On this Day...

October 5, 869: The Fourth Constantinople Council opens. During its six sessions, the council condemned iconoclasm and anathematized Constantinople Patriarch Photius. It was the last ecumenical council held in the East, but Eastern Orthodox Christians don't consider it a true ecumenical council. Main debates were over which was the recognized Patriarch, and the origins of the Holy Spirit.

October 5, 1703: Jonathan Edwards - no not that John Edwards - is born in East Windsor, Connecticut. An American evangelical preacher and Congregational theologian, Edwards was the leading theologian of his day, and he is known most commonly for his Great Awakening sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." . In fact, the content of the sermon was delivered in a quiet monotone and is rather atypical for Edwards.

October 5, 1744: David Brainerd, kicked out of Yale for criticizing a tutor and attending a forbidden revival meeting, begins missionary work with Native Americans along New Jersey's Susquehannah River. Jonathan Edwards's biography of Brainerd was key in promoting Christian missions and was counted by William Carey as one of his most influential reads.


(abbridged from Christian History website.)