The Most Important Events in Human History

             The most important and pivotal events in the universally accepted human history, arranged chronologically. Each of these events still have repercussions in today’s modern world. Events related to Christianity are highlighted in bold text. Everything is connected. Read up on each of these events to see why they are of such importance to the modern world.

These are just a few of the major events. I’m sure you could probably add many more.

The use of the BC/BCE and AD/CE temporal designations are just to keep everybody happy.

ca 10,000 BC/BCE: The invention of agriculture. Obviously.

ca 3200 BC/BCE: The invention of writing. Obviously.

6^th or 5^th Century BC/BCE: The life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. The exact dates

of his life are disputed.

ca 4 BC/BCE – 30 AD/CE: The life of Jesus of Nazareth.

ca 49 AD/CE: At the Council of Jerusalem, the leaders of the young Church decided to

accept Gentiles into the Church without requiring them to undergo circumcision.

70 AD/CE: The Roman military destroys the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

217 AD/CE: The Jian’an Plague kills about 2,000,000 people in China.

313 Ad/CE: The Edict of Milan in which Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity.

325 AD/CE: The Council of Nicea is held in what is now Iznik, Turkiye. The council

condemned Arianism and clarified the church’s christology.

476 AD/CE: The fall of the Western Empire.

541 – 549 AD/CE: The Plague of Justinian kills up to 100,000,000 people in Europe and

West Asia.

            Ca 570 – 632 AD/CE: The Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam.

735 – 737 AD/CE: A smallpox epidemic kills about 2,000,000 people in Japan.

800 AD/CE: Charlemagne is crowned as Emperor, uniting church and state.

1054 AD/CE: The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox

Churches.

            1066 -1071 Ad/CE: The Norman Conquest of England. The strong central state

government which developed persists until this day. 

            1095 -1300 AD/CE: The Crusades. Cultural and religious resentments and hatreds caused 

by this series of wars persist until today.

1346 – 1353 AD/CE: The Black Plague (bubonic plague) kills about 25,000,000 to

30,000,000 in Eurasia and North Africa.

            1378 – 1417 AD/CE: During the Great Western Schism, the Roman Catholic Church split

into political factions over who legitimately held the office of the papacy, resulting in multiple

competing popes in Rome and Avignon, France.  

ca 1440 - 1456 AD/CE: Invention of the printing press. Printing of the Gutenberg Bible.

1492 AD/CE: Cristobal Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) discovers America.

1492 – 1614 AD/CE: The Reconquitsa, in which Muslim rulers were driven from Spain.

1517 AD/CE: The start of the Protestant Reformation.

1611 AD/CE: The production of the King James Version of the Bible.  This Bible, written in the English which was spoken at the time, made the Bible available to any English speaker who could read. 

ca 1760 – 1840 AD/CE: The industrial revolution.

1789 – 1799 AD/CE: The French Revolution.

1914 – 1918 AD/CE: World War I caused between 15,000,000 to 22,000,000 deaths.

1918 - 1920 AD/CE: The Spanish Flu pandemic kills between 17,000,000 to 50,000,000

people worldwide. Some extreme estimates say as many as 100,000,000.

1939 – 1945 AD/CE: World War II. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs caused up

to 246,000 deaths. About 6,000,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. World War II caused

between 7,000,000 to 85,000,000 deaths.

            1960 to 1990 Ad/CE: The development of the internet.

2019 AD/CE: The COVID- 19 pandemic kill up to an estimated 36,000,000 people.

Christian Heresies: Arianism

Heresy in Christian usage is when a person or church denies or distorts scriptural doctrines which are essential for a proper understanding of Christianity. Heresy is not just acceptance of odd ideas or even aberrant beliefs. Heresy involves changing the nature of the Christian message. We can argue among ourselves about some things, but we can NEVER accept heresy into the church if we wish to remain authentically Christian. 

