by Paul T. Butler

Much of today's liberal press is up in arms over recent Supreme Court rulings having to do with religion and civil liberties. While no certain religious group or bloc of groups should be allowed to control or dictate civil law or policy, it is one of the first duties of the civil government to protect every man's right to openly worship as his own conscience moves him, or not to worship as he chooses. God holds all civil governments responsible to protect and promote civil liberties for all human beings equally.

And, while it is the responsibility of civil leaders to protect the sovereignty of human conscience, they are, at the same time, obligated to exercise their civic duties under the guidance of the precepts and principles in the Bible. That is because the Bible claims (and proves) itself to be the exclusive and all-inclusive revelation of God to man for the conduct of every facet of human life here on earth. God speaks in the Bible clearly and imperatively about the duties of the civil state. All human beings, judges and journalists, politicians and preachers, congressmen and carpenters are obligated by the same Bible and by conscience to be "subject to, pay taxes to, respect and honor" such God-guided government. Those who would resist such government will incur the judgment of God (see Rom. 13:1-7).

But the humanistic, atheistic element in our beloved land advocating the total divorce of all levels of government and civil structure from God and the Bible are not only theologically ignorant, they are ignorant of history. It is extremely difficult today to find any history textbook, used by our public schools from elementary to college, that does not portray the God-fearing discoverers and founders of America as scheming, exploiting, religious bigots; at the same time applauding the few agnostics and humanists involved in America's origins as the true patriots and founders of democracy. Besides this, most modern American history textbooks openly declare that the democratic-republic our forefathers founded must, and is, inevitably moving toward humanistic socialism or some "democratic" form of communism.

In years past some of our compatriots have, at great personal sacrifice, fought the subversion of American history in public textbooks. Judge Wallace McCamant, President General, National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, 1921, conducted an exhaustive research and published a brochure severely critical of inaccurate and subversive books being used as history textbooks. His brochure on this subject was responsible for extensive revision of certain books. He gave liberally of his talents, finances and abilities to crusade against the destructive sabotage being done to true American history. While we probably will not reach those heights, we must take every opportunity to make whatever contribution we can to the struggle against a constant, subversive, historical revisionism. Errors honestly made are excusable, but the revisionism of which we speak is not innocent — it has a socialistic oligarchy or elitism as its ultimate goal.

To this end let us now remind you of a few points of American history you already know, and perhaps a few you have never read simply because they just recently became available.

A. Christopher Columbus: Most of us read years ago in our history texts that he discovered the New World by accident, while seeking a trade route to the Indies. No mention was ever made of Columbus' faith in God, let alone that he felt he had been given his life's mission directly by God.

We were never taught that he felt called to bear the light of Christ to undiscovered lands in fulfillment of Biblical principles, nor were we taught that he believed he had been guided by the Spirit of God every mile of his journey.

Here, in the words of Christopher (means, "Christ-bearer") Columbus himself, from Columbus' Book of Prophecy never published in this country (a compilation of his in Spanish of Biblical teachings on the earth's distant lands, population movements and undiscovered tribes) are the reasons Columbus searched for the New World:

Bishop Las Casas, 16th century historian, who was with Columbus in Espanola on his third journey, relates an incident which took place on his fourth and final voyage. After he had been made Governor of Espanola and had then been relieved of that command for mismanagement, sick with a fever and in the depths of despair, Columbus had a half-waking dream in which he heard a stern voice strongly rebuke him for self-pity. The voice reminded him that the almighty had singled out him, of all the men in his age, for the honor of bearing the Light of Christ to a new world, had given him all that he had asked for, and was recording in heaven every event of his life! Whether this was a direct divine revelation or whether it was simply a dream like you or I have, it still indicates that deep in the recesses of his thinking, he believed his had been a God-appointed mission. Fame and greed later seduced Columbus and he did not fulfill in action what he professed to be in his original purpose. But his later failures do not invalidate the fact that impetus for discovery of the New World came from Columbus' knowledge and love for the Bible and his faith in God.

