The Pilgrims: Light Bearers”

Posted on November 11, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

We get all up in the air when some “minority race” is discriminated against. And well we should. We get very angry when any hint of prejudice surfaces against women; while much of that is even unfounded. We now are hearing a constant outcry that homosexuals should have equal rights, which really means accepting their lifestyle as being right—which is both Biblically and Constitutionally wrong! But there is virtually no outcry against the greatest discrimination occurring in our nation today. There is almost no voice being raised against the greatest lie that is being spread in America at this hour.

The indoctrination has been so widespread by the “educational elite” in Washington and in state bureaucracies, as well as in the national media, that we’ve believed it with hardly a thought. What discrimination do I speak of? What group of Americans has been so lied about? It is the Pilgrims and Puritans of the 1600s. But, thank God, Dr. Billy Graham helped to set the record straight about the great people who pioneered this nation. I continue to quote from his article in Decision Magazine, November 2002:

Dr. Graham declares: “…The Pilgrims were evangelists who set us an example in sharing their spiritual and material blessings with others.”

“In the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims committed themselves to the ‘advancement of the Christian faith.’ The Pilgrims at Plymouth were followed by the Puritans at Massachusetts Bay. Together they built churches and schools. In 1636 Harvard College was founded to train men for the ministry. By 1663 the first Bible was printed (the Algonquin Bible) for the Native Americans in their own tongue.”

“These settlers came to the new world not only to find freedom for themselves, but also to tell others of their faith.”

Continue reading →

The Pilgrims: Who Were They?

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

November is the month of the Thanksgiving Day holiday in America. But why do we have Thanksgiving? We know the Pilgrims held the first Thanksgiving Day in 1621, which was the first harvest time they had here. They wanted to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His protection and provision in this new world they had entered. They indeed, wanted it to be a new world! They came here to start a new culture based on the Word of God; and that’s exactly what they did!

One of the greatest descriptions of the Pilgrims I’ve ever read was written by Billy Graham in the November, 2002 issue of Decision magazine. I want to quote him at length:

Dr. Graham begins: “Emerson once said that ‘all history resolves itself…into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.’ It is appropriate at this season that we honor ‘a few stout and earnest’ Englishmen—the Pilgrims—who left their native land in search of freedom to worship God.”

“This is a day of cynicism, yet no amount of cynicism or ridicule can take away what the Pilgrims did more than 380 years ago.”

“The Mayflower’s voyage to the new world was a ‘survival test’ on a huge scale. The passengers had sold their possessions and had to work for years to pay for their passage. The ship had no heat or plumbing. Storms raged, and a main beam cracked in mid-ocean.”

Continue reading →

“The Courage Of America’s Founders”

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

Delegates from the American colonies had begun the Continental Congresses on their knees, crying to the God of heaven for help. They had knelt signifying that their rights came from God and that they were appealing to Him to show that their cause was just. Now, in July of 1776, they were again declaring their dependence on Him as they considered declaring their independence from England. It was in this spirit that Virginia delegate, Richard Henry Lee, would propose the resolution on June 7th that,

“…these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”

(John Adams and the American Revolution, Catherine Bowen, Little Brown and Co., Boston, 1950, p. 583)

A committee was appointed to draft a Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson would do most of the writing of that Declaration, in which he would declare the reason that caused the separation:

“…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government…” (emphasis added)

The Declaration was presented to the Continental Congress on Monday, July 1st. Still, they hesitated to make the break. The next day, Dickinson from Pennsylvania spoke against independence in his very eloquent way. A long silence ensued after he sat down. The destiny of future generations hung in the balance. Slowly, John Adams of Massachusetts arose to his feet to speak. He spoke quietly, but with great conviction and emotion:

Continue reading →

“God’s First Step Towards Fixing Us”

Posted on August 12, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

When I was ten years old, three ladies in the community where I grew up in Pike County, Kentucky came faithfully to our school each week to teach us the Bible. They taught us Who God was, who we were, and what His plan was for our lives. One of the things they taught us was to memorize the Ten Commandments. Then they told us God wanted us to obey those Commandments. So I decided I would obey the Ten Commandments. I committed myself to “Have no other gods” before God, my Creator. I committed to not steal or lie or desire what belonged to somebody else. I committed to always obey my parents. Was I in for an awakening! I found out that, try as I might, sooner or later, I would break one of those Ten Commands. And you see, our Bible teachers knew that’s exactly what would happen: Because that’s the very reason God gave those Commands.