We have to be careful about throwing around the “heresy label” and to do so, we have to be sure what is the authentically Christian message. A good discussion of this is here. There are a few doctrines on which there can be absolutely no compromise. They are false and it is important to know that they are false.

All of the classical heresies presented a different gospel from orthodox Christianity and should be rejected because they are inconsistent with revealed scripture. What may surprise many is that most, or even all, of the classical heresies are still in evidence in the modern world among professed Christians.

One of the most dangerous and powerful of the classical Christian heresies and one which is very evident today in the teachings of many “progressive” Christians is Arianism. This doctrine for a while threatened to gain ascendancy in the Roman Catholic Church but was condemned by the First Council of Nicaea in 324 and again at the First Council of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) in 381. Protestants would say Arianism was rightly condemned because it is at total variance with scripture and changes the essential nature of the gospel. It is a totally different gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6-9)

Arius (born about 250 in Libya - died 336 in Constantinople) was a priest in Alexandria (al-Iskaderiyah), Egypt. He taught that Jesus was not pre-existent but was the first created being.  Arius held to a monotheism which insisted that the godhead was unitary and could not be shared. The doctrine of the Trinity was rejected and Jesus, while still worthy of worship, was not God.

The teachings of Arius were rejected in 325 at the Council of Nicea (Iznik, Turkey) but were accepted in 357 at the Council of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia). The issue went  back and forth, sometimes violently. Constans, the Emperor of the West, was Nicene, while Constantius, the Emperor of the East, was an Arian. Emperor Valens (364-378) persecuted non-Arians in the East but under the teachings of the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) the Nicene definition began to gain ascendancy. Emperors Gratian (367-383) and Theodosiuis (379-395) were both Nicene and finally in 381, the Council  of Constantinople denounced Arianism. The doctrine survived into the seventh century among several Germanic tribes such as the Vandals under Genseric.

Variations of Arianism survive among the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Unitarians, the Church of God (7th day) Salem Conference, and in some Branhamite sects (followers of the Pentecostal leader William M. Branham, 1909-1965). 

Postmodern Progressive Christianity can be viewed as a modified form of Arianism. Man is the true measure of all things and Jesus's humanity is stressed to the near exclusion of his divinity. He is viewed as a brilliant moral teacher and a beautiful example of humanity at its highest. He was a human so full of God that He became "divine." He shows us the divinity within ourselves. This is just one baby step away from the neo-Hinduism of the modern New Age movement. It is certainly not orthodox Christianity.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog. 

Cecil M. Whitmire: (b. Tennessee –d. 2010, aged 74) Hardware business executive, theater organist.  With his wife, Linda, he is credited with organizing and heading the salvation and restoration pf the Alabama Theater, which was in danger of being demolished in 1987.  It is now a fully restored old-style movie and stage-show theater.  Methodist.

Herbert Evan Zeiger, Jr.: (b. 1949, Alabama – d. 2010) Neurosurgeon, spinal surgeon, aviator, Christian Medical Mission of Alabama. Baptist.  He and his wife perished in a small plane crash.

Necati Aydin: (Murdered 2007, aged 36) Martyr, actor, seminary graduate, pastor, Bible publisher.  He and two other men were attacked, tortured, and murdered in their Bible publishing house in Malatya, Turkey by several Muslim men.

Teshima Ikuro: (b. 1910, Japan – d. 1973; aka: Teshima Abraham Ikuro, Abraham Ikuro Teshima) Founder of the Makuya (Holy Tabernacle) Movement.  The Makuyas insist that they are a return to original Hebraic Christianity and are Zionists with an emphasis on encountering God in everyday life.  Their sacred symbol is the Menorah rather than the Cross.

Theognis of Nicea: (fl 4^th century) Bishop of Nicea.  Theognis was an Arian who reluctantly signed the Nicene Creed.  Three months after the Council, he was excommunicated and exiled for his lukewarm condemnation of Arius.