“... for without me ye can do nothing” John 15:4-5
By Walter Giddings
Sept 15, 2024
(Exodus 19:5). Do we need a brief review? Covenantkeepers has become a subject matter of large size and long time! Shall we take stock of what we have learned so far? How is it that we are now embarking on Lesson 6 Covenantkeepers, and the precise term “Covenantkeepers” appears nowhere in either testament!
Shall we return to Bible History, at the commanded time in Israel’s Festival Cycle called Pentecost, at the location where Moses shepherded his father-in-law, Jethro’s sheep, opposite Mount Horeb, before Mount Sinai:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my
voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people: for all the
earth is mine.
Exodus chapter nineteen.
“And keep my covenant.” If we become a People that will keep God’s Covenant, or keep “the everlasting covenant” [Hebrews 13:20], will we become covenantkeepers?
If we become covenantbreakers [Romans 1:31], will we still be a peculiar treasure unto The God of the Bible, “above all people”? Or will His Anger wax hot against us? Are we like unto the “ministering spirits” called “angels” [Hebrews 1:13-14]?
Did Adam hearken unto the voice of his wife and choose to eat the forbidden fruit? Did a third of the angels hearken unto Satan, the Devil, the Dragon, that old Serpent, and choose to rebel against The Just and Righteous God who said, “all the earth is mine”? One of the more intriguing Bible Studies is fueled by this question: why is there forgiveness for the Race of Adam, and no forgiveness for the third of the angels in rebellion?! As a child my favorite part of the movie matinee was “Previews of Coming Attractions.” Not only did I get to anticipate seeing and hearing the retelling (hopefully) of great stories, but also, I was at the beginning (hopefully) of hearing and seeing the telling of a great story. My time of pleasure was just beginning and not ending! So many questions; so little time!
We face a formidable Choice: we can be covenantkeepers; or we can be covenantbreakers!!! How did this formidable Choice become so real to the country dwellers of England engaged in innocent husbandry? How did these rural folk, engaged in crop and animal husbandry, come to seek out, and hearken to, and heed persecuted preachers, in place of preachers delivering homilies approved by the monarchy?! Is this History a witness to the Convicting Power of The Holy Spirit? Is that why (!) we public fools did not get this History in The Public Fool System? Is that Rebel Angel the power behind the Throne of The Department of Education?
The Rural Folk of England at the beginning of the 17th century, who became the severely tested Pilgrims of New England, were barely a hundred years advanced from receiving The Word of God in their own native Anglo-Saxon tongue.
(Ezra 8:21-22). How familiar were the rural folk of 17th century England who became Pilgrims with these words of Scripture?
p 21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at
the river of Ahava, that we might
afflict ourselves before our God, to
seek of him a right way for us, and
for our little ones, and for all our
substance.
c 22 For I was ashamed to require of
the king a band of soldiers and horse-
men to help us against the enemy in
the way: because we had spoken un-
to the king, saying, the hand of our
God is upon all them for good that
seek him; but his power and his
wrath is against all them that forsake
him.
Ezra chapter eight.
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him.”
According to William B. Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, 1857, “The arrangements for the departure of the emigrants being completed, the whole congregation met for humiliation and prayer on the 21st day of July 1620, when Mr. Robinson preached, with deep emotion, from Ezra 8:21-22. The close of his discourse is thus given by Mr. Winslow:
“... Here also he put us in mind of our
church covenant, at least that part of it where-
by we promise and covenant with God and one
another to receive whatsoever light or truth
shall be made known to us from his written
Word; but withal exhorted us to take heed
what we received for truth, and well to examine
and compare it and weigh it with other Scriptures
of truth before we received it. For saith he, it is not
possible the Christian world should come so lately
out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that
full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.”
The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America. Compiled by Verna M. Hall. San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education (FACE), 3rd Printing, December 1980. page 184.
“It is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.” Are we, some more than 400 years later, coming lately “out of such thick antichristian darkness”? Who says we have it all together? Even Paul admitted that the local churches of the 1st Century, even the Apostolic churches, did not have it all together! (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). Did Paul receive reports of divisions in the church?
p 18 For first of all, when ye come to-
gether in the church, I hear that there
be divisions among you; and I partly
believe it.
c 19 For there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are appro-
ved may be made manifest among you.
First Corinthians chapter eleven.
Why did Paul believe there are divisions among us? Do The Scriptures say there will be heresies among us? Or do The Scriptures say “there must be also heresies” among us? “Must be”?! What is with that?!! To what purpose (!) must there be heresies among us? Show of hands: who can tell us? What functional purpose can there be in “there must be also heresies” among us?
So “that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” What if it is my turn to serve as the perfect bad example? Is there any sheep among any flock who is immune from serving as the perfect bad example? What if it is my turn to serve as the perfect bad example? Will you know what to do when I start preaching Heresy (!!!) from this Pulpit? Show of hands. Why did Paul “partly believe there (would)...be divisions among you”? That’s us! Hello congregation!
(2 Peter 2:1). Paul is not the only Apostle preaching, there must be also heresies among us. Peter also warns us:
1 But there were false prophets also
among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon them-
selves swift destruction.
Second Peter chapter two.
“There shall be false teachers among you.” Considering that Christ’s Body on earth is called The Church Militant because of her warfare, why should this surprise us? If I, through ignorance, preach Heresy, does that make me a false teacher? How dangerous is that?! The term “damnable heresies” appears in this verse! What is Peter telling us? Are heresies able to damn us?
