alexander. (The Medes are the ancestors of today's Kurds).

-528 Budda's Enlightenment: After seeing a sick man, an old man, a dead man, and monk, he arrived at the four "noble truths": 1) All of life involves suffering. 2) The cause of suffering is desire and attachment. 3) Desire and attachment can be overcome. 4) The way to overcome them is to follow the eight-fold path.

-525 Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist; the father of Greek tragedy.

-516 The second Jerusalem Temple completed under the leadership of Ezra..

-490 The Athenians defeated the Persians (under Darius) at Marathon.

-490 The Persians defeated by the Spartans at the narrow pass of Thermopylae.

-480 Persian King Xerxes burned Athens, But his forces were later annihilated by the Athenians in the battle of Salamis.

-480 (Died 411) Greek, Protagoras is the first to call himself a "Sophist", teaching for hire. A friend of Pericles, he taught that nothing was absolutely good or bad, but that each individual was his own authority. Equating knowledge with sense perception, (see Heraclitus above), he declared, "Man is the measure of all things." Thus each man perceived his own truth. The important thing to the Sophists was getting what you wanted, and the way to get it was by using rhetoric - convincing others to give it to you. The Sophists taught that even though philosophical answers might exist, they could not be known. They were, therefore, skeptics. To these men, the pursuit of philosophical truth was a fruitless waste of time.

-478 Esther crowned queen to King Xerxes of Medo-Persia. (Xerxes is the king who upon seeing his first sycamore tree, halted his army while his goldsmiths made gold replicas of the leaves.)

-470 (Died 399?) Socrates profoundly affected Western Philosophy through his effect on Plato. He encouraged people to examine their beliefs and seek truth and virtue. "There are two kinds of people: Fools who think they are wise, and the wise who think they are fools." He was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. "Is there any reason why lovers of the truth cannot cause a little trouble now and then?" His death by poisoning marked the end of Greece's Golden Age.

-460 (until 370) Democritus taught that the only thing that exists is atoms. He disbelieved in God, spiritual forces and the soul. Thus he was the pioneer materialist.

-461 (Until 429) the Age of Pericles. The great leader made Athens the greatest city of the ancient world (at the expense of subject city-states). He created a naval empire, championed participation of citizens in the government, restored temples, built the Parthenon, and provided employment for poor citizens.

-460 Greek doctor Hippocrates teaches that the body can heal itself with rest and simple food.

-447 (until 432) The Parthenon built in honor of Greek god Athena on the Athens Acropolis. Commissioned by Athenian statesman, Pericles.

-445 Decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem under the prophetic leadership of Nehemiah.

-441 First performance of Sophocles' play Antigone.

-431 (until 404) the Peloponesian Wars (Athens Vs Sparta) drained both states of their wealth and their men. Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404 bc.

-429 Plague decimates Athens, claiming Pericles as one of its victims.

-387 Plato (428BC-347BC) buys a grove just outside of Athens and founds the Academy. The curriculum was wide ranging from astronomy and mathematics to philosophy and botany, but the central goal was to perfect the skills of analysis and definition. It was primarily a school of philosophy. The "father of Western Philosophy" expounded on the nature of reality and the concept of dikaisune, "what it is about a person that makes him or her really right or good" (Biblical righteousness). He taught that if there are no absolutes, then the individual things (the particulars) have no meaning. "The unexamined life is not worth living." A sign hung over the door stating, "Do not enter unless you know geometry." The purpose of studying math was to free the mind to grasp philosophy. And the core of philosophy was the study of the unchanging forms.

-385 Stari Grad (Known then as "Faros" on the Island of Hvar, Croatia) founded by the Greeks. Seized by the Romans in 219 BC.

-385 (Until 322BC) Demosthenes: He declared that all things were made of tiny particles called "atoms."

-384 (Died 322) Aristotle, Encyclopedist, philosopher and scientist systematized thinking, observation and methods. The father of logic. He replaced the word dikaisune (goodness, or righteousness), with the word arete, or "virtue." Arete is tied more with human effort, whereas dikiasune aligns itself more with man's need for God. Aristotle also introdeuced the "Golden Mean," (moderation), as "the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized." (Or, as the army would say, "Be all that you can be.")

-336 (until 27 BC) The Hellenistic Age in Greece.

-336 (died 322 bc) Alexander the Great ascended the Macedonian throne. A student of Aristotle, he united Greece and conquered the Persian Empire under Darius III. He crushed the Illyrians, pursued the Thracians to the Danube river, leveled Thebes, founded Alexandria, and conquered as far as the Indus River in present day Pakistan. Shortly before he died, (at age 32), he commanded the Greeks cities to worship him as god.

-320 Diogenes founded the Cynic school of philosophy, rejecting social conventions and stressing self-control and the pursuit of virtue. He is saind to have wandered through Athens with a lantern looking for an honest man. When Alexander the Great asked if there might be something he could do for him, Diogenes answered, "Yes. Stop blocking my sunlight."

-312 Appius Claudius built the Appian Way, linking Rome with Capua.

-300 The Oracle of Delphi (abandoned 390 AD). Delphi was considered by the Greeks to be the center of the earth and the oracle of the god, Apollo, administered by the chief priest, Pythia. Above its door was written, "Know thyself," encouraging seekers to remember that they are mere mortals, and that reminding tham that no man escapes his destiny.

-300 The Wonders of the Ancient World included the Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the massive Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, The Colossus of Rhodes (statue of the sun-god, it collapsed in an earthquake is 224 AD), and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

-287 (Until 212 BC) Mathematician Archemedes formulated theories of the lever and the screw. When he had a sudden revelation about testing the gold content in the king's crown, he jumped out of his bathtub and went running naked through the street exclaiming "Eureka!" (I found it!)

-221 (until 204 BC) 1,500 mile long Great Wall of China built to keep out Tartars invading from the north. It remains the only man-made structure visible from space,

-218 Hannibal (Carthaginian general from North Africa) led his troops on the backs of elephants across the alps to attack Rome. He inflicted crushing defeats on the Romans but lacked the reinforcements to take the city itself. Facing the alps, he addressed his troops, "Some say there are mountains here that are impassable. They say they reach to the heavens and there is no way to conquer them. I know of no such mountains! " (These were the Punic Wars, fought over the control of Sicily.)

-165 Antiochus Epiphanes sets up the abomination of desolation,.an attempt to institute worship of Zeus, in the Jerusalem temple. The Maccabean revolt, under the leadership of Mattathias drove Antiochus from Jerusalem.

-146 Greece falls to Rome when the Romans defeated the Achaian Legue. Much of Greece was then annexed to the Roman empire as a colony. Corinth, capitol of the Achaian legue was totally destroyed by the Romans at this time. It was rebuilt 100 years later (44 BC) by Julius Caesar.

-68 Cult of Mithra brought to Rome, eventually becoming a rival to Christianity.

-63 (died 44 bc) Julius Caesar laid the foundations of the Roman Empire. Assassinated in 44 BC by political rivals Gaius Cassius and Marcus Brutus, the scene was immortalized by Shakespeare's eulogy by Mark Antony: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."

-51 (Until 30 BC) Cleopatra is queen of Egypt. Mistress of both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. When Octavian conquers Egypt in the Battle of Actium, Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide.

-40 Roman poet, Virgil, (70-19 BC), writes the epic poem Aeneid, a sequel to Homer's Illiad.

-31 In the Battle of Actium Octavian defeated fellow consul Mark Antony and became Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor.

-20 Herod begins construction of the third Jerusalem temple.

27 The Sermon on the Mount and the beginning of Jesus' public ministry: The kingdom of God is announced with power.

30 The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus: The sin problem is solved, and the way into the Kingdom of God is opened to all.

30 Pentecost: The Holy Spirit is given, opening the way for God himself to dwell in and through man. Three thousand people are saved in one day. On the original Pentecost, (the day the Law was given to Moses), three thousand people died. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Cor.3:6)

33 Saul of Tarsus, violent persecutor of Christians encounters the resurrected Christ and becomes Paul, Christianity's greatest apologist and apostle.

49 Jews expelled from Rome until 54 AD. During this time the Gentile Christians took over leadership of the young church. Paul addresses the Epistle to the Romans to this church climate, trying to reconcile the two viewpoints.

64 Fire ravages two thirds of Rome. Emperor Nero blames Christians and unleashes persecution. In ancient times he was blamed for starting the fire himself, though most modern scholars doubt it. He considered himself an artist and a religious visionary, and scandalized the army and the aristocracy when he appeared publicly as an actor in religious dramas. Eventually he was declared a public enemy, and committed suicide in 68 AD after fleeing Rome.

67 Paul executed in Rome.

70 (Until 82) The Coliseum in Rome built by Titus to stage battles between wild beasts, gladiators, and Christians. Seating 50,000, and officially known as the Flavian Amphitheater, it was popularly known as the coliseum because of the colossal statue of Nero that stood nearby. The dedication celebration lasted 100 days, and some 5,000 wild animals were killed during that time.

70 Titus destroys Jerusalem and its temple, deepening the separation between Christianity and Judaism.

79 The eruption of Mt Vesuvius destroys Pompeii, burying it for 1,500 years.

105 Chinese Ts'ai Lun invented paper, using mulberry bark, old mashed-up rags, fishnets, and hemp.

117 (Until 138) Roman Emperor Hadrian declared an end to the expansion of the Roman Empire, building a wall in Northern England to protect the Roman colonies from the troublesome Picts. He was also known for his public works, helping poor children, support of the arts, culture, and philosophy.

118 (Until 125) Hadrian rebuilt the Pantheon in Rome. The original (destroyed by fire) was built by Agrippa in AD 25.

133 (until 135) Christians suffered as traitors during the Jewish war with Hadrian. In AD 135 Hadrian expelled the Jews from Judea.

150 Justin Martyr writes his First Apology, advancing Christian efforts to address competing philosophies. A philosopher who was converted by the truth of scipture, he argued that by becoming a Christian, he became a better philosopher. "Whatever things were rightly said by any man, belong to us Christians." He was executed for his faith. He believed that pagans perceive reality in part, and that Christ is the fulfillment of all the partial truths embodied in pagan philosophy and culture.

150 The agrarian Slavs of eastern Poland, western Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus began to expand in all directions.

150 Ptolemy, brilliant mathematician, astronomer, and geographer writes Geography, used in schools for hundreds of years. He first mention the Saxon people in Northern Germany.

156 Polycarp, an eighty-six-year-old bishop, inspires Christians to stand firm under opposition. Martyred in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey.

177 Irenaeus becomes bishop of Lyons and combats developing heresies within the Church. "The glory of God is a human being fully alive, and the life of the human consists in knowing God."