B. The Conquistadors: Every junior high school student knows the era of the Conquistadors. They have been told rosy tales about the contributions of these soldiers to the establishment of the New World. But the actual story of Cortez, Pizzaro and Coronado is one of rape, murder, and plunder. If God had a hand in the new nation upon this continent, it was not there. But wait, the Conquistadors all brought monks with them, possibly to salve their consciences, or to boost the morale of the men who were so far from home. But these Franciscan and Dominican friars were not straw men; they loved God — deeply and totally. The first white man to explore territory in what is now the USA was the Franciscan friar Marcos De Niza in 1539 on a journey into what is now New Mexico. With these men of God came orphanages, schools and refuges for the destitute. It was a priest, Bartolome de Las Casas (the same who traveled with Columbus) who was instrumental in the overthrow of the Spanish system called encomienda, a system whereby the Indians were enslaved by Spanish colonists. A group of French Huguenots seeking haven from religious persecution landed in 1562 at what would soon be named Saint Augustine and settled at what is now Beaufort, South Carolina. Jesuits Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Marquette, Louis Joilet, served Christ by trying to help the Indians and exploring the vast wildernesses and rivers of this great land. Many of them were martyred for their faith that God wanted the gospel brought here. The Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf, worked for 19 years with the Hurons, enlarging the influence of Christ among them. Captured in 1649 by an Iroquois war party, he was subjected to the most horrible tortures and finally martyred; first they poured boiling water over his naked body in mockery of Christian baptism; when he refused to cry out in agony, they tied a collar of metal hatchets heated red-hot around his neck. Still he would not cry out, and they fastened a belt of birch bark, filled with pitch and resin, around his waist and set it afire. Still he remained silent. Enraged, the Indians cut off his lips and tongue and rammed a hot iron down his throat. Then they cut strips of flesh from his arms and legs and devoured them before his eyes. He died expressing his faith in God. In the end, they cut his heart out and ate it and drank of his blood, in the hope that they could thus gain the spirit power that had given him more courage than any man they had ever seen.

And what of these martyrs? Other than the tremendous example of their selflessness and sacrifice, did their deaths play a part in God's unfolding plan for America? In terms of mass numbers of Indians being converted to Christ, their impact on the continent as a whole may not at first seem to have been that significant. But God does not take the measure of men's lives by the sum of their accomplishments. Rather, in the case of the founding of America, He seems to have been more concerned with the quality and depth of commitment. Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit, John 12:24. These French and Spanish martyrs were willing to be the grains of wheat which fell into the earth and died. In soil watered with the blood of their sacrifice, God could now plant the seeds of the nation which was to become the New World.

C. Jamestown, Virginia: Before this New World is born, however, the classic example of horrible failure when God's will is not primary in human endeavor will be forever etched in the Jamestown debacle. Selfishness, avarice, laziness, immorality and arrogance resulted in murder, starvation, mutiny, and cannibalism. When the ships, Deliverance and Patience came with food supplies May 1610, there were only 60 stick figured zombies remaining alive out of the 480 who had been there the previous August. It had finally come to the time known forever after as "the starving time." All the livestock had been consumed — hogs, sheep, goats, and a few horses — every bit, even the hides themselves. Next went the dogs and cats, and the rats that had once thrived on their corn, and any field mice they could find, or little snakes. But the hunger continued unabated and now became ravenous. They dug up the roots of trees and bushes and gnawed on them, and every bit of shoe leather on the plantation — every book cover, every leather hinge or strap or fitting was boiled and eaten. The colonists grew so weak that many, lacking the strength to move, froze to death in their beds. And still the hunger raged on. Here, the nicer histories leave off, for a number of the settlers who were still alive began digging up the fresher corpses. These they cut up into stew meat and boiled. There is only a single (recorded) instance of one person nudging another into the stew-meat stage a little more quickly. This is the case of the man who had become "unhinged" and killed his wife, salted her down, and had already begun to partake of her, when he was discovered. He was executed.

The settlement of Jamestown was undertaken without God and His word. But the next settlers to cross the Atlantic knew better than to attempt it without Him. They knew that they had no choice but to put all their trust in Him.

D. The Pilgrims: There were 102 Pilgrims (including a few "strangers") crammed into a space about equal to that of a modem volleyball court. Compound that misery by the lack of light and fresh air. Add to it a diet of dried pork, dried peas, and dried fish, and the stench of an ever-foul bilge, and multiply it all by 66 days at sea. Exiles from their homeland, England, they indentured themselves indefinitely to a financial sponsor. But they paid this enormous price cheerfully. Their own writings and the writings of independent contemporaries show them to be humble, just, compassionate, unprejudiced, wise and completely committed to making the will of God as revealed in the Bible the controlling factor in every experience of life. Seeking religious asylum in Holland, as near-penniless foreign immigrants, they found themselves reduced to near slavery there. They finally decided they must move to another place for their own survival as well as for carrying out their avowed mission to restore the Lord's church in its "ancient purity and recover its primitive order, liberty and beauty." Notice that word liberty. They were deeply God-fearing and fiercely freedom-loving. Humankind cannot have one without the other!

