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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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Today, what is the contribution of our Pilgrim Fathers to our Christian heritage in the

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Constitution? One of my favorite topics. Now, our Pilgrim Fathers, besides giving us a rationale

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for Thanksgiving, of what possible significance do they hold for 21st century Americans so long

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ago? Why would we bother to include them in a study of the Constitution? Well, they have a

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significance, I would like to tell you, a significance out of all proportion to their

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numbers because they not only provide us with a mythic, legendary story of our beginnings as a

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people, but because they did, in fact, make real and substantial contributions to the formation of

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our Constitution. Let's examine that contribution a little bit, shall we? Now, we tend to think of

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our Pilgrim Fathers in the beginnings of the American colonies in a rather simplistic fashion.

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I'm speaking of my early understanding more than anything else. My own childish reconstruction of

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the Pilgrim story, I envisioned them stepping off the Mayflower in their black broad-brimmed haps and

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buckled shoes onto Plymouth Rock to the applause of Squanto and his Indian friends. Then, after

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attending a church service, they retired to their comfortable log ranch homes and had the first

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Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey and all the Timmings and then watched the football game on TV, right?

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Now, I may be oversimplifying even my childish vision of the Pilgrims, but not by much.

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We always tend to view history in terms of our own experience, and our own experience of

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Thanksgiving and the American dream is quite other than that of our Pilgrim Fathers.

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William Bradford and the party of 102 settlers did not sneak in as illegal aliens to an ordered,

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prosperous nation in which they might soak up the social programs and welfare system of the Indians

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around them. No. What they saw as they disembarked from the little caravel, which had transported them

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across a hostile, terrifying sea, was a land as hostile and forbidding as the vast waters they had

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just crossed. They did not find upscale Cape Cod duplexes with little boutiques, which sell saltwater

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taffy and lighthouse replicas. No. What they found instead was what they called a howling wilderness

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and a shore of sand forests, hostile natives, and animal predators. What was it that drove them to make

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the journey across an interminable sea to this distant, forsaken shore? Well, the historical record is

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clear. The Pilgrim Fathers ventured into this howling wilderness in order to achieve a measure

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of religious freedom and to further the kingdom of God on earth. In 1620, when the Pilgrims left for the

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new world, James I, the first of the steward kings, was giving the bishops of the Church of England an

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almost free hand in persecuting the Puritans and the separatists. Now, basically, the Puritans wanted

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to continue the work of the Reformation in purifying the Church of all of the trappings of Roman Catholicism,

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which had so polluted and destroyed the Church for so many centuries, and some wanted to do this

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within the framework of the Church of England. They were called Puritans. Others taught that the

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Church of England was either beyond hope of reform or that the pace of change was so slow that it was

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better to separate from her and establish a pure church from the ground up. These were called

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separatists. The Pilgrims were of this latter group, and they first went to Holland, where they could

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worship in relative freedom, but where they found their children adopting Dutch ways and where their lives

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fortunes were poor and miserable too. What were they to do then? Well, they heard that the Virginia

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Company back in England was granting charters for tracts of land in the New World, and so they

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perceived over time that God's purpose for them was to remove themselves unto America, as their pastor

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put it. But why? Jobs, maybe? Our socialist politicians would have us think so. How about the freedom to

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practice a gay lifestyle? No, the Puritans, frankly, would have clapped such a man in the stocks and

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banished him from the community. Was it maybe freedom to choose to abort their children if they

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got in the way of a woman's ambitions? Oh, no, such women and doctors would have ended up in prison for

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their crimes. No, we have made so much progress in America in the intervening centuries that our schools

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and history textbooks are threatened and, frankly, embarrassed by the real reason for the

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pilgrim's decision to go to America. Pastor John Robinson, leader of the little

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Scrooby congregation, it was called, he says, now as the people of God in old time were called out of

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Babylon civil, the place of their bodily bondage, and were to come to Jerusalem and there to build the

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Lord's temple, so are the people of God now to go out of Babylon spiritual to Jerusalem and to build

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themselves as lively stones in a spiritual house or temple for the Lord to dwell in, unquote. Now, here,

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of course, they were alluding to what the Apostle Peter taught in his letter that, as he says, you

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yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer

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spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, unquote. Now, ever since then, since Peter

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wrote that, the church has taught that the earthly temple in Jerusalem was a beautiful picture of the

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heavenly temple, not made with hands, as the author of Hebrews puts it, which is his body, the church.

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And after Christ's resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven, Christ has been building

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this spiritual temple by adding the building blocks one at a time. That is, Christians, those living

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stones being built up into a spiritual house, as Peter says, far more glorious than any earthly temple

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could ever be. In fact, so utterly obsolete and abominable are literal physical temples under the new

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covenant that God had the old temple in Jerusalem destroyed. Jesus himself said, but when you see Jerusalem

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surrounded by armies, then know that its destruction has come near, Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot

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by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, unquote, the words of Jesus. And this

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prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Roman army under Titus burned the city and the temple

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and it's recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus in his The Jewish Wars. Well, the pilgrims

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were living stones in this spiritual temple, and they saw an opportunity to create a model of how

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that church should look, purified from the trappings of the Church of England. These were not the great

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and eminent men of England, either royalty and nobles and men of letters, but rather simple men and women

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who labored hard, not only as workers and tradesmen, but also as elders, deacons, and saints of the

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church. When they finally agreed to go, they did not take their commitment lightly either, but bound

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themselves in a covenant. I have talked to you about covenants a lot in the past. And the pilgrims

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bound themselves in a covenant with one another. John Robinson, Pastor John Robinson, put it this way.

