Three cheers for the English Pilgrims who founded the Plymouth Colony in America and celebrated their first harvest with a Thanksgiving Feast.
We know them as a group of English Separatists who broke from the corrupt, state church to form a “civil body politic” based upon steadfast Christian principles. Their efforts in self-government and private industry flourished, and the foundations of a new, freedom loving, Christian nation were laid. Independence from an oppressive English empire followed, as did the formation of a constitutional republic, based on the rule of law rather than the will of a human monarch. We celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in remembrance of God’s blessing upon these Pilgrims and this nation at the outset.
Benjamin Hart describes the Pilgrims in his book, Faith And Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty.
A group of separatists, under the leadership of John Robinson, formed a house-church congregation in the home of Postmaster William Brewster in order to avoid arrest and execution. Many of Robinson’s followers were at one time, well-to-do Englishmen, with good educations from Cambridge University, and had bright futures ahead of them if they had merely conformed themselves to the English Church. Instead, they lost their homes and all their possessions to tax collectors, officers of the state, and unscrupulous shippers. They were unwelcome in their native country because they believed that the Bible, not the king of England, should be the final authority, not only on matters of faith, but in all areas of life. In their view, James came under the rule of Christ, Christ did not come under the rule of James. Their insistence on this one point caused them many personal hardships—but in the end would make possible the emergence of the freest, and most fervently Christian society in the history of man.
It is fitting that we give thanks to God for His hand of mercy and care upon those who established our nation. The flight of the Pilgrims from persecution in England and from moral corruption in Holland reminds us of the plight of Christians today. On the one hand the antagonistic, secular state seeks to marginalize sincere faith through its persistent campaign of multiculturalism and moral relativism in the public schools and legal institutions. On the other hand the American cutlure is awash in self-absorbed materialism. The Evangelical Church has all too often compromised the Gospel call of redemption in order to be “seeker friendly” and relevant. Rarely do we hear about taking up our cross these days.
Perhaps it is time to call the saints out of the culture again. The Bible warns us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, and commands us to be separate from them (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). It states that those who accommodate the world system act as enemies toward God (James 4:4). It’s important to not equate separation from the world with isolationism, however. The Pilgrims certainly didn’t view things that way. Plymouth Plantation Governor William Bradford wrote,
Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; the glorious name of Jehova have all the praise.
Puritan Governor John Winthrop of Colonial Massachusetts wrote,
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken...we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God...We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.
I thank God for the work of the Pilgrims and the Puritans who labored before us to build a Christian nation founded upon the principles of freedom. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and cheer us on in our walk of faith (Hebrews 12:1). I pray the legacy of freedom we received will be cherished and advanced until our Lord returns.
We know them as a group of English Separatists who broke from the corrupt, state church to form a “civil body politic” based upon steadfast Christian principles. Their efforts in self-government and private industry flourished, and the foundations of a new, freedom loving, Christian nation were laid. Independence from an oppressive English empire followed, as did the formation of a constitutional republic, based on the rule of law rather than the will of a human monarch. We celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in remembrance of God’s blessing upon these Pilgrims and this nation at the outset.
Benjamin Hart describes the Pilgrims in his book, Faith And Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty.
A group of separatists, under the leadership of John Robinson, formed a house-church congregation in the home of Postmaster William Brewster in order to avoid arrest and execution. Many of Robinson’s followers were at one time, well-to-do Englishmen, with good educations from Cambridge University, and had bright futures ahead of them if they had merely conformed themselves to the English Church. Instead, they lost their homes and all their possessions to tax collectors, officers of the state, and unscrupulous shippers. They were unwelcome in their native country because they believed that the Bible, not the king of England, should be the final authority, not only on matters of faith, but in all areas of life. In their view, James came under the rule of Christ, Christ did not come under the rule of James. Their insistence on this one point caused them many personal hardships—but in the end would make possible the emergence of the freest, and most fervently Christian society in the history of man.
It is fitting that we give thanks to God for His hand of mercy and care upon those who established our nation. The flight of the Pilgrims from persecution in England and from moral corruption in Holland reminds us of the plight of Christians today. On the one hand the antagonistic, secular state seeks to marginalize sincere faith through its persistent campaign of multiculturalism and moral relativism in the public schools and legal institutions. On the other hand the American cutlure is awash in self-absorbed materialism. The Evangelical Church has all too often compromised the Gospel call of redemption in order to be “seeker friendly” and relevant. Rarely do we hear about taking up our cross these days.
Perhaps it is time to call the saints out of the culture again. The Bible warns us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, and commands us to be separate from them (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). It states that those who accommodate the world system act as enemies toward God (James 4:4). It’s important to not equate separation from the world with isolationism, however. The Pilgrims certainly didn’t view things that way. Plymouth Plantation Governor William Bradford wrote,
Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; the glorious name of Jehova have all the praise.
Puritan Governor John Winthrop of Colonial Massachusetts wrote,
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken...we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God...We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.
I thank God for the work of the Pilgrims and the Puritans who labored before us to build a Christian nation founded upon the principles of freedom. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and cheer us on in our walk of faith (Hebrews 12:1). I pray the legacy of freedom we received will be cherished and advanced until our Lord returns.