Perhaps you’re thinking: “Don, I don’t understand. Why would God give us a command that we couldn’t keep?” He does so because He’s wiser than we are. You see, He knows that when we refused to let His life indwell us in the Garden of Eden, we received instead “darkness” to indwell us. That is: We lost our understanding of why we were alive. From then on, satan planted different ideas in our mind about Who God was and why we were alive. As we believed his lies, we plunged into darkness about the reason for our existence. Selfishness replaced purpose. This would cause all of the hurt we, as mankind, would ever experience. But we wouldn’t be able to identify what was causing the hurt because we were deceived: In other words our understanding was darkened. This is exactly what Jeremiah 17:9 says:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; [but] who can know it?”

Thus, God gave the Ten Commandments through Moses. He wants us to try to keep those Commands so that we will find out there’s something bad wrong inside us—something that needs to be changed. That something is the selfishness that darkens our mind and causes us to consistently see everything through a “lens” of selfishness. When we try to obey the Ten Commandments we discover that, even though we’re made in the image of God, and thus, should be able to obey His commands—we can’t. This, in turn, causes us to look for a Deliverer: Someone who can deliver us from our inbred selfishness and Who can enable us to live as God created us to originally live. This is why the New Testament teaches that:

Continue reading →

“Raised To Rule”

Posted on May 13, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

So many people, who say they are believers in Jesus Christ as their Master and Savior, seem to be so hesitant about participating in government. Nearly half of them are not even registered to vote! I believe this reveals a much deeper problem than just avoiding government involvement. It shows a lack of understanding (or you might say ignorance!) of what the Bible says of the position believers have in Christ.

While in my twenties, I was struggling with my walk with Christ. Some days I’d be mostly obedient. Some days I’d be mostly disobedient! I was told by many that this was the normal Christian life; that there would always be a struggle with the flesh and only when we arrived in Heaven would we ever have victory in this warfare. But I kept coming across passages in the Bible like:

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1st Corinthians 15:57)

And in John 10:10, Jesus said,

“I am come that you might have life…and have it more abundantly.”

And the Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 2:14,

Continue reading →

“Pastors Are Stewards Of Civil Government”

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

Pastor Jonas Clark stood on Lexington Green on the steps of his church building on April 19th, 1775, watching 600 British troops file onto the grassy area. He had taught his people for twenty years the Biblical principles of why and how to defend civil liberty. He did this because he knew the Bible taught that civil government was God’s institution just like the home and the church were God’s institutions. He stood there that day and watched nine of his men die on that field. They died because they stood and took the first volley. They had learned from their Pastor that only defensive war is just. For God to fight with them, they must not fire the first shot. They didn’t. God honored their sacrifice; the British, though a vastly superior force, were routed that day by the Colonial forces. A “shot was heard round the world” about how you defend civil liberty God’s way!

Samuel Davies, a Pastor in Virginia, was Patrick Henry’s inspiration for powerful public speaking. Laying “line upon line” the great Pastor’s reasoning both stirred and gave courage to the young boy. Later, this boy would become the statesman who would fire the American citizens to rise up and refuse to give up their liberty to teach the Gospel of Christ in this land. His stirring words, which used to be the stuff of speeches in our country, went like this:

Continue reading →

“The Valley Of Decision”

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

One of America’s greatest men spoke these sobering words:

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them.

“The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die. Our own country’s honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.

“Let us rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.”

(756. Washington, George. July 2, 1776, from his Head Quarters in New York the General Orders were issued to his troops. Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington 12 vols. (Boston: American Stationer’s Company, 1837, NY: F. Andrew’s, 1834-1847), Vol. III, p. 449. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg’s Heart’N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.18.)

