Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

We just learned about the Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

Another famous hymn is Praise to the Lord, the Almighty by Joachim Neander.

Neander was a teacher and pastor, born in Germany in 1650 AD.
He wrote many hymns, but this one that he wrote in 1680 was by far his most famous.

Its title in German is "Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren", and in 1863 Catherine Winkworth translated it to the English words we know today.

The hymn was so popular, that in 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach made another song for the church based on the same words and notes.


(from: wikipedia - praise to the lord, the almighty)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Knights Templar

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

We just learned about the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.

Another famous hymn is Great Is Thy Faithfulness by Thomas Chisholm and William Runyan written in 1923 in Kansas.

Chisholm was born in Kentucky, and became a Christian at age 27.
He went on to become a minister and write many Christian poems.
When he was 57 he wrote the hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness about God's faitfulness during his life.

William Runyan worked for a company that printed hymns, and he came up with music to go with the words.

The title of the song comes from the Bible chapter Lamentations 3:23, where the prophet Jeremiah is sad that Israel is going to have some troubles but he has faith that God will take care of his people.


(from: wikipedia - great is thy faithfulness)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Knights Hospitaller

It Is Well with My Soul

We just learned about the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty by Reginald Heber.

Another famous hymn is It Is Well with My Soul, written in 1873 by Horatio Spafford.

Horatio was living in Chicago and doing very well as a lawyer for a while, then some very sad things happened to him.
In a big fire in Chicago he lost most of his money, so he decided to move back to England for work.
His family went on a boat ahead of him, but the boat sank and his four daughters died. Only his wife lived.
He got on a boat to go meet his wife in England, and while he was on the ocean he wrote this hymn, to say that even though he was filled with sadness, he could find peace in his soul knowing that God was always there to comfort him.


(from: wikipedia - it is well with my soul)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Third Crusade

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty - Reginald Heber

We just learned about the How Great Thou Art by Carl Boberg.

Another famous hymn is Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty by Reginald Heber.

When Heber was working for the churches back in the early 1800s, most churches thought people should only sing from the book of Psalms, and without a lot of changes in music notes from high to low.

Heber really wanted people to sing more types of music, so he wrote this song that talks about the holy trinity.
It has been one of the most popular hymns in the world now for hundreds of years.


(from: wikipedia - holy, holy, holy! lord god almighty)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Second Crusade

How Great Thou Art - Carl Boberg

We just learned about the hymn Amazing Grace by John Newton.

Another famous hymn is How Great Thou Art by Carl Boberg, written in Sweden in 1885.

One day when Boberg was walking outside, a huge storm came along with dark clouds, thunder, and lightning.
The storm got over pretty quickly, and then right after there was a rainbow, and birds singing happily.

When he saw the power of the storm and then the beauty of nature after, it gave him the idea for the song.


(from: wikipedia - how great thou art)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Prince's Crusade

Amazing Grace - John Newton

We just learned about the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

We've learned a lot about what happened in Christianity after Jesus over thousands of years.

Let's learn about some of the famous songs people sing in church called hymns.

One of the most famous hymns is Amazing Grace by John Newton written in England in 1779.

John Newton was born in 1725, and when he was 18 he was made to work on a sailing ship.
When he was young he was not very nice, and said a lot of very mean things to people.

One day when he was on the ship a terrible storm came along and almost tipped the boat over.
He was so scared that he shouted out "Lord have mercy on us!"

Later on when he was back on land, he was happy to be alive, and remembered that he had shouted out to God for help.
So he decided to work to write hymns to help people worship God, and one of those hymns was Amazing Grace.


(from: wikipedia - amazing grace)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The People's Crusade

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

We just learned about the Camp Meetings.

Another part of early Christianity is the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

In America in the 1741 a preacher named Jonathan Edwards wrote this sermon that he told to his church followers.
This sermon talked about how everyone was making God angry by sinning, and warned people of the dangers of the devil.
It made a lot of people scared to do bad things, and a lot more people started going to church because they didn't want to make God angry.

This type of message was called a "fire and brimstone" sermon because it used the idea of burning up in fire to scare people to be good.

Sometimes these ideas have worked through the years, but we know the Bible teaches that Jesus loves the world and gave up his life.
So it might be good to remind people that they need to go to church or bad things could happen, but it's also very important to remind them that Jesus loves them.


(from: wikipedia - sinners in the hands of an angry god)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Crusades

Camp Meetings

We just learned about the French Revolution.

Another part of early Christianity was Camp Meetings.

For a long time people only worshipped in churches, and things were very serious.