196 Colorful and cantankerous Tertullian begins writings that earn him the reputation of being the "Father of Latin Theology." "What has Jerusalem to do with Athens, the church to do with the Academy, the Christian with the heretic?" "Your cruelty [against us] does not profit you, however exquisite. As often as you mow us down, the more we grow in number. The blood of the martyrs is the seed [of the church]. We have filled all you have - cities, islands, forts, towns, assembly halls, even military camps, tribes, town councils, the place, the senate, and the forum. We have left you nothing but the temples."

205 The gifted North African Origin begins writing. He headed a noted catechetical school in Alexandria.

216 (until 276) Manes (also known as Minacheus), a Persian Babylonian scholar tried to synthesize the teachings of Zarathustra, Buddha, and Jesus into a Gnosticism known as Manicheanism. He took dualism from Persian Mazdaism, vegetarianism and asceticism from Buddhism, and the teachings of Paul from Christianity. This was probably an element of the Bogamil church of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

251 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, publishes his influential work, Unity of the Church. He was martyred in 258.

258 St Lawrence martyred in Rome by the Emperor Gallienus. Of the poor, he said, "These are the treasure of the church." After being burned on one side, he said, "You can turn me over. I'm finished on this side."

270 Saint Antony gives away his possessions and begins life as a hermit, a key event in the development of Christian monasticism.

279 The Celts plunder Delphi and penetrated Asia Minor where they were known as Galatians.

284 Diocletian rules Rome until 313. Severe persecution of Christians.

286 St Maurice, a Roman military commander of the Theban Legion from Thebes, (now Luxor), Egypt. They were dispatched by the Emperor Maximium to quell a rebellion of Gauls in what is now Switzerland. When the Thebans (who were Coptic Christians) realized that the Gauls were also Christians, and that their rebellion consisted of refusing to worship the emperor as god, they refused to attack. So Maximian ordered the "decimation" of the Thebans. One in ten of the soldiers were executed. But the Thebans remained steadfast and Maximius ordered another decimation. Still to no avail, he ordered the execution of the remaining 6,000 men. Maurice, himself a Christian, handed his insignia to his assistant and chose to be executed with his men in the Rhone Valley, (St Moritz) Switzerland. In this same era, St Sebastian, a young captain in the Praetorian guard assisted Christians under Diocletian's persecution. When he was unmasked, he was shot through by archers on the Field of Mars in Rome. He miraculously survived with the help of a widow who nursed his wounds, but when he returned again to protest the harsh treatment of Christians, he was put to death in the Coliseum.

295 (until 305) Diocletian builds his summer palace on the Dalmatian coast at Split, Croatia. He used Christian slave labor to build his palace, and then purportedly had them thrown to the wild beasts in the coliseum in Solin.

303 St. Sebastian, a celebrated martyr, was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, instructed in the principles of Christianity at Milan, and afterward became an officer of the emperor's guard at Rome. He remained a true Christian in the midst of idolatry; unallured by the splendors of a court, untained by evil examples, and uncontaminated by the hopes of preferment. Refusing to be a pagan, the emperor (Diocletian) ordered him to be taken to a field near the city, termed the Campus Martius, and there to be shot to death with arrows.

300 Ambrosian Chants became common in the Christian liturgy.

301 Armenia is established as the first Christian state.

312 Constantine is converted after seeing a vision of the cross. (Baptized later by an Arian). He Subsequently becomes a defender and advocate of the oppressed Christians. In 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan granting religious tolerance to all religions. Christianity, however, did not become the state religion until later in the century.

318 Arius begins to propagate his ideas.

324 Eusebius writes a history of Christianity. "Some had their fingers mangled by sharp reeds. Others had buckets of boiling metal poured on their groins and backs. Others endured agonizing torture of their intestines, so grotesque that we cannot describe them. When judges were tired of creating new ways to kill us, they ordered only to tear out our eyes, or to cripple us."

325 The Council of Nicea addresses debates perplexing the Church and defines the doctrine ofwho Jesus really was. 318 bishops out of the approximately 1,800 Christian bishops then in existence attended. Most came from the eastern half of the Empire. Five bishops attempted to resolve a major uncertainty facing the early church: the relationship between Jesus and God. Arius (250 - 336 CE) proposed that Jesus and God were very separate and different entities: Jesus was closer to God than any other human being, but he was born a man, had no prior existence, and was not a god. On the other hand, God has been in existence forever. Arius felt that any attempt to recognize the deity of Christ would blur the lines between Christianity and the Pagan religions. If Christianity recognized two separate gods, the Father and Jesus, it would become a polytheistic religion. Athanasius (296 - 373 CE) argued that Jesus must be divine, because otherwise, he could not be the Savior. It was a very close vote, but in the end, Athanasius prevailed. It also declared: "Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews....; let us withdraw ourselves from that most odious fellowship."

330 Constantine decided to build a "New Rome" on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey). It was called Constantinople . It became the center of the predominantly Christian empire. By this time, the church had evolved from a small, scattering of congregations to a geographically widespread church under the authority of many bishops.

341 Emperor Theodosius issued a series of decrees or rescripts in the years 341, 345, 356, 381, 383, 386 and 391 CE. The effect of these orders was to suppress all rival religions, order the closing of the temples, and impose fines, confiscation, imprisonment or death upon any who cling to the older [Pagan] religions. The period of relative religious tolerance in the Roman Empire ended as Pagan temples were seized and converted to Christian use or destroyed. Priests and Priestesses were exiled or killed. Christianity and Judaism became the only permitted religions. Many people mistakenly believe the Roman empire was converted by the evangelistic efforts of the church, but it was more the result of compulsion than conversion.

367 Athanasius' Easter Letter recognizes the New Testament Canon, listing the same books we have now. "The glory of God is a man fully alive, and the life of man consists in knowing God."

381 The Council of Constantinople confirmed the earlier council's decision on the deity of Jesus Aryanism was formally declared a heresy. They also voted that the Holy Spirit was the third Person of the Trinity. Almost all of the churches abandoned Aryanism after this council.

384 Siricius became the first bishop of Rome to be called Pope (father).

385 (340 - 397) In Milan, Bishop Ambrose defies the Empress, helping establish the precedent of Church confrontation of the state when necessary to protect Christian teaching. He was governor of Aemilia and later appointed Bishop. He studied Origin and St Basil, categorized chants, warned Emperor Gratian about the dangers of Aryanism. He imposed a public penance on Emperor Theodosius for ordering a massacre in Thessolonica. And he was a sympathizing friend to Augustin's mother, Monica. He also received Augustin into the church.

387 Augustine of Hippo is converted. His writings became bedrock for the Middle Ages. The Confessions and City of God are still read by many. First real autobiography: "I carried inside me a cut and bleeding soul, and how to get rid of it I just didn't know..... I sought every pleasure - the countryside, sports, fooling around, the peace of a garden, friends and good company, sex, reading. My soul floundered in the void and came back upon me. For where could my heart flee from my heart? Where could I escape from myself?" Human conscious-ness took a quantum leap forward and became self-consciousness. He contended with Palagius over the doctrine of Salvation by faith alone. (Upheld by the council of Ephesis in 431). In City of God he reminded us that earthly cities pass away, and that Christians do well not to give too much allegiance to that which will surely pass. (He wrote as the Roman Empire crumbled). Before his conversion he was a rhetorician, but following his conversion he was so critical of the sophists that he gave up the practice of persuasion altogether, only to re-embrace it decades later when he realized that those who hold the truth have a responsibility to present it in the best, most favorable, and most ethical manner.

390 The Celts plunder Rome. These fierce warriors, believing that the human head was the seat of the soul, hung their enemies' skulls from their belts as trophies.

390 (died 459) Simeon Stylites lived on a pillar 20 meters high for 36 years and had a ministry of miracles, healing, and counsel, (even to the Emperor Theodosius II). He ate only one meal per week, and fasted during Lent. When the enemy "afflicted him with an ulcer in his thigh as a reward for "a little self-righteousness," Simeon, as penance, never touched the afflicted leg upon the pillar again and stood for the remaining year of his life on one leg.

395 Roman Empire divided into East and West.

398 John Chrysostom, the "golden tongued" preacher is made bishop of Constantinople and leads from there amidst continuing controversies.

405 Jerome completes the Latin "Vulgate" version of the bible that becomes the standard for the next one thousand years.

406 Dec 31, the Rhine river froze and Vandals crossed into the Roman Empire.

410 Alaric, King of the Visigoths sacked Rome and took everything of value, along with every barbarian slave. When the Roman negotiator asked, "What will that leave us?" Alaric answered, "Your lives."

431 The Council of Ephesus was called to debate the precise nature of Jesus. Again, there were two main competing belief systems: From the city of Alexandria, scholars developed the Alexandrian school of thought which promoted the allegorical interpretation of the Bible -- that it contained hidden meanings. It emphasized the divinity of Christ, and recognized that Jesus had both a human and divine nature, tightly united. Within the city of Antioch, Nestorius and other scholars developed the Antiochene school which rejected an allegorical interpretation of the Bible and emphasized the humanity of Jesus. They saw the two natures of Jesus as being loosely connected. The council excommunicated Nestorius and declared his beliefs (Nestorianism) to be heresy. At the same time the status of the Virgin Mary was elevated from that of "mother of Jesus" to "theotokos", "mother of God".

432 Patrick returns as a missionary to Ireland, being first taken there in slavery as a teenager. He leads multitudes of Irish people to the Christian faith. Prior to Patrick up to 1/3 of Ireland's infants were being sacrificed to Bel (Baal), the sun God in order to bring the sun back on dark winter days. By 447AD Ireland was largely evangelized, and became known as the "Island of Saints". He planted 200 churches and baptized approximately 100,000 converts. The Celts understood the lordship of Jesus over all of life and nature. Patrick was the first person in history to confront slavery as an institution. By the early 600s nearly seven hundred monastic communities had been established along the rocky coasts and mountains of Scotland alone.

451 The Council of Chalcedon confirms orthodox teaching that Jesus was truly God and truly man and existed in one person. The East Syrian (Nestorian) church and the Oriental Orthodox Christian church disagreed with the council's decision, and split off from the rest of Christianity in the first major schism from Pauline Christianity.

476 Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostragoths (Eastern Germanic Goths) conquered Rome and occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina.

476 With the Fall of Rome, The "Dark Ages" (Protestant term), or "Middle Ages" (Catholic term) began. "Dark" because of the decline of learning and literacy. The medieval world was built on ruins, both actual and metaphorical. Two predominant mindsets of this period were (1. An acceptance of the supernatural as natural: God is in everything. (2. Acceptance of pain, suffering, violence, and death as the normal condition of humankind.

496 On the verge of a military defeat, pagan Clovis, King of the Franks calls on the Christian God and is rescued. He and his army of 3,000 men convert to Christianity, and are baptized.

517 Arthur, a Celtic chief won a great battle at Badon, Britain, followed by 20 years of prosperity throughout the land. For bringing this "golden age" he was named War Duke of Britain. He is believed to have been killed in battle at Camlan in 537. This is the Arthur who became the subject of the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

524 Boethius, Roman philosopher, executed for treason. Although he was not a Christian, his work contained many Christian principles, and his philosophy was a corollary to Romans 8:28, that everything ultimately works for good.