Increasingly, the Pilgrims (known as Separatists) came to believe America was the place to which God intended them to go, despite the horrors of Virginia's "starving time," which had reached their ears, and the well known savagery of some of the Indians. Even at this late date, the death rate at Jamestown was still well over 50 percent. The Pilgrims prayed. All circumstances seemed to point to America. But getting there was another question. The Virginia Company was on the brink of bankruptcy. But that closed door was providential, for they would probably have been sent to Jamestown.

A private investor had heard of their problem and came, unsolicited and unexpectedly, to offer his services. They sold all their homes and immovable possessions, drew up a contract with him, and prepared to set sail. Their sponsor had secretly pressured one of their leaders to certain changes in their contract. They refused to sign the altered contract, the sponsor refused to come through with the money for their supplies as he had agreed upon at first, so to keep their consciences clear before God, they sold off emergency food stores (for which they would suffer much later) and promised to indenture themselves to their suppliers beyond the original contract — indefinitely. They were admonished by their pastor, John Robinson, just before setting sail, to be "earnest in repentance . . . eagerly practice brotherly forbearance . . . choose leaders among equals . . . and yield unto these leaders all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations, for the image of the Lord's power and authority, which the magistrate beareth, is honorable, in how mean persons soever . . . ."

In complete contrast to the Jamestown situation, the Pilgrims sought the will of God in almost every step of their planning. Three days out of port the Speedwell, the old freighter they had purchased to carry them to America, was reported by the captain to be severely leaking and needing to return to port. They returned for repairs, set sail, and again they returned — this time to Plymouth, England. Some of the Pilgrims themselves scrutinized the hull of the Speedwell, with candles, but found no evidence of loose seams. Frustrated, they decided to sell the Speedwell and book passage with those on board the Mayflower, also headed for the New World. The Speedwell was rerigged and used for many years afterward. Some historians have found hints that the captain, anxious to get out of his contract to spend a year wherever the Pilgrims landed, had deliberately crowded on sail to make the seams work loose.

But this also had the hand of Providence in it. It helped separate the wheat from the chaff. Some who began to lose faith and courage (about 20) willingly dropped out. One of the drop-outs later wrote a friend, ". . . if ever these people make a plantation, God works a miracle . . . ." Though he spoke from despair, he spoke what actually was to happen — for in spite of the tremendous faith and courage of those who finally sailed, they would reach their destination and "make their plantation" only after many clear acts of heavenly providence.

In addition to the terrible living conditions which put terrific strains on their Christian brotherliness, they had to endure unmerciful mocking and harassment from the crew of the Mayflower. One particular crew member continually sneered threats and predictions that they would all be buried at sea and fed to the fish. He called them the "puniest assortment of psalm-singing puke-stockings" he had ever seen. But just at the peak of his tormenting, he suddenly took gravely ill of an unknown fever and died within a single day! No one else caught this mysterious disease, and his was the first shrouded body to go over the side in burial. No more mocking from the crew was heard.

A huge cross-beam supporting the main mast cracked in a storm putting the ship in imminent danger of sinking and providentially, the only contraption that could have fixed it was the great iron screw of William Brewster's printing press. Now, even the sailors joined the Pilgrims in praising God for His providence.

They had started for America, intending to land at the mouth of the Hudson River. Their journey from start to finish seemed to be under one continuous storm. In spite of the most unlikely sailing conditions, when they finally landed at Cape Cod, they had been blown only about 100 miles off their course. They concluded, after much deliberation and prayer, that they would accept this landing as the will of God and they could put ashore to "make their plantation" here. Now a new question arose: if they were to settle here, they would no longer be under the jurisdiction of the king's Virginia Company. And since they obviously had no patent from the New England Company, they would be under . . . NO ONE! At this thought, rebellion began to stir in the hearts of some of the "strangers" of the group. The Pilgrim leaders realized they had to act quickly and decisively to forestall the possibility of mutiny and all its consequences. Their solution was pragmatic, realistic and expedient, and it took into consideration the basic sinfulness of human nature as they had experienced it under the temptations and stresses of their recent voyage. They drafted a compact (constitution) which embodied the principles of equality and government by consent of the governed which would become the cornerstone of the American Republic. The Pilgrims had no idea how significant this document was to be. It marked the first time in recorded history that free and equal men had voluntarily covenanted together to create their own new civil government.