During the 1800s, some people started getting together in camps, and having church outside at camps.
A lot of these church meetings were very wild with lots of singing and dancing and shouting.
It was very different and gave people a very strong feeling about church, and made them excited about church.

This different way that people felt about worship helped start something called the Revival of 1800, and the Second Great Awakening.
People in America were finding different ways to have church, and to try and make people excited about church.


(from: wikipedia - camp meeting)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: East-West Schism

French Revolution

We just learned about the Methodism.

Another part of early Christianity was the French Revolution.

This was a war that was going on with different people inside of France.
The pope at the time named Pope Pius VI said he was against the revolution, and because of that a man named Napoleon who was in the military decided to go to Italy and take the Pope prisoner.

That pope died a little while later, and a new Pope was elected that Napoleon liked, and that made a lot of people in France like the Catholic church.


(from: wikipedia - french revolution)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Peace and Truce of God

Methodism

We just learned about the First Great Awakening.

Another part of early Christianity is Methodism.

In the 1700s a man named John Wesley was a priest in England and had some different ideas about how to worship God.
He believed that people had to go through a "new birth" in baptism, and that people should work very hard to help out people the world like sick or poor people.

He also felt that the church leaders should have church wherever they could to get people to come to church, even outside of a building or outside in a park.

The people that followed him started a church called the Methodist church, sometimes also called Wesleyan churches.


(from: wikipedia - methodism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Leif Erikson - Christianity in Greenland

First Great Awakening

We just learned about the Amish.

Another part of early Christianity is the First Great Awakening.

In the 1730s in America, there were a lot of different people with different beliefs, like Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians.
There were also a lot of people who didn't go to church, or even who didn't believe in God at all.

During this time many of the leaders of the church went out and worked extra hard to try and get people to join churches, live their lives by the rules of the Bible, and love their neighbors.
There were a lot of people that were slaves at the time that were not even allowed to learn about the Bible, and some people went and started teaching them about God and Jesus and they became Christian.

This was called the Great Awakening because many people who were not Christian or didn't go to church changed their lives and became very active in their churches.

It also was a time where all the types of protestant churches all were telling the same kind of message.
So as long as you were a Christian, it didn't matter as much if you were a Lutheran or a Methodist.
This helped bring people together in a larger group of Christians without being so divided.

One of the most famous writings of this time was called Sinners In the Hands of an Angry GOD", where a preacher wrote to warn people that if they did not become Christians they would not go to heaven.


(from: wikipedia - first great awakening)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianity in Russia

Amish

We just learned about the Salem Witch Trials.

Another part of early Christianity is the Amish.

In the late 1600s in Switzerland, a man named Jakob Amman thought that people were not living the right way to do what God wanted.

He felt that people were doing bad things, and thought people should live simpler lives where they did not get drunk, lie or cheat.

Amman also thought that if someone was a good hearted person it did not mean that they would go to heaven.
They would have to be re-baptized and accept Jesus or they would not be saved.

When he died, there were other people that wanted to follow the way he lived, and so the other churches called them "Amish" meaning they were living like Jakob Amman.

Later on some of the Amish people moved to the America and lived in small towns where they would just be simple farmers and not want to have a lot of money or anything exciting.


(from: wikipedia - amish)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianization of Poland

Salem Witch Trials

We just learned about the Pilgrims.

Another part of early Christianity is the Salem Witch Trials.

During the years before 1700, people all over the world became very afraid of witchcraft.
They believed that there were women who were working with the devil and doing evil things.

Because people were so afraid, they would say that innocent people were witches, and they would have a witch trial.
The witch trials were very unfair, people would lie about what happened, and the innocent person would be called a witch and killed.

One of the most famous places for witch trials was in Salem Massachusetts where there were some girls who pretended that they were being attacked by another woman who used witchcraft.

The people believed the girls, and they killed many innocent people who were not witches.

At the time people thought they were being good Christians and fighting against the devil, but later on people realised that people were lying and that innocent people were being killed in the name of God.


(from: wikipedia - salem witch trials)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Neume

Pilgrims

We just learned about the Thirty Years' War.

Another part of early Christianity is the Pilgrims.

We learned before about the Puritans who wanted to worship God in a different way than the English church.
Some people decided to get away from England so they could worship in the way they thought was right.

A group of about 100 people got on a boat called the Mayflower, and landed in the area now known as Massachusetts.
These people were the ones who told the story of the first Thanksgiving, and also how they landed on Plymouth Rock.


(from: wikipedia - pilgrims (plymouth colony))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cyrillic Script

Thirty Years' War

We just learned about Puritanism.