529 Benedict of Nursia establishes his monastic order at Monte Cassino. His "rule" becomes the most influential for centuries of monasticism in the West. The Benedictine rule included 4-8 hours of worship, seven to eight hours of sleep, and the remainder of the day was devoted to physical labor and religious reading and study. Unnecessary conversation was avoided.

530 Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) cathedral built by Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople.

543 (died 615) Columbanus, the apostle to the Franks set up huge monasteries of 4-5000 people in eastern Gaul, St Gallen (Switzerland), and Bobbio (Italy)

553 Emperor Justinian called The Second Council of Constantinople. Condemned Gnostic Christianity. The only Gnostic group to have continuously survived into modern times is the Manachean sect of Iraq and Iran. This group currently numbers fewer than 15,000. Gnostic Christianity has been revitalized in the West and is now growing rapidly.

563 Columba goes as a missionary to Scotland. He establishes the legendary monastic mission center at Iona. Missionary to the Scots and the Picts, (so called because of their tattoos). The early Celts called the Holy Spirit the "Wild Goose" because following Him was such an adventure.

590 Gregory, a humble monk agrees to become Pope Gregory I, known as "the Great." His leadership significantly advances the development of the papacy and has enormous influence on Europe. He helps the poor and sends missionaries to barbarian tribes. This is the transition from the "early church" to the "medieval church."

594 Buddhism becomes Japan's state religion.

596 (died 651) Aiden sets up Lindisfarne in Northumberland, England. At a time when the literature, art, and learning of the Roman Empire was being lost to barbarian hordes, the Celtic monks of Ireland were collecting and preserving these works in their monastaries. Later these monks went back out into Europe, reestablishing the Gospel among the barbarians and eventually reintroducing much of what we think of as Western civilization.

596 Augustine (Not Augustine of Hippo) sent by Gregory to convert the English. The pagan festival of Christmas is transformed into a Christian holiday.

600 Gregorian Chant: Monophonic plainsong compiled by Pope Gregory I.

610 Birth of Islam. (Muhammad born 570, died 632). Five pillars: 1) The Shahada. "There is no God but..... 2) Salah: Five daily prayers. 3) Zakah: 2 1/2 % alms to the poor. 4) Sawn: Fasting during Ramadan. 5) Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca.

610 (Approximate date) the Slavs invaded Bosnia and Herzegovina and destroyed all traces of civilization and Christianity as if they had never existed.

610 About this time the Anglo Saxons were conquering the Picts and Celts in Britain.

614 Solin (First mentioned in 119 BC as the center of Illyrian tribe, and from 79 BC the Roman administrative center of Dalmatia), leveled by the Slavs. The residents fled to the ruins of Diocletian's summer palace and founded Split.

630 Mecca taken by Muhammad. The Ka'bah established as the center of Islamic worship.

638 Jerusalem is captured by Islam and soon afterward construction of a mosque began at the Temple Mount. Sophronicus, the patriarch of the city is said to have burst into tears and wailed, "Truly this is the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet!"

664 Synod of Whitby determines that the English church (Celtic church) will come under the authority of Rome.

692 The Dome of the Rock completed in Jerusalem.

715 Beowulf written. First English epic poem of a warrior's battle against dragons and monsters.

716 Boniface, the "Apostle of Germany," sets out as a missionary to bring the gospel to pagan lands. "The greatest of all missionaries of the middle ages had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any Englishman in history." He mobilized women in missions, and was probably the last missionary to come out of England for the next 1000 years.

731 The "Venerable" Bede completes his careful and influential Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation.

732 At the Battle of Tours, Charles Martel turns back the Muslim invasion of Europe. One of the most decisive battles in history, it preserved Europe for Christianity.

800 The Book of Kells Illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, produced in Ireland.

800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope on Christmas Day. He advances the church, education, and culture, brought singers from Rome, founded a school of song, and laid the foundation for the unity of ideas throughout Western Europe.

846 Muslim raiders attack the outlying areas of Rome, the center of western Christianity.

863 Byzantine king, Vasili sends Cyril and Methodius, Greek brothers, to evangelize the Serbs and the Balkan area as if Christianity had never before existed there.. Cyril develops the Cyrillic alphabet which remains the basis for the Slavonic used in the liturgy of the Russian church.

900 Polyphony becomes common in Europe.

900 (In this century) Croatian bishop, Gregorius of Nin (statue in Split, Croatia) fought to have Croatian used in the liturgy.

909 A monastery is established at Cluny (France) and becomes a center for reform. By the mid-12th century, there were over 1,000 Clunaic houses.

929 Wenceslaus, patron saint of Bohemia, murdered by his brother. His last words were, "May God forgive you, brother."

988 Conversion of Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, who, after examining several religions, chooses Orthodoxy to unify and guide the Russian people.

1000 (Until about 1400) as many as 10,000 castles were built in Europe.

1000 Leif Ericson (converted to Christianity in 999 by King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway) reached the North Atlantic coast of America. He built a the first church in Greenland, soon followed by sixteen others including a cruciform cathedral.

1002 St Stephen crowned "Apostolic Majesty" of Hungary. Born a pagan, and converted in his youth, he was known for propagating Christianity and suppressing paganism throughout the empire.

1054 The East-West Schism, brewing for centuries, finally comes to a head and ruptures with a fissure that has lasted to this day. The major factor was the question of whether the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus and the Father, or by Jesus through the Father.

1066 William the Conqueror, King of England until 1087, and the Battle of Hastings. He was the first modern king, introducing the continental system of feudalism with loyalty to the king superceding loyalty to the lords. (He was a Norseman Viking).

1078 St Anselm Proslogium, containing the ontological argument: Even those who doubt the existence of God would have to have an understanding of what they were doubting: namely they would understand God to be a being than which nothing greater can be thought. Given that it is greater to exist outside the mind than just in the mind, a doubter who denied God's existence would be making a contradiction because he would be saying that it is possible to think of something greater than which nothing greater can be thought. Hence, by definition God exists necessarily.

1093 Anselm becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. A devoted monk and outstanding theologian, his Cur Deus Homo? (Why Did God Become Man?), explored the atonement.

1095 Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade. The crowd wildly shouts "God wills it!" There would be several crusades over the next centuries with many tragic results.

1100 Beginning of the Gothic Period (ending in 1400s) of architecture. Pointed arches, vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses. Beginning of the age of the great cathedrals of Europe.

1100 (Until 1300s) Troubadours and Ars Antiqua, popularized polyphony. Since most people could neither read nor write, troubadours kept stories alive in song.

1115 Bernard founds the monastery at Clairvaux. He and the monastery become a major center of spiritual and political influence. "Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge. That is curiosity. Some seek knowledge to be known by others. That is vanity. Some seek knowledge to serve. That is love." "Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast. But sweeter still thy face to see, and in thy presence rest." (The Saint Bernard is named for him).

1118 The Order of the Knights Templar established to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land and the holy Sepulcher during the Second Crusade.

1150 (approximate date) Universities of Paris and Oxford are founded and become incubators for the Renaissance and the Reformation and precursors for modern educational patterns. Universities were an innovation of the church, an extention of the great cathedrals.Until the eleventh century the idea of progress was very weak, but beginning in this century, and reaching full momentum in Renaissance Italy, the idea of progress - taking the brilliance of classical Rome and Greece, and building on their ideas - began to take hold.

1150 First mention of the Castle of Chillon in Lausanne, Switzerland.

1168 Kulin became ban of Bosnia. His reign extended over thirtysix years - years of peace, quiet, and prosperity to his country. Addressed by the pope as a "dutiful son of the Church," he lapsed into the heresy of the Bogomils, and with his wife and his sister, who was the widow of the Count of Chelm (the modern Herzegovina), submitted to baptism. Pope Alexander III., on hearing of this departure from the faith, at once exerted such pressure upon the ban through his suzerain, the King of Hungary, that he recanted from his Bogomil doctrines, appearing in person at Rome with his recantation in 1180. (see the note at 1199).

1060 (approximate) Pope Gregory VII, (Hildebrand) fought to establish the supremacy of the pope over the Church and the supremacy of the Church over the state (1020-1085)

1173 Peter Waldo founds the Waldensians, a reform movement emphasizing poverty, preaching, and the Bible. He was recognized by the pope in 1177, retracted in 1181, and excommunicated in 1184. Condemned as heretics, He and his followers fled to alpine valleys "Vallenses" and made contact with descendents of refugee believers from Rome. (The Bogamils from Bosnia?)They suffered great persecution for centuries. Going about two by two, they wore simple clothing, preached repentance, engaged in frequent fasting, and lived off the gifts of others. His ideas scattered as seed for reform to Wycliff, Hus, and others. Twenty thousand or so Waldenses still survive in Italy. They are the only late medieval separatist group to survive to the present.

1180 Hungarians assert overlordship over Bosnia.

1104 Work begins on Chartres Cathedral. Notre Dame began in 1163.

1199 Bosnian Ban Kulin was reported to Pope Innocent III. as having relapsed into Bogomilism and as having infected at least ten thousand of his subjects with his heresy. The next year it was reported that Daniel, the Roman Catholic bishop of Bosnia, had joined the Bogomils, and soon after, that the Roman Catholic cathedral and episcopal palace at Crescevo had been destroyed by the heretics. For many a year thereafter there was no Roman Catholic bishop of Bosnia. The furious Pope appealed to the Hungarian king to march against the Ban, but Kulin was too strong, and Hungary demured.

1199 Richard the Lion-hearted dies. The legends of Robin Hood supposedly happened during the time he was away on the Third Crusade.

1206 (died 1226) Francis of Assisi renounces wealth and goes on to lead a band of poor friars preaching the simple life. He took the order's lifestyle from Matt. 10:7-10, and went against the stream of the established church. Had an audience with the Sultan (see 1220 AD), preached to animals, and embraced lepers. He evangelized the unreached, began mercy ministries, and trained others for ministry. He established the Lesser Brothers, the Poor Claires, and the Tertiaries (a lay order). In addition to preaching and charitable work, the Franciscans are known for their devotion to learning.

1206 Genghis Khan (1167 - 1227) Founded the Mongol Empire, spanning most of Asia by the time of his death.

1212 The "Children's Crusade." Nearly 20,000 children gathered around a shepherd boy named Stephen to reconquer the Holy Land. A merchant offered free transportation, but then sold them into slavery.

1214 St Dominic establishes the Dominican order: Preaching friar/evangelists and upholders of orthodoxy. They took vows of absolute poverty, rejecting the possession of community property as a mendicant (depending on alms) community. "The Dominicans have contributed much to the arts, producing painters and writers." (Thomas Aquinas). As defenders of orthodoxy, they also were in charge of the inquisition.