This Mayflower Compact was the preface to the ringing affirmations a century later, such as: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . . ." This is the Mayflower Compact:

William Bradford's diary, entitled Of Plimoth Plantation (which by the way, in at least one modern edition has edited out of it certain "irrelevant theological meditations"), says of the day the Compact was signed: "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. And no marvel if they were thus joyful ... for we marvel at this poor people's present condition ... no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses, or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor .... If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.... What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?"

Sixteen Pilgrims went ashore first to reconnoiter. The first evidence of God's providential care was their finding an abandoned cache of buried corn, 36 ears in a large iron pot. This was the Pilgrim's first taste of a food that would later save their lives. Next they were attacked by hostile Indians but not one of the Pilgrims was even wounded. Then the Pilgrims started dying. At one time there were only five men well enough to care for over 100 sick and dying. When the worst was finally over they had lost 47 people, nearly half their original number. Thirteen out of 18 wives died; only 3 families remained unbroken. But compared with Jamestown's mortality rate of 80-90 percent, they came through remarkably well. Through it all their hearts remained soft toward God. And all went gladly to worship services every Sunday (by the way they did not wear the somber browns and blacks of the pictures that hang in schoolrooms around Thanksgiving).

If any one event may be singled out to mark the turning point of their fortunes, it would be what happened on a sunlit Friday in the middle of March, 1620. Someone shouted "Indian coming!" Surely he meant, "Indians coming" — but no, here came a solitary Indian swaggering up main street of the little compound. "Welcome," he suddenly boomed in a deep resonant voice. The Pilgrims were too startled to speak. Finally, they replied, "Welcome." The strange Indian fixed his piercing stare upon them, and said, in clear, flawless English, "Have you got any beer?" Now they were astounded! You see, the liquid of survival on every long ocean voyage in those days was beer — water became too quickly contaminated. The Pilgrims drank beer all the way over from England. They looked at one another, then turned back to the Indian, "Our beer is gone. Would you like some brandy?" The Indian nodded. They brought him some brandy, and a biscuit with butter and cheese, and then some pudding and a piece of roast duck. Finishing his meal, he introduced himself as Samoset, chief of the Algonquins in Maine, visiting in Massachusetts for the past eight months, sent to explore the coast for the Council for New England, the very company to whom the Pilgrims would now be applying for a patent. The Indian loved to travel and he had learned his English from various fishing captains who had put into the Maine shore.

The next story he told filled the hearts of the Pilgrims with gratitude to God. The area which they had occupied had formerly been the territory of the Patuxets, a large, hostile tribe who had barbarously murdered every white man who had landed on their shores. But 4 years prior to the Pilgrims' arrival, a mysterious plague had broken out among them, killing every man, woman and child. So complete was the devastation that the neighboring tribes had destroyed the Patuxets. Hence the cleaned land on which Pilgrims had settled literally belonged to no one! Their nearest neighbors were the Wampanoags, 50 miles to the southwest, numbering about 60 warriors, whose chief was Massasoit.

Samoset slept with the Pilgrims that night and departed the next morning with gifts from the Pilgrims to Massasoit. The following Thursday Samoset returned accompanied by another Indian who also spoke English and who, of all things, was a Patuxet! This was Squanto, and was to be, according to William Bradford, "a special instrument of God for their good, beyond their expectation." His Indian name was Tisquantum. He had been captured by George Weymouth, taken to England, taught English, and spent nine years there, where he met Captain John Smith who promised to take him back to his people. On Smith's 1614 voyage he took Squanto back. Captured again, along with other Patuxets, Squanto was bought (for 20 pounds — $1400) by Spanish friars who introduced him to the Christian faith. Thus did God begin Squanto's preparation for the role he would play at Plymouth. Squanto left the monastery in Spain with an Englishman bound for London where he lived another four years and returned to the place of his people on Cape Cod in 1619! When Squanto stepped ashore, only six months before the Pilgrims, he received the most tragic blow of his life: not a man, woman or child of his tribe was left alive . . . nothing but skulls and bones and ruined dwellings remained. In despair he wandered southwest into Massasoit's tribe where this chief took pity on him. Hearing Samoset's news to Massasoit of the Englishmen forming a colony at New Plymouth on Cape Cod where his people had lived, he accompanied Samoset and Massasoit there and that is where the Pilgrims met him. Out of their meeting with Massasoit came a peace treaty of mutual aid and assistance which would last for 40 years, and be a model for many such treaties that would be later made. Massasoit was God's providence, too, for he was probably the only Indian chief on the northeast coast of America who would have welcomed the white man as a friend.