Another part of early Christianity was the Thirty Years' War.

We've learned that some people started becoming Protestants and worshipping God in different churches like Lutheran or Anglican instead of Catholic churches.

Sometimes leaders of countries like kings or queens would disagree with this.
The Thirty Years War was from 1618 AD to 1648 AD, where some countries in Europe went to war over whether people should be Protestants or Catholics.
Even though they all believed in God, they fought for 30 years and over 8 million people died in this war.


(from: wikipedia - thirty years' war)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianity in Bulgaria

Puritanism

We just learned about the King James Version of the Bible.

Another part of early Christianity is Puritanism.

During the Protestant Reformation time when people were protesting to be able to worship God the way they wanted, there was a group of people in England and America who called themselves Puritans.
The word Puritan meant they wanted to have a pure church because they thought the Catholic church and Anglican church were both bad.

They were a very powerful group in Great Britain and the American colonies and they had very strict rules on what people could do.
Men and women were not allowed to dance together, people were not allowed to go to the theater, and they did not even let people play musical instruments in their church services.

They also did not like Christmas, and for a few years even made it illegal to celebrate Christmas because they thought people were just having crazy parties, and not worshipping God.


(from: wikipedia - puritans)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Glagolitic Script

King James Version

We just learned about Heliocentrism.

Another part of early Christianity is the King James Version of the Bible.

Through the years, the Bible was translated into English a few different times.

Some people thought that some of these translations were not very good, so King James of England hired some people to make a new one.
He had 47 Bible experts that worked in different groups to translate the Bible into English.
Then they took all of the translations people did and compared them to make sure they got it right.
Almost like having 47 people do the same homework problems, and then comparing to make sure everyone got the right answers!

With the King's support, they printed many of these Bibles and sent them all over Great Britain and any place where people spoke English.
Today the King James Version of the Bible is still being printed, and there have been over one billion copies of the book printed since it first came out.


(from: wikipedia - king james version)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Ansgar

Heliocentrism

We just learned about the Believer's Baptism.

Another part of early Christianity is Heliocentrism.

Long ago people in the world saw the sun come up one side of the sky and then go down in the other.
People thought that the world was flat, and the sun was up in the sky going around the earth.
Later on people changed and agreed that the world was not flat but that it was a globe, but they still believed that the sun went around the earth.

Through the years a few scientists tried to tell people that the earth actually went around the sun, but people did not believe them.
The idea that the earth is at the middle of the universe is called geocentrism.
The idea that the earth actually orbits around the sun is called heliocentrism.

In 1610 AD the astronomer Galileo wrote a paper called "Sidereus Nuncius" which means Starry Messenger, telling people about how he beleived the earth orbited around the sun.

The church was very upset because they believed that if the earth was not the center of the universe, then that would mean it was not special or that it went against something that was in the Bible.

Galileo was put on trial and was found guilty, and told he was not allowed to teach people that because they thought it was not true.
The astronomer Copernicus had said the same thing many years earlier, but people did not believe him either.

Galileo's and Copernicus' books were banned for their whole lives, and the church did not allow them to be printed until about 200 years later.


(from: wikipedia - heliocentrism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vikings and Christians

Believer's Baptism

We just learned about the French Wars of Religion.

Another part of early Christianity is Believer's Baptism.

After some other people started to change the way they worshipped God to be different than the Catholic church, another group of people believed that people should be baptised as adults, not as babies.

Some people in the church believed that baptism was for babies to be brought into God's family when they were little, and then the church would raise them as Christians until they were old enough to take on responsibility of church for themselves.

Other people believed that since babies could not make the choice that they should have to wait until they were older to make the decision to be baptised themselves.

Because people disagreed about this, some of the early people called anabaptists who thought this way were killed by church leaders who thought they were being bad.

Today there are other religions who baptise as adults, like Baptists, or Amish and other religions that baptsie as babies like Catholics or Lutherans.


(from: wikipedia - believer's baptism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: King Charlemagne

French Wars of Religion

We just learned about the Protestant Reformation.

Another part of early Christianity was the French Wars of Religion.

In the 1500s, the Catholic church and another group of Christians called Huguenots fought each other for over 30 years.
It was a very bad war, and about 3 million people died.

The Huguenots and the Catholics just did not agree on what the Bible said was the right way to believe, and because there were princes, kings and queens fighting about this it turned into a war.

Because the war was so bad, a lot of people from around the world started looking at Catholics as not very nice, and other people joined the protestant reformation.


(from: wikipedia - french wars of religion)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Icons