1215 The Magna Carta signed by King John stating that a king should obey his own laws.

1215 The Fourth Lateran Council deals with heresy, reaffirms Roman Catholic doctrines and strengthens the authority of the popes.

1220 Five Franciscan missionaries decapitated by Muslims in Morocco. The year before (1219), Francis crossed battle lines and gained an audience with Sultan Malik al Kemil. "We are telling you in all truth that if you die in the law which you now profess, you will be lost and God will not possess your soul. It is for this reason we have come."

1233 First Dominicans arrive in Bosnia as inquisitors. But their mission is a complete failure.

1238 Pope Gregory IX proclaimed a crusade against the Bosnian Bogomils, led by Coloman, Ban of Sclavonia and brother of the King of Hungary. In 1238 he entered Bosnia. with a large army to exterminate the heretics. Coloman "purged" - so they called it - the whole kingdom, and extended his ravages through the principality of Chelm (Herzegovina). The barbarities and atrocities of this war of extermination were not recorded: we only know that many thousands were martyred. In 1240, Pope Gregory congratulated Coloman on " wiping out the heresy, and restoring the light of Catholic purity;" but before his death in 1241, he discovered that his congratulations were premature.

1245 Work begins on rebuilding Westminster Abby.

1257 Dominican and Franciscan priests sent to Bosnia to entreat the Bogomils to the Catholic faith.

1271 Marco Polo (1254-1324) set off for China. He was gone for 17 years.

1273 Thomas Aquinas completes work on Summa Theoligica, the theological masterpiece of the Middle Ages. He effected the integration of reason and revelation, incorporating Aristotelian ideas into Christian thought, and thus laying a foundation for the Renaissance. "Art is imitation of nature; works of art are successful to the degree that they achieve a likeness of nature."

1291 The first Franciscan Priests sent by Pope Nicholas IV to Bosnia for the Inqusition of Bogomils.

1297 William Wallace defeated the British at the Battle of Sterling Bridge, beginning the liberation of Scotland. (The Scotts were the only people the Romans couldn't conquer. After many attempts, they finally built Hadrian's wall to keep them out of the empire.)

1300 William of Ockham formulated "Ockham's Razor." Whichever explanation involves the fewest assumptions is to be preferred."

1300 Revolutionary technologies in sea-power, (the magnetic compass, mechanical timepieces, and navigational charts), precipitated an increase of wealth, further fueled by large-scale commerce, and the newly formed banking and insurance industries in Venice and Florence. This new wealth created an elite class with a taste for art and literature, thus laying a foundation for the Renaissance.

1300 The pagan priest Pa'ao arrives in Hawaii from Tahiti corrupting their peaceful, monotheistic faith in I'o with the bloodthirsty Kapu system of "mana," fear, and human sacrifice along with elemental gods like Pele (the volcano god). Under the kapu, an ali'i (chief) could take a commoner who ate the wrong food, or who simply allowed his shadow to fall on royalty, and use him for human sacrifice or as shark bait. There were ovens for burning humans at Punchbowl and Waikiki. Human heads of those offered in sacrifice were put on stakes lining the Pakaka temple in Honolulu.

1300 In this century Madrigals were developed as a popular form of music.

1300 (Until 1922) The Ottoman Empire established throughout Asia and into the Balkans. They demanded an annual tribute of Christian children from European subjects and molding them into

the powerful Janissary army, one of the most powerful militias in Europe.

1315 Christian Missionary Ramon Llull stoned by a Muslim crowd in Algeria. "He who loves not, lives not." He built schools to train missionaries in theology, philosophy, Arabic, and geography. "The man unacquainted with geography is not only ignorant where he walks, but whither he leads." "Men are wont to die, O Lord, from old age...... but thus, if it be your will, your servant would prefer to die in the glow of love."

1318 Stephen Kotromanic becomes Ban of Bosnia until 1353. He annexes Catholic lands to Bosnia's south and west, (Herzegovina and Krajina). He became a Catholic shortly before he died..

1321 Dante completes The Divine Comedy, the greatest work of Christian literature to emerge from the Middle Ages.

1324 King Mansa Musa (of Mali) took a pilgrimage to Mecca leading an entourage of 80,000 people. He returned with Islamic scholars and artisans who in turn built a strong foundation of Islam throughout the country.

1337 Pope Benedict XII. made the discovery that Bosnia was as full of Bogomil "heresy" as ever, and endeavored to start a fourth crusade against them, calling to his aid the Bans of the adjacent states and the King of Hungary;

1339 First Franciscan monasteries built in Bosnia.

1347 (until 1351) The Black Death killed almost one quarter of Europe's population. This loss of manpower spurred the need for labor-saving water and wind-power technology, and ultimately helped to lay a foundation for the Renaissance.

1358 Stephen Tvrtko succeeded to the throne of Bosnia. In his reign of thirty three years he included under his sceptre a larger territory than any other Bosnian ban or king. His administration was distinguished by wisdom and toleration. He was no theologian, and in his own personal belief leaned alternately to the Greek and the Roman Catholic churches, but his toleration of the Bogomils was steady, persistent, and generous. He died in 1391 (or 1389?) at the Battle of Kossovo. (Alen says he was poisoned by Bela)

1378 Catherine of Siena, ("O Divine Madman...." "He is crazed with love...."), goes to Rome to help heal the "Great Papal Schism" which had resulted in multiple popes. Partly through her influence, the papacy moves from Avignon back to Rome.

1380 Wycliffe is exiled from Oxford but oversees a translation of the Bible into English. He believed that scripture was the sole authority and that Christ, rather than the pope, was the head of the church. He condemned purgatory, indulgences, relics, pilgrimages, and transubstantiation, and he sent "poor preachers" to read the Bible in market places. Wycliffe has been called the "Father of English prose" as well as the "Morning star of the Reformation." He died a natural death, but his body was dug up and burned 31 years later. Greatly influenced John Hus through his students.

1386 The Turks begin conquest of Bosnia. The last fort, Jajce, falls in 1527.

1389 The Turks (Ottomans) defeated the Serbian Army in the Battle of Kosovo.

1390 Geoffrey Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales, the first great work of English literature. "He was fresh as the month of May."

1401 Competition for the Florence Baptistry Doors won by Ghiberti. This is the single event that opened up the Florentine Renaissance. Ghiberti finished the doors, (weighing thirty-four thousand pounds), twenty years later and immediately was given another contract to decorate another set of doors, referred to as "The Gate of Paradise" by Michelangelo, finishing them in 1457, three years before his death. He spent his entire working life, more than half a century on these doors.

1415 John Hus, professor of philosophy at the University of Prague, teaches Wycliffe's ideas and is condemned and burned at the stake by the Council of Constance. Influenced by Wycliff and Waldenses, he agitated for reform in the church with a huge following in Bohemia. Later the Hussites established the Unitas Fratrum (1457) and the first Protestant church in 1467. They still exist today as the Moravian Brethren.

1430 Donatello executes David, the first nude statue of the Renaissance. Commissioned by Cosimo de Medici, it is also the first statue to be cast in the round since classical antiquity.

1431 Joan of Arc burned at the stake.

1440 Austria gains influence under the Hapsburgs (1278-1918), maintaining control of the Holy Roman Empire and playing a significant role in European politics until the 19th century

1450 the Bosnian Bogomils, wearied and disgusted with the treachery of king Stephen Thomas, (who turned them over to the inquisition), turned for protection to the Turks.

1451 The Ottomans first conquer the region around Sarajevo.

1453 The Ottoman Empire took Constantinople, bringing to an end the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

1456 Johann Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible, and his press becomes a means for dissemination of new ideas and a catalyst for changes in politics and theology. Within forty-five years, the total number of books in Europe jumped from less than 100,000 to over nine million volumes. This dissemination of ideas laid a foundation for the Renaissance.

1460 In the first year of his reign, Roman Catholic Ban Stephen Tomasevic, turned his arms against the Bogomils, and in a few months had slaughtered or driven out of his kingdom forty thousand of them. Under the prospect of another Roman inquisition, they made an alliance with the Turkish sultan, agreeing to transfer their allegiance to him, in return for a guarantee of their personal liberty, free toleration of their religion, freedom from taxation, protection of property, and other privileges.

1462 The first public buildings (The Emperor's Mosque, Kolobara Han, and Medjdija Barracks) were erected in Old Sarajevo by Isa-Bey Ishakovic.

1463 The Sultan Mohammad II crossed the Drina in June, and soon after Stephen Tomasevic surrendered to him. A base and treacherous man himself, Mohammad had Tomasevic executed, "with the most barbarous tortures," on the field of Bielaj, where he had assassinated his own father (Stephen Thomas). The most eminent of the Bosnian (Bogomil) nobles who had not escaped to Dalmatia were transported to Asia; thirty thousand of the picked youth of Bosnia, sons of the best families, were placed as cadets among the Janissaries, to be converted to the Islamic faith and serve in the Muslim armies; two hundred thousand of the inhabitants, including the young and beautiful, were sold as slaves; the cities and lordly residences were plundered, and the whole land was given over to desolation.

1478 The Spanish Inquisition is established under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to root out Jews and to oppose "heresy."

1486 Botticelli paints The Birth of Venus. The first lifesize female nude to be painted in almost 1,000 years. He later became a follower of Savanarola (1494) and stopped painting nudes.

1492 Columbus "discovered" the Americas, accompanied by a group of Franciscans. The first converts in America were established by Franciscans, at Santa Domingo and La Vega in what is now Dominican Republic.

1494 (Until 1499) Savonarola, the fiery Dominican reformer, after the defeat of the Medici, enforced a Theocracy in Florence. On the night before Carnival in 1497 he ordered make-up, jewellery, and false hairpieces of all kinds, as well as "lascivious paintings" to be burned on a "bonfire of vanities." He was executed in 1499.

1495 Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper. "I obey Thee,Lord, first for the love I, in all reason, owe Thee..." "The works of God are appreciated best by other creators."

1500 Nicolaus Copernicus announced the theory the the earth rotates around the sun.

1500 First Jews fleeing the inquisition in Spain begin to arrive in Sarajevo.

1504 Michelangelo completes (uncircumcised) David. Humanistic ideal: the greatness of man.

1507 Erasmus (Catholic priest) said about pope Julius II, after conquering Bologna, "Whose successor is this? Julius Caesar's or Jesus Christ's?" "Isn't the Turk also a human being?" He wrote In Praise of Folly in 1509. "What's the matter with saying truth with a smile?"

1512 Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome.

1515 St Teresa of Avila born. Died 1582. Founded the Barefoot Carmelites. A mystic who had visions of Jesus Christ, she wrote The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. "Do not punish me by granting me that which I wish or desire." The Carmelite nuns practice poverty, contemplation, prayer, penance, hard work, and solitude.

1516 Thomas More wrote Utopia, setting forth the idea that man by his own effort can create a perfect society, (thus disregarding the doctrine of sin).

