Listen to or read this week’s radio program:

© 2012 Don Pinson / To Download, right-click here: [Download] /

When the Pilgrims came here in 1620, they knew some things that recent generations have had stolen from them.  For instance, they had come to understand that the basis of government is covenant.  No state can exist very long if its citizens are not in covenant with each other.

In Noah Webster’s original Dictionary, the word covenant is defined as “a meeting or agreement of minds.”  The minds of a people living under a particular government must be in agreement on the basics of life if they are to be able to walk together throughout the generations.

They must agree about Who God is, and who He says they are, and what His plan for them is, both as individuals and a nation.  Without this agreement, education, business, and government just become a constant argument of: “What I think is best!” as opposed to, “What you think is best!”

The Pilgrims had walked in covenant for many years before landing on these shores.  Their church agreement, or covenant, had seen them through great difficulties.  When they arrived here, they were faced with the need to create a civil government.   It was the most natural thing for them to simply transfer the principles of their church covenant into a civil document.  That document is now known as the Mayflower Compact: The first lasting, governmental document ever drawn up by common men.  Later America’s Founding Fathers would restate those same principles in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

In a letter to Edwin Sandys, the Pilgrim’s Pastor, John Robinson, and their Elder, William Brewster, would describe their covenant with one another, stating that they were:

“Knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves straightly tied to all care of each other’s good, and of [the good of] the whole….”

(Bradford, William. 1650,  The History of Plymouth Plantation 1608-1650 (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909);Verna M. Hall, comp., Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 185.)

Once the Pilgrims had received Christ as Lord, they had learned to walk this way by obeying what the Bible taught when it states:

“…speaking the truth in love…grow up…into Him [speaking of Christ] in all things…”

(Ephesians 4:15)

Once their minds were in agreement, they wrote out the things they agreed upon and signed their names, pledging to

“…walk together in all His ways made known or to be made known unto them, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.”

(Ibid; American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988, p. 62)

They were simply agreeing to live by the Bible toward God and one another.

Out of this simple agreement grew the greatest nation in world history.  We knew that Jesus Christ was God and that the teachings of His Word were true, and thus, trustworthy.  Believing that obedience to Him was the most important thing we, and our government must do, we rose to the pinnacle of world power and influence.  Up until the early 1900’s we taught our children in our schools that this Pilgrim Covenant was the basis of our nation.

Then, through the deception of some educators and business people, we began to turn away from the God of our Fathers and their covenant with Him.  The rest is history.

Was our nation more stable then, or now?  Were our people safer then, or now?  Were our children more respectful of Jesus Christ then—or now?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you–
and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson this has been Think About It.