“The Pilgrims: Overcoming the Hard Times”

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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Forefather’s Monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts is dedicated to the memory of the Pilgrims: Specifically to the memory of, “…their labors, sufferings, and sacrifices in the cause of civil and religious liberty.” One of the five statues which make up Forefather’s Monument is Morality. This statue reveals the Pilgrims’ desire to live conforming their actions to the Bible. They demonstrated how Christ could live His life through us if we were surrendered to Him as a living Master. And that was true in hard times as well as good times. Their story shows us this reality— even in the most difficult circumstances.

When they came together in a church covenant in 1605, to “walk together in all His ways…whatsoever it should cost them…”, it would cost them dearly. Several times over the next three years, English deputies would burst into their worship meetings, hauling the men off to jail; fining them and keeping them locked up for thirty days. Continue reading →

“The Economy of the Pilgrims”

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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It wasn’t working. The spring of 1623 saw the Pilgrims into their third year in America. But there was a serious problem. They were hungry: And because of it they had no energy with which to plow their fields and plant their crops. They knew winter would come again and with it death by starvation if they didn’t go to the fields. Yet many of them just seemed unable to get themselves moving.

Recognizing the seriousness of their situation, their Governor, William Bradford, called for a meeting of the leaders of the colony. They didn’t have to discuss their problem very long until they pinpointed what was wrong: It was the socialistic economy they were trying to labor under. They had long known this. The businessmen who had financed their trip had insisted they live by a common storehouse. In other words, they were to put all their produce into one storehouse, no matter which family had raised that produce. Then, they were to take out as little as they could get by with for their own needs, and send the rest of it back to England to their financiers as payment for their debt. The Pilgrims knew this would not work, but the businessmen insisted this is how they must do it. The Pilgrims knew the Scripture taught that, “If any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). And they knew that even Christian people, like themselves, had to know they could “reap what they sowed” if they were to produce well. However, they felt they had no choice. They had to pay for their voyage, and they certainly did not have that kind of money themselves. Thus, they submitted to an anti-Biblical economic system. Continue reading →

“The School of the Pilgrims”

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Heritage Ministries of Kentucky

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The group had made great sacrifices to be able to teach their children the truth of why God made them, and of His plan for them. First, they had sold their farms in England—that had been in their families for generations—in order to be able to move to Holland, where they hoped to have the liberty to teach their children God’s truth. And while there was liberty to do it, there wasn’t the means to do it. The parents in this group (known later as the Pilgrims) were shut out by the Dutch economy to the point that there wasn’t enough money to allow them to teach their children. So many hours were spent just scraping out a living that there was no time left to educate their families. So then they made the second sacrifice: They got on a boat, the Mayflower, and crossed the Atlantic to come to America in order to be in a place where they could have the means and the liberty to teach their children God’s truth; and be able to teach all the academic subjects from the principles of God’s truth revealed in the Bible.