1517 Martin Luther posts his ninety-five theses, a simple invitation for scholarly debate that inadvertently becomes a "hinge of history." "Sola scriptura! Sola fide! Sola gratia!" "Here I stand. I can do no other." "God's justice is that righteousness by which through grace and mercy God justifies us by faith. I felt myself reborn...... The passage of Paul became my gate to heaven ..... works do not make one righteous. Righteousness creates good works." "To fight against the Turk is to fight against God who is punishing our sins through them." In the eyes of some, the Lutherans didn't go far enough: "The Lutherans compare themselves to the apostles and the evangelists; yet they have among them a very large number of Jews, and in Poland and Hungary have the Turks as their neighbors, they have hardly converted even a handful." - the Catholics

1517 The beginning of the Protestant Reformation, led by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Beze, Farel, and Knox. Along with bringing fresh life out of dusty forms of religion, Protestantism also brought a host of other new ideas: It brought down the dichotomy between sacred and secular, sanctifying all of life and society, and, dividing into various movements, it released people to question foundational religious beliefs and institutions. In one sense it encouraged skepticism because if these things could be legitimately questioned, then indeed one may be led to question universal truth itself.

1519 Ferdinand Magellan set sail on his historic circumnavigation of the world.

1519 Hernando Cortez began his Conquest of the Aztec Empire (Montezuma) in Mexico. In this same time period, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire in Peru, and founded Lima.

1521 Gazi-Husref Beg becomes governor of Bosnia and builds Sarajevo's main mosque, Begova Dzamija.

1523 Zwingli leads the Swiss reformation from his base as lead pastor in Zurich.

1525 The Anabaptist movement emerges in Switzerland. This "radical reformation" broke away from notion of separation of church and state. Menno Simons was one of their founding leaders, eventually being called "Mennonites." In 16th century Holland they were outlawed and often executed. One of them, Dirk Willens was being chased across the ice when his pursuer fell through. Young Willens heard his cries and returned to rescue him. The pursuer was grateful, but nevertheless arrested him because he felt it was his duty. A few days later he was burned at the stake in the town of Asperon.

1532 Machiavelli publishes The Prince, setting forth the idea that a ruler is not bound by traditional ethical norms. A prince should only be concerned with power, and should be bound only by rules that would lead to success in political actions.

1534 Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy makes the king, not the pope, head of the Church of England.

1534 Ignatious Loyola and Francis Xavier organized the counter-reformation Company of Jesus called the "Jesuits" by Calvin & others. Vows of poverty, chastity, and missionary activity. Xavier went to India, Formosa, and Japan and wrote back to Paris, "Tell the students to give up their small ambitions, come east and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ." The Jesuits placed their services entirely at the disposal of the pope. Their motto is Ad majorem Dei gloriam, (Latin "to the greater glory of God.") Along with missionary activity, their objective is to serve the church in it's greatest need at the time. They have been especially known for their work in education.

1536 John Calvin publishes The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the most substantial theological work of the Reformation. The same year William Tyndale, who had translated the Bible into English and laid a foundation for the King James Bible, was strangled and burned at the stake (in Antwerp?).

1542 The first university on the American continent founded at San Juan Tlatelolco, Mexico, by the Jesuits.

1543 Polish Astronomer, Copernicus, publishes On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres setting forth the theory that the earth rotates around the Sun

1545 The Council of Trent, called by the Roman Catholic Church, addresses abuses and serves the Catholic Counter-Reformation. It sealed Catholic doctrine for the next three hundred years. "Scripture and tradition are one." "Faith might begin the process of salvation, but it can only be completed by the sacraments, rightly administered by the church."

1545 Some three to four thousand Waldenses massacred in Province, France.

1547 Ivan the Terrible took the throne of Russia. He declared one half of Russia to be his own personal property and sent out death squads in the night to evict the farmers from their homes.

1548 (died 1600) Giordano Bruno philosopher, astronomer, mathemetician saw God as the only reality. "The Universal Intellect is the innermost, most real and essential faculty and the most effacacious part of the word-soul."

1549 Thomas Cranmer produces the beloved Book of Common Prayer for the Church of England.

1550 Beginning of the Baroque period of art and architecture (ending in 1700). Dramatic forms, elaborate ornamentation.

1558 Elizabeth I ascended the English throne and reigned until 1603. England's first female monarch, she ushered in the "English Renaissance."

1559 John Knox returns to Scotland to lead the reformation there after a period of exile in Calvin's Geneva.

1559 Flemish artist, Peter Bruegel (1528?-1569) paints The Blue Cloak ("Netherlandish Proverbs").

1564 William Shakespeare born. (Died 1616). Published Romeo and Juliette in 1595. "This above all: to thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day: Thous canst not then be false to any man." Hamlet

1570 Construction of The Bridge over the Drina was begun in Visegrad, Bosnia.

1572 The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre in France witnesses the killing of tens of thousands of Protestant Huguenots (French Calvinists) by Catholics.

1588 England under Elizabeth I defeated the Spanish Armada and preserved England's Protestantism. Enormous implications on the later settlement of the American colonies.

1589 Galileo presented his theory of falling objects. Later he invented the telescope. "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, amd intellect has intended us to forgo their use." "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

1607 Jamestown, VA settled.

1607 John Donne published Divine Poems. First, and greatest of the metaphysical poets, he wrote, "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so....." "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." "No man is an island unto himself..." "Batter my heart, Three Personed God."

1608 Anglican preacher turned Separatist, John Smith, baptizes the first "Baptists."

1608 (Died 1674) John Milton. Blind author of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, one of the great artistic attempts to explain the necessity of salvation. Also authored the great English poem, On His Blindness: "They also serve who only stand and wait." He also had great influence over Oliver Cromwell. "He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires and fears is more than a king."

1611 Publication of the King James Bible (also known as the "Authorized Translation") in the English language. Under King James l, fifty-four scholars worked for four years on the project.

1620 Pilgrims coming to America signed the Mayflower Compact and committed themselves to seek the public good, uphold group solidarity and forsake self-seeking.

1620 Francis Bacon publishes Novum Organum Scientiarum, Introducing the inductive method into science, teaching that a scientist should accept nothing on authority alone, but through developing theories of observation. "Man by the fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over creation. Both of these losses, however, can even in this life be in some parts repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences." "....the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of acquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, "the glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of a king is to find it out." As if, according to the innocent play of children, the divine majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honor than to be God's playfellows in the game."

1622 Jesuit Pedro Claver went to Columbia as a missionary to African slaves. Other Jesuits went to Paraguay and set up mission settlements for the Native Americans who had survived slavery and disease. In 1628 Portuguese and Spanish plantation owners attacked the Jesuit missions and enslaved their natives. The Jesuits moved their missions further inland, but they were pursued by the plantation owners. In 1640 the priests armed the missions and allowed the natives to defend themselves. (This is the historic background for the movie, The Mission.) But in the end the slave owners greed and superior weapons prevailed. In 1767 Spain forced the Jesuits to leave the New World. By 1800 slavery, disease, and greed had destroyed the missions.

1628 Jan Amos Comenius (Father of Modern Education) is driven from his homeland in Moravia and wanders the rest of his life spreading educational reform and pleading for Christian reconciliation. He published the world's first picture book for children. He was invited to Sweden, Hungary, and England to reform education, and was offered the first presidency of Harvard.

1646 The Westminster Confession is drafted in the Jerusalem Room at Westminster Abbey.

1648 Jeanne Guyon born.The most read woman author in Christian literature, she wrote about the inner life of the cross.

1648 George Fox founds the Society of Friends, more commonly known as "Quakers." Seeking to live simple lives, opposed to warfare and avoiding formal worship, they had an influence far exceeding their numbers.

1651 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher and political theorist, publishes Leviathan: or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil. He argued that since people are fearful, selfish, and predatory they must submit to the absolute supremacy of the state in both secular and religious matters, in order to live by reason and gain lasting preservation. He also laid a foundation for modern psychology by applying mechanistic principles and arguing that human motivation was caused by appetite or aversion.

1653 (Until 1658) Oliver Cromwell governed England as Lord Protector. A Calvinist, and the first commoner to rule England, he led the armies of Parliament against the armies of Charles I in the English Civil War."We must melt down the saints." "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think t possible you may be mistaken."

1662 Rembrandt completes his masterful painting the Return of the Prodigal Son.

1667 Renaissance Dubrovnik leveled by an earthquake killing 5,000 people.

1675 German Lutheran minister Philip Jacob Spener publishes Pia Desideria which becomes a manifesto for "Pietism."

1678 John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (written in a prison cell), is published. It becomes second in international circulation, exceeded only by the Bible.

1685 Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel born. These two will go on to become musical giants illustrating the central place of Biblical subjects in the masterpieces of Western art.

1685 Louis XlV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, withdrawing freedom of religion and sending French Huguenots underground or into exile.

1687 Isaac Newton (1643-1727) publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. One of the greatest of all scientists, he invented calculus, formulated the three laws of motion, and made contributions in light & optics, gravitation, and mechanics. He even worked out a the speed of sound. Newton is a symbol of the watershed in history when men came widely to believe that the external world was subject to knowable laws, and was capable of "productive manipulation." This thinking gave rise to the industrial revolution (1750-1850) and modern technology. In his later years Newton wrote more about the Bible, (though little was published), than about science and mathematics. "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered befor me."

1690 In the Battle of the Boyne Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic James ll, (in league with French Catholic King Louis lV), sparing England for Protestantism.

1696 Michael Molinos died. At one time 20,000 Roman Catholics in Naples were in omegroups studying his Spiritual Guide

1697 The Austrians burn Sarajevo.

1707 Publication of Isaac Watt's Hymns and Spiritual Songs marks a new development in the kind of music sung in churches.

1711 (until 1776) David Hume, Scottish philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses. "Truth springs from arguement amongst friends."

