Many of us know and are experiencing an intense battle for TRUTH in the public forum of our National politics. The truth about the character of our leaders. The truth about the natural design of the human race. The truth about medical practices and health issues.
The truth about the atmosphere and climate change, and finally, the truth about the history of America’s founding.
The ongoing attempt by Academia to project a new version of our country’s founding and History through our education system is an attempt by the power of reinvention to change the idea of our country’s founding. Project 1619 is a collaboration of journalists trying to fit the narrative of negativity in regard to America being a great country, perhaps one of the greatest that has ever existed.
So let us approach the dilemma through the door of a quote from a famous author who is much on everyone’s mind today: George Orwell, you know him, the guy who wrote 1984. He said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
I would like to draw attention today to a particular area of American History that is most assuredly being denied and buried in public and private schools, as well as business settings and our courts, both State and Federal. Academia, particularly, has sought to suppress, rewrite, or conveniently ignore the vast information available about the role of Christianity as lived out in the entity we call the church in the founding of America.
In laying out a boundary to guide us, there were two settlements in early America, i.e., the 1600’s era. (There was a Spanish settlement in Florida by French Huguenots around 1565, now known as St. Augustine, but that is for another day.)
Jamestown, Virginia, and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Jamestown (1607) was purely for economic reasons and was sponsored and paid for by the Virginia Company, and was a private venture that had been granted a royal charter by King James I, hence named in honor of His Majesty.
Plymouth (1620-1691) was founded by a group of Separatists initially known as the Brownist Emigration (named for their leader Robert Browne), who came later to be known as Pilgrims. Their desire was to be in a land where they were free to worship God as they saw best, not the established religion of the King of England.
The Pilgrims flourished after a few years of struggle, and we have often been told their story in history as a result of their thankfulness to God for preserving their lives. (One of our greatest holidays is in honor of their faith and thankfulness to God for preserving them, THANKSGIVING, and is still celebrated today.) Much can be said here, but this is a summation in its most basic format.
The Puritan influence, however, was a little different. The Puritans arrived in 1630, ten years after the Separatists, and had money and resources. They did not separate themselves from the Church of England completely. They thought they could create a true community of faith under the auspices of the Church, but they had to do it in another land. The Puritans overshadowed the Pilgrims in numbers and resources. As they gained ascendency, the American colonies, particularly in New England, became the wealth center of the New World. Fast forward 150 years….the colonies are now established and engaging in the IDEAS of freedom from England’s rule. These ideas resulted in what we call the American Revolution. Where did these ideas of independence, self-rule, self-government, freedom from government oppression, and equal justice for all come from?
The American Revolution was a direct result of people being educated on a mass scale. There were no public schools during the revolution period of the country. However, children were educated in numerous ways…parents, Pastors, tutors, philosophical societies, apprenticeships, and dame schools in which the children were taught to read and write by women in their own kitchens. The Old Deluder’s Law of 1642 was passed in the Massachusetts Colony and stated that “All youth are to be taught to read perfectly the English tongue, have knowledge in the laws, (civics) and be taught some orthodox catechism.” (religion)
No separation of government and God could be found anywhere.
The Pastor was the single most powerful voice to influence and inspire the thinking and reasoning of the colonists. For example, Over the span of the colonial era, American ministers delivered approximately eight million sermons. These messages were often one-and-a-half to two hours or more in length. Based upon this, the average 70-year-old churchgoer would have listened to 7,000 sermons in his or her lifetime, which consisted of over 10,000 hours of listening and learning. This is the equivalent of ten separate undergraduate degrees in a modern university.
The sermons provided families with a superb educational experience. Sunday morning was not only a time to gather for friendship and local town news but also to hear a message from an individual who was probably the most educated in the community. The sermon was based on Biblical knowledge first and foremost. However, due to the formal training of most ministers, the sermon often referenced the great historical thinkers of classical literature and leaders of the day in government, philosophy, and science. Pastors would read the laws recently passed in Congress and teach the congregation whether or not this law was in alignment with the Bible’s teaching on the subject.
Sermons were a part of the culture of the day. Many public occasions, such as Thanksgiving, election day sermons, local militia sermons, and, of course, weddings and funerals. Many sermons were published as political pamphlets.
George Bancroft, a 19th-century statesman and historian, wrote, “The Revolution of 1776, as far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons in the New World -the English Puritans, the Scottish Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster (Ireland). The American Revolution was but the application of the principles of the Reformation to civil government.”
I am looking forward to bringing you vital information on the role of the Clergy and the Bible in connection to the foundation of our country as a CITY ON A HILL, a direct quote from Puritan leader John Winthrop, who connected America to a divine destiny. This phrase was used by other founders and in our modern time, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Regan. The author of the quote, of course, is Jesus Christ. (Matthew 5:14)
Until next week….
Allen Cook, Senior Pastor
Grace Ministries International
Brentwood, NH
Editor Note: Pulpit Polity will be a regular Sunday morning feature on GraniteGrok.com.