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He said, we are knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord,

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of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves straightly

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tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole by everyone, and so mutually, unquote.

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Well, after a great many trials and labors and preparation for departure, they were cheated,

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they were lied to, they had a number of false starts, while they finally boarded the Concord

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at Heathrow Airport and made the crossing in under three hours. No, they crossed the wild ocean in

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the only way available to them at the time, by wooden ship. In fact, their first boat, the Speedwell,

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sprung a leak, forcing them to transfer to a smaller ship, the Mayflower. That's the one we know.

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It took them seven weeks to cross the ocean amid storms and sickness and taunting from a surly crew.

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One of the crew in particular so hated Christians that he took great delight in telling them how

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much he looked forward to sewing their bodies in shrouds, tossing their bodies overboard.

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Four, death was a familiar shipmate, as Bradford put it on those long sea voyages.

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And this sailor called them the puniest assortment of psalm-singing puke stockings he had ever seen.

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Well, guess who was the first one sewn into a death shroud and thrown overboard?

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Huh, this sailor contracted a mysterious disease no one else fell ill from, and he alone perished

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from it. Well, at the end of their long journey, the pilgrims arrived far north of Virginia, which

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was their original destination in what is now Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

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Well, what was the first thing they did upon setting foot on dry land? Did they break out the

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champagne, toast their good luck, and set about building the New World's first abortion clinic?

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Did they smoke a pipe full of marijuana with the Indians and immediately set up a sensitivity

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training session among the pilgrims to encourage diversity and tolerance for Indian culture and

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religion? No, they did not. William Bradford records in his journal, he says,

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being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed

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the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all

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the perils and miseries thereof, again, to set their feet on the firm and stable earth. And it was no

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marvel that they were thus joyful, Bradford says, unquote. And today, Cape Cod is full of trendy sushi

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bars and exclusive condominiums in the summer homes of the Kennedys and the Shrivers. And were the

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pilgrims to wash up upon their shores today, they'd be arrested and shipped back to England as disgusting,

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undesirable, illegal aliens with dangerous religious opinions. But at the time, long before cultured

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bluebloods would clamor to claim to be descended from them and pay small fortunes for beachfront

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property there, well, these pilgrims arrived with, as Bradford puts it, no friends to welcome them,

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no inns to entertain or refresh their wither-beaten bodies, no houses or much less towns

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to prepare to, to seek for comfort, unquote. The pilgrims were made of hardier stuff than the

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present occupants of Cape Cod. They were men and women of deep Christian faith who trusted that God

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would take their meager physical means and use it with that faith to continue the work of building

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the kingdom of God in this new place. They were committed to the sacrifice of their lives,

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to building not a secular state, but a community of free Christian people who could worship and labor

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as never before in the history of mankind. How could this be accomplished? Well, they knew that it was not

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a benign and beneficent federal government who would help them with a series of government programs

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after they'd applied for them, but that it would be God alone who would aid them in their venture in the

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new world. Bradford, again, from his Of Plymouth Plantation. He says, whichever way they turn their

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eyes, save up or to heaven, they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects.

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For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weather-beaten face, and the whole country,

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full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them,

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there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them

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from all the civilized parts of the world. Let it also be considered what weak hope of supply and

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comfort they left behind them. What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?

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Unquote, William Bradford. Well, in addition to wresting a living from this wilderness,

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the pilgrims faced the prospect of governing themselves far from king and parliament. How

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would they govern themselves? How would they do it? Did they set up William Bradford or Miles

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Standish as a king to rule over them as lords and monarchs? No. They had just come from a place

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where the abuses of a tyrant had encouraged the enemies of religious reform to hound and persecute

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them. No. The pilgrims wanted nothing to do with a king. Did they throw all things in common,

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promising to each according to his need, from each according to his ability, as Karl Marx puts it?

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No. Although some of the early colonists would attempt an early form of communism,

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holding all things in common and sharing from a common store, and expecting all to work for a

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common bank of goods, they would find, lo and behold, that it robbed men of personal initiative and

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drove them to expect others to work hard and build up the common store so that they could draw from it.

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And this experiment in early communism in the colonies failed miserably. And no one ever tried it again

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in America until our own modern socialist left in America embraced it as political orthodoxy in the

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20th century. What our pilgrim fathers did undertake was an early form of self-government in which the

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people decided issues for themselves in a primitive democracy, electing a governor, military commander,

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and deacon for themselves from among their number. They formalized this early democratic republic and

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what has come down to us as the Mayflower Compact, one of those early documents that stands as a

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predecessor of our own constitution. It's so brief, we can read just about the whole thing to you right

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now. In the name of God, amen, it begins. The Mayflower Compact. We whose names are underwritten,

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the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain,

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France, Ireland, King, defender of the faith, having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement

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of the Christian faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the

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northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and of

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one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and

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preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame

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such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time,

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as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we

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promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, we have hereunder subscribed our

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names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign King James of

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England, Anno Domini 1620, unquote, the Mayflower Compact. Do you see the significance of some of

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these provisions for the future of the nation, which would be born upon this new continent?

