Mark Galli’s 131 Christians Everyone Should Know is a great resource highlighting the lives and faith of 131 key people from Christian history. These brief profiles provide historical context, timelines, important quotes and main contributions for each person.

You can also access many of the profiles online at Christianity Today’s Christian History and Biography section. I am finding these profiles helpful as supplementary homeshooling material for our boys.

Here are two fascinating flash video maps from the Maps of War website. The first map shows how the geography of religion has evolved over the centuries. Pay special attention to Christianity’s explosive growth that began with the rise of modern missions in the 1700-1800′s.

                                            History of Religion

                      (5000 years of religious history in 90 seconds)

The second map traces the major empires of the world showing who has controlled the Middle East over the course of world events.

                              Imperial History of the Middle East

                      (5000 years of imperial history in 90 seconds)

HT: World on the Web

Related post: Map of the World’s Religions

Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Fulton Street Revival, also known as “the Layman’s Revival.”

The revival began with a middle-aged tradesman, Jeremiah Lanphier … At that time in 1857, 30,000 men were idle in the streets and unemployment and drunkenness were rampant … Lanphier walked the streets around his church and noticed businessmen he passed who had anxious appearances and worried expressions as the nation was standing on the brink of economic disaster …

Realizing the need for prayer, Lanphier began handing out thousands of flyers advertising the first noonday prayer meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23. He sat alone for the first half hour but was soon joined by five other men. The following weeks, the Wednesday prayer meetings saw larger crowds and within three months there were prayer meetings all over the city and more than 50,000 people in New York City alone who paused at noon to pray.

The prayer revival soon spread across the nation and in about 18 months, a million people were converted to Jesus Christ. (from The Christian Post)

Two important lessons to remember:

1. God can do mighty things through the obedience of a single person.
2. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Popular Mechanics lists the 10 worst disasters of the century (occurring in the United States):

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I don’t normally wish antichrists a happy birthday, but Shabbetai Zevi is one of the more memorable false Messiahs in Jewish history. I first learned about him back in December 1999 while researching a message on the millennium in reference to Y2K.

Shabbetai Zevi was born in Smyrna in Asia Minor on July 23, 1626, and proclaimed himself Messiah in 1665. Excitement spread throughout the Jewish communities of Europe and the Middle East as he announced that on June 18, 1666, he would depose the Turkish Sultan and redeem the Jewish people. Shabbetai caused such a stir that even many Christians in Europe began to teach that Christ would return in 1666.

Shabbetai failed to deliver on his promises, however. When he arrived at the Sultan’s palace, the Sultan easily disarmed him and gave him a choice – convert to Islam or be executed. Shabbetai promptly converted, and the Sultan spared his life.