1750 The teachings of Descartes (1596-1650 "Cogito ergo sum" "I think, therefore I am."), Hobbes (1588-1697) "Appetite, with an opinion of attaining, is called hope; the same, without such opinion, despair." Voltaire (1694-1778) "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.", and Locke (1632-1704 "The mind is a blank page."), gave birth to The Enlightenment, emerging primarily in France. It's basic premise was the abiding faith in human reason, that through education humanity itself could be altered, and it's nature changed for the better. Descarte's concept of the autonomous man explicitly excluded the need for God, and built its worldview on reason alone. This enlightenment thought is the basis of modernism. A key shift was the Rationalist idea that truth is discovered rather than revealed. Society should be organized around rules based not on religion, but on reason or rational thought (Voltaire). Empiricism says reality can be known - and only known - through observation and experiment. The essential values of the enlightenment that remain with us are the pursuit of happiness, unrestricted freedom of choice, and disdain for authority. The bubble of cultural optimism burst during the first hlf of the twentieth century. The Enlightenment universe is one of cause and effect, that God, (the necessary "First Cause"), set the universe in motion and then stepped back to let it run according to natural laws. Such a "closed view" of the universe rules out miracle, providence, prayer, and revelation. And, of course, it rejects the revelation of Scripture and the Incarnation. "The Renaissance and the subsequent Enlightenment were a revival of Greek and Roman classicism and elements of their occult and pagan worldview. In short, the door opened for monism (Bruno: the belief that everything is one), pantheism (Spinoza: everything is God, God is everything), rationalism (Descartes: reason is the ultimate arbiter of truth) and deism (Voltaire: religion and ethics based on reason). Newton had understood the universe as ruled sovereignly by God, but now the universe was viewed as a closed box." (Jeff Fountain)

1727 Awakening at Herrnhut launches the Moravian Brethren as the forerunner of modern Protestant missionary movements. Count Zinzendorf invited exiled Protestants from Bohemia to settle on his estate in Saxony where he organized the "Renewed Fraternity. Herrnhut was to be a Christian community ruled by the spirit of love, and with flexibility towards forms of worship. "In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity." Zinzendorf declared that a Christian is "one who lives in obedience to His Lord." They began a prayer chain with 24 brothers and 24 sisters praying 24 hours per day. For 100 years they maintained this commitment to around the clock prayer for churches, missions and the advance of the Gospel. A few years after the Herrnhut prayer meeting began the Great Awakening broke out in the US. Was this merely a coincidence?

1729 Catherine the Great born, Empress of Russia from 1762-1796 expanded Russia's borders and continued Westernization and reforms in education and culture begun by Peter the Great.

1735 The Great Awakening under Jonathan Edwards stirs the American colonies with many conversions and individuals returning to heartfelt faith. At least ten percent of New England was converted during this awakening.

1738 (Died 1791) John Wesley converted when his heart was "strangely warmed" and he was gripped by the love of God. He eventually founded the Methodist Church, although he originally had no intention of forming a separate denomination. By the time he died he had traveled 250,000 miles, sent out 540 preachers, and the church numbered 135,000 people. Methodism became the religion of the Romantic Age, a reaction against the cold formalism that preceded it. The Catholics emphasized the authority to the church. The Calvinists and Lutherans emphasized the authority to the Word. The Deists emphasized Newtonian "first and last causes". And the Methodists emphasized experience and emotions. (Though they did leave a legacy of trying to balance the heart with the mind). By the end of the Civil War, Methodism was the largest denomination in America. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

1739 Under the preaching of George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards the Great Awakening reached it's peak in New England. At least 10% of New England were converted.

1742 George Frideric Handel writes The Messiah.

1750 Scotsman, James Watt invents and develops the steam engine.

1757 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born.

1762 Jean Jacques Rousseau published The Social Contract. " Human instincts are good, but it is the restraints imposed by institutions of culture that corrupt us." His writings, along with the German poet, Goethe, "Live dangerously,and you live right." paved the way for the Romantic Movement. Reason was the hero of the enlightenment; Emotion became the hero of Romanticism. Romanticism was a reaction against the mechanical reason of the enlightenment, and Rousseau argued that the best education is virtually the absence of education. Wordsworth "She was a phantom of delight..", Byron "Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure.." , Keats "What imagination seizes as beauty must be truth.", Shelly , and Chopin are all Romantics.

1771 Francis Asbury arrives in the United States. He traveled 300,000 miles on horseback, organizing Methodist congregations. Many of the social reforms of the nineteenth century, especially abolition and temperance, were begun or energized through Methodism.

1776 Until 1783 the American Revolution. 175,000 of 400,000 white male settlers fought in the war, which left 4,435 American casualties. Later, the new constitution of the United States was based on the philosophy of Hobbes, and the religion of Calvin. John Adams said, "Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

1778 Explorer James Cook discovers Hawaii. He is killed at Kealakekua bay in 1779.

1780 Newspaperman Robert Raikes begins Sunday schools to reach poor and uneducated children in England. It rapidly becomes a vital international movement.

1781 Lord Cornwallis surrenders to the Americans and French at Yorktown, ending the American Revolution. He commanded his military band to play The World Turned Upside Down.

1789 Until 1799: The French Revolution, fueled by enlightenment thinking. Revolting against high taxes and extravagant Louis XVI, they tear down the Bastille prison and declare France a republic in 1792. At the height of the French Revolution, (1793) Notre Dame Cathedral was re-named "The Temple of Reason." Louis and Marie Antoinette were later tried and hanged.

1791 Marquis de Sade publishes La Nouvelle Justine: "As nature has made us, (the man), the strongest, we can do with her, (the woman), whatever we please."

1793 William Carey sails to India as the first "modern missionary." He worked in the fields of agriculture (founded the Agricultural Society of India, classified plant life, started the first banking system, first steam engine, first newspaper, produced six whole translations of the Bible, twenty-four partial translations, translated grammar books & produced dictionaries, founded schools and colleges, developed written Sanskrit, translated works of literature, crusaded against injustice (sati -widow burning, abolished in 1829), etc. He never returned to England.

1795 The Second Evangelical Awakening began. Many thousands were converted, the nation's universities were reclaimed for Christ, and a score of Christian colleges were founded. Midweek prayer meetings became a regular feature of church life.

1798 Thomas Malthus publishes Essay on Population. "Populations grow geometrically while food sources grow arithmetically." There was no way to avoid the disaster of famine, disease, and poverty because if the state intervenes to help the poor, they will only have more children.

1798 (Until 1857) Auguste Comte, founder of "positivism," and the father of Sociology proposed that all societies pass through three stages of social evolution. First the theological stage where the world is interpreted supernaturally, then the metaphysical stage where abstract philosophical ideas explain existence, and finally the scientific stage with science providing the base for understanding. He admitted that what he was proposing was a religion, and he called it the Religion of Humanity.

1799 Napoleon Bonaparte becomes dictator of France in his coup e'etat. By 1812 he controlled most of Western Europe. But he was defeated by the British and German armies at Waterloo in 1815.

1804 Lewis and Clark commissioned to explore the US territory west of the Mississippi. In search of the Northwest Passage he wrote of passing herds of bull elk numbering in the thousands lolling about in the prairies. At times they wandered so close he could throw sticks at them

1807 The British Parliament votes to abolish the slave trade. Its decision is owing in large part to the tireless efforts of the Christian politician William Wilberforce.

1811 The Campbells begin the Disciples of Christ, an element within what became known as the "Restoration Movement" of American Christianity.

1812 Adoniram and Ann Judson sail for India. These first missionaries to be sent from America to evangelize Asia (Burma) and translate the scriptures into Burmese.

1815 Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain routed Napoleon at Waterloo.

1816 Richard Allen, a former slave, founds the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1817 Elizabeth Fry begins ministry to women in prison and becomes model for social compassion and involvement.

1818 Henry Obookiah dies at in Cornwall, Conn. at the age of 26. He left Hawaii in 1807. "Hawai'i gods! They wood, burn. Me go home, put 'em in a fire, burn 'em up. They no see, no hear, no anything. We make them, Our God, (looking up.) He make us."

1820 12 Young Missionaries responding to Henry's dying vision arrive in Hawaii. By the end of the century Hawaii was the most Christian nation on earth with over 95% of it's population professing Christians.

1821 Freidrich Hegel published Philosophy of Right proposing that truth is reached by a continuing dialectic, (thesis, antithesis, synthesis). He turned the traditional ladder of order on it's side and made it a continuum, a "myth of progress" towards a glorious, utopian consummation of history. This idea has also been referred to as the "escalator myth." Hegel's most important disciple was Marx.

1824 Beethoven publishes the Ninth Symphony. More than any other composer before him, his music was an outpouring of his personality.

1826 Edict to abolish Jannisaries and it's enforcement in Sarajevo.

1830 Charles G. Finney's urban revivals begin and introduce techniques that decisively affect later mass evangelism in America. In Rochester, New York, 10,000 people made professions of faith. The local bars went out of business, and the jails were emptied of their inmates. Unknowing strangers would approach the town and begin to weep under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Estimates stand at about 100,000 conversions under his ministry.

1830 John Nelson Darby helps found the Plymouth Brethren, a group which spreads the dispensational view of Scriptural interpretation.

1830 First important Railroad opened between Liverpool and Manchester.

1833 John Keble's sermon "National Apostasy" initiates the Oxford movement in England.

1833 Slavery abolished in Britain.

1835 Alexis Tocqueville publishes Democracy in America. He commented that he did not know ten men in all of France who would do what ordinary Americans do as a matter of course.

1838 The Cherokee Indians were forcefully removed from their land in the Appalachian Mountains.

1843 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Corol.

1843 American slave, "Isabelle" converted and changed her name to "Sojourner Truth." She travels "up and down the land" preaching against slavery and "showing people their sins." Her sermons were so well crafted some people denied she was a woman. In one city a man told her, "I don't care any more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea." Sojourner replied, "But Lord willing, I'll keep you scratching."

1844 Alexandre Dumas published The Count of Monte Cristo.

1845 The Irish Potato Famine. One million Irish people died within six years. By 1914, five and a half million Irishmen had emigrated.

1848 Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. The problem of society is in its systems, (Capitalism), and the solution is found in revolution. "The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." (This is only 1/2 correct. The rich do get richer, and the gap becomes greater. But the poor don't generally get poorer). Because Capitalism suppresses the working class (Proletariat), the answer is for them to rise up against the Bougeosie (middle class factory owners and capitalists) in revolution. (This idea of change through revolution is called Dialectics). Although Marxism has proven itself empty and flawed, it lives on in the form of liberation philosophy and the belief that women's problems are the fault of oppressive men, that gays, and blacks are the victims of straights and whites. In each case Revolution is the answer, the salvation. And "equality" is the promised land of Utopia. All of these movements only perpetrate the eternal and deadly mentality of victimhood.

1848 The California Gold Rush.

1854 Hudson Taylor arrives as a missionary in China. His faith work has immense impact.

1854 Philosopher Soron Kierkegaard publishes Attacks on Christendom and champions existential thought: Reality is within us. It is encounter, involvement, what happens to you. If it doesn't happen to you, it isn't true. Jean Paul Sartre distilled existentialism, saying, "The world is all there is, our existence is all we have." "You are your life, and that's all you are." (Art's worth is no longer objective, but subjective. Never mind that the piece has no beauty, genius, truth, or order. The important thing is, what does that splash of paint do to you? What does it cause you to experience and feel?)

1854 Charles Haddon Spurgeon becomes pastor at London's Metropolitan Tabernacle and goes on the be one of the most influential pastors ever. His church grew to 6,000 members.

1855 Dwight L. Moody is converted. He goes on to become one of the most effective American evangelists. "The world is a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said, 'Moody, save all you can." In England, he heard a preacher say, "The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him." Moody said.... "I will be that man." During the Civil war he went out into the battlefields and witnessed to the dying soldiers.