Squanto stayed with the Pilgrims. He taught them how to squash edible eels out of the Cape Cod mud with their bare feet and catch them with their hands. But what he showed them next was the most important thing they would learn — for it saved every one of their lives. He showed them how to plant corn in six-foot squares, fertilizing the corn with fish. He taught them how to stalk deer, plant pumpkins, refine maple syrup, gather medicinal and edible herbs and berries, and introduced them to trapping and trading beaver pelts. The harvest of 1621 was so bountiful the Pilgrim leader, Governor Bradford, declared a day of public Thanksgiving to be held in October. Massasoit was invited and arrived unexpectedly a day early with 90 Indians! The Pilgrims had to pray hard to keep from giving in to despair. To feed such a crowd would cut deeply into their food supply supposed to get them through the winter. But they had learned to trust God implicitly. As it turned out the Indians did not come empty handed. They had brought no less than 5 dressed deer, and more than a dozen fat wild turkeys. The Indians taught the Pilgrim ladies how to make hoecakes, tasty pudding out of cornmeal and maple syrup, and finally, showed them an Indian delicacy — how to roast corn kernels in an earthen pot until they popped, fluffy and white — popcorn! Things went so well, and Massasoit showed no inclination to leave — that first Thanksgiving lasted three days.

In November, 1621, a full year after the Mayflower's arrival, the first ship from home dropped anchor in the harbor. It was the Fortune, off of which stepped one of my lineal ancestors, Stephen Deane, whose wife Elizabeth Ring, after Stephen had died, married Josiah Cooke, a Mayflower passenger. Along with him were 35 other colonists and the Plymouth colony's royal charter granted through the New England Company. Stephen Deane built the first mill of the colony. While the Pilgrims were celebrating these new arrivals, they suddenly realized the 35 new colonists would force the whole community to go on half-rations through the coming winter in order to survive. In addition to this they were pressured to enter into an agreement with their old nemesis, Weston, which would see them struggle for more than 20 years to get out from under it. They were mercilessly taken advantage of during those years, at times having to borrow money at interest rates of 30 to 50 percent. The Pilgrims paid every bill, no matter how fraudulent, and were finally able in 1645, to buy themselves clear of Weston's group — at a fearful cost for it took some 20,000 pounds to retire a debt of only 1800 pounds, and to do it many sold their farms and homes.

During that winter (1621-1622), with all the extra people to feed, exploitation by their creditors, the Pilgrims entered into their own "starving time." They were reduced to a daily ration of five kernels of corn per person. It is almost inconceivable how life could be supported on this. But, in contrast to what happened at Jamestown, not one of them died of starvation. The merciful God sustained them once again. Unexpectedly a ship put into their harbor on its way back to England from Virginia. There was no extra food on board but they did have beads and trinkets with which they could trade for corn. So the captain traded his trinkets for their beaver hides for 3 shillings per pound — he would take them back to England and get six times as much for them. But the Pilgrims had no choice and they thanked God for seeing them through that winter.

You are wondering whatever happened to their old exploiter, Weston? He wound up on America's shore, humiliated, penniless, and wandered into the Pilgrim colony with only the shirt on his back, begging them for mercy and the loan of a load of beaver skins to get him back on his feet. He promised to pay later for the skins with a shipment of supplies. They took pity on him and agreed. He finally found his way back to England where he did repay the Pilgrims — with scorn and vicious slander, and not a penny in interest for the loan.

In the spring of 1624 they planted their corn but a severe drought appeared ready to totally destroy the crop. Not even the oldest Indians could remember anything like it. The Pilgrims entered into fasting, repentance and prayer, and God sent 14 days of gentle, soaking stormless rain which saved their crop. The yield that year was so abundant they wound up with a surplus of corn. A second day of Thanksgiving was planned, and Massasoit was again the guest of honor, and this time he brought his principal wife, three other chiefs, and 120 braves. Fortunately he again brought venison and wild turkey as well. One of the white men describes the feast in a letter to his brother in England:

What this letter fails to mention, however, was the first course that was served: on an empty plate in front of each person were five kernels of corn — lest anyone should forget.

These Pilgrims were a mere handful of Light-bearers, on the edge of a vast and dark continent. But the Light of God was penetrating further into the heart of America. William Bradford would write with remarkable discernment: "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shown unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation .... We have noted these things so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship."

Copyright © 1990, Paul T. Butler