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Note with me especially, first, it was drenched in the Christian biblical faith. They were there for

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the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, as well as for King and country.

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Note with me also, they solemnly covenanted together into a civil body politic. Here was an early

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primitive republicanism, excuse me, at work. This phrase would crop up in the thought and writing

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of our founding fathers, as they reflected upon the government of their predecessors and the rich

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heritage upon which they had to draw. Well, an early working model, notice with me as well,

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they had an early working model of the rule of law, and it was instituted here at Plymouth Plantation

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in the Howling Wilderness. They covenanted to, as they said, enact, constitute, and frame just and

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equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices. Not only did they promise to establish the

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rule of law, but an equal rule of law, that is, just laws equally applied and enforced amongst them all.

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No king or class of nobles like the Clintons above the law, in which the commoner was oppressed by the

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one set of laws and a few lived and ruled as gods above the law. The people would enact law, they would

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order, and enable life and prosperity for all. And notice with me too, they did not take lightly their

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promise to submit and obey to this compact and all the provisions which would issue from it.

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Theirs was not a generation, the generation of the pilgrims. Theirs was not a generation which took pride in

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seeing how far they could stretch the cords of obedience before they broke. They did not write books like

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Abbie Hoffman steal this book, right? Remember that? He was one of the Chicago 7 of the 60s, which was, of course,

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a brief for rebellion and revolution against the system. Their heroes were not James Dean and his

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rebel without a cause. Their music was not rock and roll, which is rebellious in its soul and sings,

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I fought the law and the Beatles revolution and raps cop killer. No, the pilgrim fathers and later our

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founding fathers knew and understood not only when it was time to protest and stand on principle,

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even revolt when necessary, but also they knew when it was time to buckle down, work hard, and become

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decent law-abiding citizens. That is exactly what they set about doing as they established the first

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successful English colony on the shores of North America. Their struggles were not over either. Once

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they landed, there would be years of hunger and disease and death before the young colony stabilized to

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any degree. It wasn't until the harvest of their second year there, after a balmy summer, which helped

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them produce carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, cucumbers, radishes, beets, cabbages, that, out of

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genuine hearts of thanks toward God, the pilgrims dedicated a day of thanksgiving to God. This has come

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down to us, of course, as our Thanksgiving holiday, our Thanksgiving celebration. And while the Native

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Americans joined them and brought into the festivities venison and corn and more than a dozen wild

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turkeys, the pilgrims did not attempt to secularize and bastardize the day by calling it Turkey Day

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either, but rather they set it aside as a solemn day of thanksgiving unto God. Our early pilgrim

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forefathers were simple, godly men and women who sought the opportunity to establish a Christian

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community in which they could worship according to their conscience and practice a life of

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responsible, law-abiding Christian freedom. This is our true heritage, dear listener, no matter what

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the godless secular socialist among us attempt to revise. So as you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving

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this year, plan on doing activities with your family that will teach them something of the true

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nature of this uniquely American religious holiday. We love to do this at New Geneva. We have a special

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time of prayer and Thanksgiving, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and we would just like you to join us

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as we do this. And I just urge you to keep in mind the importance of this day and the celebration of

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Thanksgiving, develop traditions in your family whereby your kids can remember. We did this with

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our kids and our kids still call us on Thanksgiving to thank us for the rich heritage that we passed on

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to them in coming to understand Thanksgiving and its importance. It's one of my favorite holidays because

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it's the true American religious holiday, isn't it? Thanksgiving. We have other religious holidays,

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everything from Easter to Christmas and these kinds of things. But when it comes to a genuine American

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religious holiday, Thanksgiving is the premier one, is it not? And the only one really, actually.

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So I would just urge you to read good books, read Bradford's of Plymouth Plantation. That is just a

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superb and excellent, very readable record of the early days of the colony. And then also pick

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scriptures to read. Psalm 100 is an excellent scripture to read on Thanksgiving and find time

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for prayer as well, in addition to your other celebrations on Thanksgiving. And just learn to

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cultivate to cherish this blessed American religious holiday. This has been Pastor David Bass at New

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Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street

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on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And I would just urge you to give us a call, maybe give us some

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feedback. Our telephone number is 523-0196. And we have now two different websites. We have New

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Geneva, opc.org. And then we have one where we have cataloged, if you will, our radio messages from the

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last year and a half or so. And that website now is called omnispotestas.org. Omnispotestas.org. And it

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means all authority. It's Latin for all authority. Let me spell that for you. O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org.

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That's O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. Omnispotestas.org. And you can call us once again

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for feedback and for further information at 523-0196. This has been Pastor David Bass at New

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Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 523-0196.