The great American who spoke those words was George Washington. He spoke them to his ‘ragtag’ army on July 2nd, 1776, the day when the Declaration of Independence was first approved in Congress. Looking at their natural assets, that little army didn’t have a ‘ghost of a chance’ against Britain’s army, which was the best in the world of that day. Yet they won America’s independence because they trusted, as Patrick Henry said, “The just God who presides over the destinies of nations…” God obviously wanted this nation to exist.

However, over the last ninety years we’ve lost the understanding of why America exists. We’ve bought into the lie that our life is about pleasure instead of purpose. Consequently, we are very close to losing our liberty. The Bible says,

Continue reading →

“Why They Came”

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

The little boy tugged at the young man’s coat sleeve. “How far is it to America?” he asked, “Will we soon be there?” “No, lad,” the man replied, “It will take many days to cross this huge ocean.” The little boy gazed briefly across the ocean to the west. Then, unaware of the risks of such a voyage, he ran to find his friend to tell him this ship, the Mayflower, would be their playground for a long time. The young man continued to gaze across the vast ocean. His thoughts drifted back twenty years—to the time he had first met these people he was now a part of.

He remembered the wonderful meetings they had in their homes in England. For the first time in his life he had felt accepted, really accepted. These people were genuine, somehow he just knew it. Though others were saying this group were bigots who thought they were the only ones who were right and that they had “gone off the deep end” with their religion, he knew the truth. These people were real. They people didn’t claim to be perfect. They readily admitted that they too were capable of selfishness. But the unique thing about them (that so set them apart from those who were against them) was that they had entered into an agreement to help each other not give into selfishness by letting their friends point it out to them. And the way they did it seemed safer to him than living the way his relatives did. Because they recognized their own bent toward selfishness, they didn’t trust their own thoughts alone. They had agreed to compare their thoughts about another member’s actions to what the Bible said about those actions. Those who were critical of them certainly didn’t live that way. As he had considered their agreement (which they called their “Covenant”) he had come to recognize this was the safest way to live on this earth and had decided that—no matter what anyone said—he would cast his lot with this group, who now referred to themselves as “Pilgrims”. The years had brought them much hardship, but also much maturity. The peace they enjoyed was worth all the difficulties of living in a world system which was against their Covenant.

Continue reading →

“Columbus And The Gospel”

Posted on October 15, 2025 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

In just the last few days we have celebrated Columbus Day. But why do we celebrate this day? I remember learning in school that Columbus discovered America, but I don’t ever remember hearing why Columbus discovered America.

When we read Columbus’ own writings, it becomes obvious he decided to make his journey because of inspiration from God, his Creator. Columbus wrote,

“It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me)…that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter…[But] There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures…”

(Columbus, Christopher. August 3, 1492, as recounted by Bartolome’ de Las Casas. Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1942), p. 149. | John Eidsmoe, Columbus & Cortez, Conquerors for Christ (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press, 1992), p. 106.)

While there are those who reject the idea that God can lead us in this world and make plain to us what He wants us to do, the Bible is plain that, in reality, God created us for that very kind of life. Jesus said,

Continue reading →

“Fixing Our Educational Mess”

Posted on August 19, 2025 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

John Dewey—the father of the present educational system in America—stated in his book, Living Philosophies (1930),

“There is no God, there is no soul. Hence there are no needs for…traditional religion…truth is dead…There is no room for fixed natural law or permanent moral absolutes.”

(Biblical Solutions to Contemporary Problems, R. Walton, p. 136)

With such ideas being the foundation of modern education, is it any wonder “Johnny can’t read”; and drugs, immorality, and suicide are epidemics in America’s public schools? In spite of the effort of many Christians who teach in our local schools, the devastation worsens each year. Is there any hope for public education in America? Yes! But the road back will be one of the most difficult things ever tackled.

The root of America’s education problem is that it has left the Biblical method of education. How can the Bible be restored as America’s “basic textbook in all fields”, as Noah Webster said? Only by returning the control of the public school to the local community. This means cutting it completely loose from all tax support! Get the state and federal governments out of it! Let the local community completely control it by funding it through voluntary donations. Then—and only then—will the quality of education go up again.

Will most people want to do that right now? No. So I believe some preliminary steps must first be taken.

Continue reading →