1857 David Livingstone publishes Missionary Travels and his exploits in Africa attract world wide attention.

1858 Over one million converted in the US during another Great Awakening. Another million in the British Isles.

1859 Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the Species, "The book that shook the world." English philosopher, Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) expanded evolution into a comprehensive system that included all of reality from stars to societies. The goal of this evolutionary theory was to produce human beings who would, in turn, help produce something new and better for the next tage of evolution. Thus Christian hope was replaced with faith in progress. The universe really was going somewhere!

1861 Through 1865 American Civil War left 600,000 to 700,000, (about one in four), casualties.

1862 Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclaimation.

1864 Louis Pasteur proves that life cannot emerge from nothing, (spontaneous generation), and promotes germ theory.

1865 William Booth founds the Salvation Army, vowing to bring the gospel into the streets to the most desperate and needy. "Go for sinners, and go for the worst."

1867 Johann Strauss (the younger) composed The Blue Danube to cheer up his fellow Austrians after their defeat to the Prussians.

1867 (Until 1918) Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1870 Pope Pius IX proclaims the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.

1875 Major Christian peasant uprising against Bosnian Muslim Landlords.

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. "What has God wrought?"

1876 Serbia and Montenegro declare war on the Ottoman Empire. Ottomans defeat the Serbian forces. Russia intervenes militarily in 1876, and conducts a successful campaign against the Ottomans.

1878 Congress of Berlin awards Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. (Armed resistance followed, led by Bosnian Muslims and aided by some Bosnian Serbs.

1879 Thomas Edison invented the Electric Light Bulb. "I did not fail thousands of times. I had thousands of successes. For each one led me closer to my eventual success."

1881 Oliver Wendall Holmes, US Supreme Court Judge writes in The Common Law, "Law is based on experience." "Truth is the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others." (This would mean that on the basis of the 51% vote, Hitler would be perfectly justified to do what he did as long as the majority of the people agreed with him.) In 1897, Holmes advised an audience of law school students to put aside notions of morality and look instead at the law as science - the science of coersion.

1885 Claude Monet pioneers the Impressionist movement. Along with Renoir, Pissaro, and Degas, these artists painted impressions of what their eyes brought to them, presenting reality as a dream world. "The subject is of secondary importance to me; what I want to reproduce is that which is in between the subject and me."

1886 The Student Volunteer Movement begins as a major thrust of young people to bring the gospel to the world as missionaries.

1886 Friedrich Nietzsche wrote Beyond Good and Evil. "God is Dead." "Whither is God? I will tell you, we have killed Him - you and I. All of us are his murderers." Much of the gospel being preached at the time had little life, and Nietzche was the man who shouted from the crowd, "The emperor has no clothes!!" He understood that if God was dead, then man and culture is also dead along with every truth and institution that finds its roots in God. Hope was dead. Man was dead. Love, truth, morals, communion and community were all dead. Life was absurd and should be lived dangerously. Yet it would be eight decades before this far-reaching obituary of God would be published on the cover of TIME magazine."There are many eyes, therefore there are many truths, therefore there is no truth." He also said, "The only God worth following is a dancing God." He taught hat Man was alone in the universe. Therefore there are no rules, no absolutes. You are what you choose to be. Your life is like an empty canvas waiting to be filled. You are the artist and you can make a work of art out of your life. Fill in the blank space as you please. There are no guidelines. No one can tell you how you should live. There are no rights or wrongs anymore, only preferences and opinions. Interestingly, Nietzsche went hopelessly insane at the age of 44.

1886 Vincent Van Gogh abandons his evangelistic work among the coal miners in Wasmes, Belgium, and goes to live with his brother Theo, in Paris. In 1889 he paints Starry Night. Van Gogh, along with Cezanne, Gauguin, and Seurat were post-Impressionists, searching for universals that would lead back to reality. (With Cesanne, this was done through geometric forms in nature). Ultimately, they failed, giving way to the fragmentation of man and nature..

1894 Pierre de Coubertine organized the first modern Olympic games in Athens, Greece. "It is naive to ask the nations to love one another But they can learn to respect one another."

1896 John Dewey, the father of "Progressive Education" establishes "The Dewey School" bringing reform to education through the "discipleship" of teachers. No longer would education be based on "these things are true, and must be passed on to the next generation," but from Dewey onward, "Truth is an idea that has worked in practical experience." Progressive education focuses on producing happy, successful young people. Subjects like Latin, theology, philosophy, ethics, etc are phased out of the curriculum in favor of social studies, psychology, values clarification, etc. (Consider: In the 1990s, Harvard Business School returned to the donor a twenty million dollar endowment for a chair of Ethics. Their reason: There is no longer a basis to teach ethics apart from the platform of absolute Truth). "Here (in secular humanism) are all the elements for a religious faith that should not be confined to sect, class, or race. Such a faith has always been implicitly the common faith of mankind. It remains to make it explicit and militant."

1896 Former slave George Washington Carver assumes director of Agricultural Research at Tuskegee University. He fostered soil improvement by crop rotation and developed hundreds of industrial uses for peanuts, pecans, and sweet potatoes. In his love for nature, he learned that "the most insignificant scrap of trash could find new life and usefulness." "I realize that God has a work for me to do." And that work was to change the lives and futures of his people and his country by tapping into the secrets of nature. He devoutly believed that a personal relationship with the Creator of all things was his only foundation for an abundant life, and acknowledged that God gave him the formula to tap into the more than 300 uses for the "lowly peanut." This divine revelation turned the agriculture of the South around, and made the peanut, once a non-commercial crop, into a multi-million dollar business.

1898 Abraham Kuyper (Dutch educator, statesman, & pastor) foresaw the brewing civil war of ideas Two life systems are wrestling with one another, in mortal combat. Modernism is bound to build a world of its own from the data of the natural man, and to construct man himself from the data of nature; while, on the other hand, all those who reverently bend the knee to Christ and worship Him as the Son of the living God, and God himself, are bent upon saving the "Christian heritage." (Lectures on Calvinism) He was convinced that all the world was the Lord's and there was not a square inch that did not belong to God.

1899 US Patent Office commissioner Charles Duell proposes winding up the office because "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

1903 The Wright Brothers invented the First Airplane.

1905 Max Weber publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. His thesis was that European Protestant countries forged ahead of their Catholic counterparts because of their view of the world. Catholics were "other worldly" in their approach to the mundane aspects of life while the Protestants, (Calvinists and Lutherans), dismantled the sacred/secular thinking to affirm the world. This gave way to the idea that all vocations and endeavors were "callings" of kingdom service. The work ethic also has powerful implications towards stewardship, thrift, and investment of wealth to create more wealth and employment for others.

1905 Einstein's theory of relativity. "I cannot believe that God plays dice with the universe." "I want to know the mind of God."

1906 Asuza Street revival launches Pentecostalism, and paves the way for the development of the modern charismatic movement. A prophetic word about the coming earthquake in San Francisco reported by the newspapers launched the revival into the worldwide spotlight when the earthquake struck later in the year.

1906 The San Francisco Earthquake and fire totally destroy the city.

1907 William James publishes Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking. "Truth is something that happens to an idea" in the process of it's verification; it is not a static property." "Truth is the cash value of an idea." He argued against doctrines that describe reality as a unified monolithic whole. "The world cannot be explained in terms of an absolute force or scheme that determines the interrelations of things and events." (Consider: if truth is always changing, as James suggests, then is progress truly possible? Apart from unchanging principles against which progress can be measured, then progress itself becomes unattainable.)

1908 Austria-Hungary formally annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1908 GK Chesterton publishes Orthodoxy defining Orthodox Christianity as "The philosophy of sanity."

1908 Henry Ford produced the first Model T Ford.

1910 (Until 1915) The fundamentals are published and demonstrate the great divide in American Christianity known as the "Modernist-Fundamentalist" controversy. 1. Jesus was uniquely divine. 2. He was born of a virgin. 3. He died as a sacrifice for sin. 4. He will come again. 5. The scriptures contain no errors.

1910 American baseball player Billy Sunday begins evangelism meetings and preaches to an estimated 100 million people. "I'm against sin. I'll fight it as long as I have a fist. I'll kick it as long as I have a foot. I'll butt it as long as I have a head. I'll bite it as long as I have teeth. And when I'm old and and fistless and toothless, I'll gum it until the day Jesus takes me home."

1912 The Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic with over 1,500 lives lost. The "unsinkable" fortunes and progress of the previous century were being prophetically addressed.

1912 Marcel Duchamp paints Nude Descending a Staircase. He also passes off "ready mades" as art, including an ordinary bicycle wheel and a common urinal. Humanity is gone completely, and the absurdity of all things inevitably includes the absurdity of art itself. Art now began to embrace the "cute" and the "clever" at the expense of beauty, order, and truth. In the words of Igmar Bergman, "It severed an umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and degenerating itself." While there is limited merit in cuteness and cleverness, art's noble call was sacrificed to commercialism and sophistication.

1914 For the one hundred years prior to 1914 there had been no major "world" wars. The industrial revolution had prospered many nations, and common people were for the first time enjoying what only the aristocracy had enjoyed in the past. These developments produced a euphoric faith in the enlightenment idea of progress. But World War I was to be the beginning of the death of Enlightenment hope.

1914 Assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir apparent to the Hapsberg throne) by eight Serbian Nationalists in Sarajevo, touches off W.W.I.

1914 Until 1918: World War I left 37 million military casualties, plus an additional 10 million civilians casualties. The US tried to remain neutral, but entered the war in 1915 after the Germans sank the Lusitania. The US, (under Woodrow Wilson), fought on the side of the Allies including Britain, France, Russia, and Italy against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. New technology had produced a new kind of warfare for which no one was prepared: armored tanks, machine guns, air, chemical, and trench warfare. In the year-long battle at Verdun, France, one million four hundred thousand men were killed (700,000 on each side). And even more tragic, neither side either won nor lost! At the battle of the Somme, the British suffered an average of 4,000 casualties per day for almost five months.

1915 Turkey ordered the deportation of the entire (Christian) Armenian population of Eastern Anatolya to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. Called "the first genocide of the 20th century," up to one and a half million Armenians were either murdered or died of starvation. In 1914 there were approximately five million Christians in Turkey. Now they number only about 150,000.

1916 Margaret Sanger opened her first birth control clinic in Brooklin, NY. A member of the American Eugenics Society, which advocated genetic improvement of the race by sterilization and selective breeding, she changed the name of the "Birth Control League" (founded 1921) to "Planned Parenthood" when her views became associated with the practices of Nazi Germany. In 1934 she wrote in A Decade of Progress in Eugenics, "Before eugenicists and others who are laboring for racial betterment can succeed, they must first clear the way for birth control. Like the advocates for birth control, the eugenicists....... are seeking to assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit."

1917 In The Russian Revolution (the Bolshevik Revolution) Lenin threw off the monarchy and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1919 Karl Barth's Commentary on Romans is published, effectively critiquing modernist theology.

