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| This circa 1869 engraving titled "Landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, 1620." |
While most people were focused on Covid, the election and the so called "Bethlehem Star" we were distracted from an anniversary of National and international significance - the 400 year anniversary of the Puritans/Mayflower landing at Plymouth on November 11, 1620.
Sadly, many of the commemorative plans by local and international groups for this quadricentennial anniversary were upended by the coronavirus pandemic.
Our Nation's early settlers on the Mayflower made a famous agreement on board the ship called the Mayflower Compact. This was essentially a covenant with one another in which they dedicated themselves to God. The first sentence of the Compact is "In the name of God."
The Mayflower Compact stated their voyage was “For the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith,” and that people derived their right to self-government from God. I think it notable that on the top of the Washington is the Latin phrase with nearly the same meaning, "Laus Deo," which translate to, "Praise be to God."
The significance of this profound concept cannot be overstated. About 150 years later, in 1776, this belief would be expressed as the "unalienable rights" which human beings are entitled to -- Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The revolutionary concepts in the Mayflower Compact laid the foundation for two other revolutionary documents: the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The United States’s founding documents did a lot more than just affect Americans, they inspired free societies all over the world.
The Pilgrims created a democratic form of government where officials would be elected, and laws passed. Every male member of the colony over 21 would be able to vote. Based on a popular vote, the eligible men would have the right to change and propose laws and elect or remove office holders. This was unprecedented.
The Mayflower Compact essentially laid the way for to the concept behind the historic phrase "We the people."
In 1802, John Quincy Adams described the agreement as “the only instance in human history of that positive, original, social compact” and it is popularly believed to have influenced the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
400 years later the Mayflower Compact matters more than ever. The Mayflower Compact famously applied the idea of law established by the people.
God is under attack in America and around the world. Communism seeks to eliminate God. God and America are under attack by the CCP.
The principles embodied in America's founding documents are the opposite of the principles of the Chinese Communist Party.
A pilgrim is a person who goes on a long journey often with a religious or moral purpose, and especially to a foreign land. After the Mayflower arrived, the first baby born was a boy. His parents (William and Susannah White) named him Peregrine - a word which means travelling from far away and also means pilgrim. The writer of Mourt's Relation in 1622 refers to the Plymouth Colonists as pilgrims. Governor William Bradford calls the Plymouth settlers pilgrims when he writes about their departure from Leiden, Holland to come to America: “They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country; and quieted their spirits.”
Isaiah 26:
We have a strong city.
He appoints salvation
as its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates![a]
Let the righteous nation enter—
one that keeps faith.
3 You keep in perfect peace
one whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in Adonai forever,
for the LORD Adonai is a Rock of ages.
5 For He humbles those dwelling on high,
leveling the lofty city,
leveling it to the ground,
bringing it down to the dust.
America is a City On A Hill.
Hashivenu Adonai.