1921 First Christian radio broadcast over KDKA in Pittsburgh.

1925 The Scopes Trial in Dayton Tennessee convicted John T Scopes of violating the Butler act, which forbade teaching evolution in public schools. (Clarence Darrow defense, William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution).

1929 Beginning of The Great Depression (lasting until 1940) in the US.

1932 Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) writes Brave New World, proposing drugs to be the answer to meaning. He made his wife promise to give him LSD when he was ready to die so that he would die in the midst of a trip. George Orwell (1903-1950) wrote 1984, fearing that what we hate ("big brother") would ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love (pleasure) would ruin us.

1934 Cameron Townsend begins the Summer Institute of Linguistics that aspires with sister organization Wycliffe Bible translators to bring the Bible to every language group of the world.

1936 John Maynard Keynes publishes The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, championing the cause of welfare. "It is the responsibility of the government to have full employment. It is not the responsibility of the government to have a balanced budget at the expense of the unemployed." (The result: massive government debt and the instability this can engender).

1937 Picasso paints Guernica in reaction to the German bombing of a Spanish town. Fragmented man in a fragmented world. (The exception in his art is when he painted his wives, or his children - these he painted as they were, in all their humanity). Picasso fully realized the power of art upon culture,"Painting is not done to decorate apartments....It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy." Guernica makes a powerful statement about the horrors of war, but it makes an equally powerful statement about the worldview of modernism, seeing man as less than human, in a world of fragmented reality. Peter Berger describes modernism as ‘life in the iron cage of laws and Newtonian cause and effect’. (Pre-moderns lived life "under the sacred canopy."

1941 (Dec. 7) Pearl Harbor bombed, precipitating US involvement in World War II (lasting until 1945). A total of 25 million military casualties, plus 10 million civilians, and another 6 million Jews were massacred in the Holocaust.

1941 Yugoslavia invaded by Nazi Germany with the Ustache government calling for the elimination of the regime's enemies, the Jews, Gypsies, and Serbs. Estimates range from 60,000 - 600,000 people were executed. Serbian "Chetnik" opposition against this Fascism arose, but then degenerated into its own massacres of Croats in eastern Croatia and Bosnia. Tito united those disgusted with both extremes into the Partisan movement and with the support of Churchill, gained control of much of Croatia by 1943.

1943 IBM Chairman Thomas Watson Sr. estimates the worldwide market for computers to be "about five or six."

1945 (August 6) The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing 100,000 of it's 270,000 inhabitants. Three days later a second was dropped on Nagasaki.

1945 Somewhere in the horror of two world wars, the holocaust, and the atomic bomb, modern culture and the hope of the Enlightenment died. From this point on the arts began to lose their way, focusing no longer on form, beauty, structure, or coherence, but on absurdity, questions, feelings, psychology, and despair. Intellectual leaders of our time have found no pattern of agreement on the nature of reality to replace enlightenment thinking. Modernism offers no answers, but only despair. Historical optimism (the idea that history is going somewhere) has died. Peter Berger describes this Post-modern period as "Life in chaos." The term ‘post-modern’ was used prophetically in the 1940’s by British historian Arnold Toynbee. He then predicted that the final phase of Western history would be dominated by anxiety, irrationalism and helplessness, cast adrift from any universal ground of justice, truth or reason. In the 1980’s, the expression gained new currency in architecture, literature and art, referring to movements reacting to the restrictions of efficiency and logic. One writer claims that the postmodern era began at 3.32pm on July 15 1972 when a housing development in St Louis, Missouri, considered the peak achievement of high modernist architecture, was blown up after being judged uninhabitable! (Jeff Fountain)

1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed by the Nazis. The German pastor is killed just days before the Allies arrive to liberate that region. His theological writings remain influential.

1947 India gains independence from Britain and it's partitioning (against the wishes of Gandhi).

1947 John Cage releases Music for Marcel Duchamp. It is sheer noise, chaos. But he cannot live by his philosophy. As an expert in mycology, he said, "I became aware that if I approached mushrooms in the spirit of my chance music, I would die shortly."

1948 Israel reestablished as a nation.

1948 The World Council of Churches is formed as an interdenominational body promoting Christian unity and presence in society.

1949 Billy Graham's Los Angeles crusade thrusts the young evangelist into several decades of worldwide ministry and an impressive reputation.

1949 Mao Zedong set up the People's Republic of China after his communist forces drove the ruling government of Nationalist China (Chang Kai-shek) into exile on the island of Taiwan.

1950 Mother Teresa begins her ministry to the poor of Calcutta. "I am called to help the individual, to love each person, not to deal with institutions. In the teachings of Christ there is no rage or indignation, no burning desire to change the horrifying injustices of a society that allows such poverty." Rather there is only the injunction to love and to turn the other cheek.

1950 (until 1957) The Korean War between North Korea, aided by China, and South Korea, aided by the United Nations, consisting mainly of US troops. 34,000 American casualties. One strategic battle occured at Chosin Resevoir. The US Marines were holding it, surrounded by five divisions of Chinese on high ground above them. The US commander, Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller wrote, "We've been looking for the enemy for several days, now. We finally found them. We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem of finding these people and killing them.", (Alternate story: The Chinese general sent terms of surrender to the marines, and Puller responded, "You've got us surrounded. You can't get away." The marines fought their way through, defeating the five Chinese divisions, and carried their dead and wounded with them.

1951 First commercial computer, the UNIVAC marketed. It contained 5,000 vacuum tubes, occupied 943 cubic feet, and weighed eight tons.

1955 Elvis Presley records Rock Around the Clock.

1956 Hungary falls to Communism. Marxist-Lenninism offers no basis for human dignity, and the Communist experiment will ultimately prove bankrupt.

1960 Charismatic renewal surges forward, crossing denominational lines and becoming more mainstream.

1960 Loren Cunningham founds Youth With a Mission.

1960 (In this decade) Timothy Leary (Died 1996) teaches that drugs could provide meaning "inside one's head." "Death to the mind, that is the goal you must have. Nothing else will do." "Questions about psychedelic drugs remain unanswered because our basic answers about consciousness remain unanswered." (His ashes were shot into space along with Gene Roddenberry's - Creator of Star Trek). The 1960s was far more than long hair and bell bottoms. It was an intellectual and cultural upheaval that marked the end of modernity's optimism and introduced the worldview of despair on a broad level.

1961 The Berlin Wall built to keep Communist East Germans from escaping into free west Germany. West Germany produces BMW and Mercedes. East Germany produces the Trebant.

1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in space.

1962 Second Vatican Council begins, the most significant council since Trent. It will promote new attitudes and practices in Catholicism.

1962 School prayer is forbidden by US law.

1963 Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, leads a march on Washington espousing the teachings of Jesus in a civil rights movement that affects all Americans. "Change only comes by persistently rising up against evil." "I have a dream..... a dream deeply rooted in the American dream..... of a place where my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley also die on the same day.

1963 The Beatles made their US debut.

1965 Until 1975 Vietnam War (American involvement). 58,000 American casualties. 3-4 million Vietnamese casualties.

1966 (Through 1976) The Chinese church grows despite the Cultural Revolution. Christianity did not die out under Communism, but experienced one of the most dramatic church growths ever.

1966 Robert Rimmer publishes The Harred Experiment, selling three million copies, and fueling the sexual revolution. It became recommended college reading and was instrumental in the merger of all male and all female campuses.

1967 In the Six Days War Israel took the Golan Heights and the West Bank.

1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. (Edwin Aldrin Jr was the second).

1969 Woodstock: The ultimate expression of sixties culture. The organizer claimed, "This is the beginning of a new era!" Drugs as an ideology. Some believed that if enough people would take drugs our society's problems would go away. It was even suggested that LSD be put into city water supplies as a solution to our problems. The Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, CA, policed by Hells' Angels ended tragically with a man being killed.

1970 Jimi Hendricks dies of a drug overdose, drowned in his own vomit soon after declaring the drug culture to be a "new beginning." Instead, he became a symbol of the end. Janis Joplin, considered by some to be the greatest blues singer of all time died the same year of a heroin overdose. Drug utopia was failing, and the drug culture morphed from an ideology to an escape.

1972 Richard Nixon responded to Leonid Breznev's blustering demands for recognition of the legitimacy of the USSR's Eastern European borders by broadening the agenda to include human rights. This led to the Helsinki Agreement of 1975 which recognizing the USSR borders in exchange for the formal acknowledgment of the legitimacy of rights to free exhange of people, open borders and family reunification. This eventually opened the floodgates of dissent in the Soviet Union which ultimately brought about its collapse. It also united the West on what it could agree on - humans rights.

1973 US Supreme Court passes Roe Vs Wade and guarantees abortion on demand.

1975 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge overthrows the Cambodian government. Under his regime an estimated three million people, (one quarter of the population), died by execution or starvation. He and his cadre of Paris-educated terrorists were students of Rousseau. To build a utopian society always requires the death of those who resist,or those who are deemed "irredeemably corrupt," namely the kulaks, bourgeosie, Jews and Christians.

1984 Winter Olympic Games held in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

1989 The Berlin Wall is destroyed, and East Germany reopens it's borders, closed since the wall was built in 1961. Hungary removes it's border fences.

1991 Douglas Coupland coined the term "Generation X" for the young people emerging from late modernity’s mass culture and consumerism - which no longer believes in progress, in the future, in absolute morals or objective truth, in divine destiny or purpose for humanity. The goal of this generation is simply survival - and fun - in a godless, mindless universe.

1992 (April) Sarajevo, Bosnia besieged by Serbian army. Lasting almost four years, it is the longest siege in European history. At the end of the Bosnian war (in 1995) the Serbs controlled 49% of the territory in an area known as the Republic of Serbska, the remaining 51% was controlled by the confederation of Muslims and Croats.

1992 The US Supreme Court declared general "to whom it may concern" prayers offered by a rabbi at a junior high commencement to be unconstitutional because it infringed on a fifteen year old's right not to have to listen respectfully to religious expression with which she disagreed. In other words, the court, by outlawing transcendent morality affirmed the postmodernist view that regards morality as a purely human invention. And if no appeal to transcendent authority is permitted, then the justices themselves become the supreme authority.

1994 A plane carrying Rwandan president Habyarimana and Burundi President Ntarymira was shot down by assasins, prompting civil war between the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes. After three months of slaughter and carnage, one million were dead, and two million were refugees had fled the country. Rwanda was the sight of the great East African revival of the 1930s. Eighty percent of the Rwandan population were professing Christians.

1997 The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed unanimously in the House, and with only three dissenting votes in the Senate, was struck down by the Supreme Court. In effect, the court said that Congress had no right to expand constitutional protections except for the sake of rectifying violations of rights that the Supreme Court itself has deigned to recognize.

1998 Don Stephens first arrives in Bosnia and Herzegovina.