The best definition I ever heard for Heresy came from Pastor Jerry of Christian Reform Fellowship. He said a number of times from the Pulpit: Heresies are lies about Jesus Christ! If I tell a lie about Jesus Christ, have I preached a falsehood? If I preach a falsehood, have I become a false teacher? Does that sound good?! Is The Judgment for a Sin committed in ignorance, different from The Judgment for a Sin committed willfully? Is the damage done, for both, the same?!
We come now in our Review to a quotation which had a profound effect upon me. Of all the quotes selected from 204 historical sources this is the one to which I kept returning! This is from William Bradford in his chronicle “Of Plimoth Plantation”:
“... I must begine at ye very roote & rise of
ye same. “ .. they shook off this yoake of anti-
christian bondage, and as ye Lord’s free peo-
ple, joyned themselves (by a covenant of the
Lord) into a church estate, in ye felowship of
ye gospell, to walk in all his ways, make known
or to be made known unto them, according to
their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost
them, the Lord assisting them.”
CHOC page 185.
“To walk in all his ways, make known or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.” What do we see in these words? Pew sitters:
Humility. Do ignorant children get corrected a lot?! Who here can give me an example of that which the Pilgrims were ignorant of? Compared to us, they knew a whole lot more about church government and civil government than we do!! Who here can even now, show of hands, name the 4 Realms of Government with which our forefathers were fully cognizant? All 4 Realms of Government! How many hands do we have? Could we learn from them?
Of what were the Pilgrims ignorant? Half their number sickened and died the 1st Winter in New England! From their own chronicles, what was it they did not know and understand? Of what are we ignorant?
Is it “possible the Christian world” is, in our day, “come so lately out of thick antichristian darkness,... that full perfection of knowledge” does not “break forth at once”? Just this past June 2024, Louisiana reinstalled The Ten Commandments in their Public Fool System classrooms. And has the American Civil Liberties Union vowed to fight that civil liberty as a violation of The First Amendment? Does Satan and all his unholy horde have blessed assurance of our rank ignorance? When was the last time we read the 5 Freedoms of The First Amendment? How do the 1st Two Freedoms read?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; ...”
The Constitution for the United States of America. Amendment I. 1791.
Where in The First Amendment do we see a prohibition against posting The Ten Commandments in the classrooms of the Public Fool System? If anything: is prohibiting “the free exercise ... of” religion verboten?!!! Has “full perfection of knowledge” broken forth “at once”? Or is it “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” [Hosea 4:6]? Do we begin to get the impression that our Forefathers who settled here were better men than we are? How many American pulpits are filled with men (and female sodomites!) that are no priests to The God of the Bible?
Do we recall any one of the Pilgrims’ ignorances? Do we recall they did not preach God’s Law on clean and unclean meats? They took from the sea what God forbids to His Covenantkeepers! Are we better because we know something they did not know? Should we be asking ourselves, if men like them were unaware of God’s Law on clean and unclean meats, what are our ignorances wherein American pulpits of our day are filled with male and female sodomites that are no priests to The God of the Bible? Should our prayer be the same as theirs? Should we pray that The God of our Fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, would so convict us with the zeal to join ourselves together “(by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate in ye felowship of ye gospell, to walk in all his ways, make known, or to be made known unto them ... the Lord assisting them.”? Is it true, O Heavenly Father, if you turn us, we shall be turned back to You?!! Oh LORD, please “assist us,” as you did them, for Jesus’ Name Sake, and in Jesus’ Name! And all the People said ...!!!
We continue our Review. Marshall and Manuel in their unnumbered chapter titled, “The Search,” said this about “the early comers (as the first Christian settlers called themselves)”:
“… they saw no delineation between the
two Testaments, believing that an unchang-
ing God had written them both. They saw
themselves as being called into a direct con-
tinuation of the covenant relationship be-
tween God and Abraham...”
Peter Marshall and David Manuel. The Light and the Glory. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977. pp. 23-24.
And Marshall and Manuel quote Genesis 12:1-2 and Genesis 17:7-8!
“And as each church community grew and
became, in effect, a town, these covenants pro-
vided the pattern for the first successful civil
governments in the western hemisphere.”
op. cit. p 24.
Verna M. Hall in her compilation, The Christian History of the Constituton of the United States, in this same vein, under the Heading “The Republican Form of Government Christian Principles Produce Local Self-Government” presents excerpts from Edwin Hall’s The Puritans and their Principles published 1846:
“‘Christianity,’ says Montesquieu, ‘is a stran-
ger to despotic power.’ ‘The religion,’ says De-
Tocqueville, ‘which declares that all are equal
in the sight of God will not refuse to acknow-
ledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of
the law.’”
“The tendency of the true Gospel principles is
to bring the most absolute despotism under the
limits of law;...to prepare the people to govern
themselves.”
“Let us turn once more to the republican featu-
res of the churches organized by the Apostles...
the manner of their ruling was not to be ‘Lords
over God’s heritage;’ ‘Whosoever will be chief
among you,’ said the Saviour, ‘let him be your
servant.’”
CHOC, pp. 27-28.
“That a drought could be broken, or an Ind-
ian attack averted, by corporate repentance is
an idea which sounds alien to many Christians
today. Yet it was central to the faith which
built this country, and is one of the most promi-
nent, recurring themes of the Bible.”
Marshall and Manuel. The Light and the Glory. p 25.
“Yet in the early days of our history, it is
astonishing to see how few people it took to
begin a cycle of repentance, followed by the
return of God’s grace.
op. cit. p 26.
Marshall and Manuel in the last chapter of the book, also unnumbered, titled “The Search Ends”, wrote these words:
“Entering into covenant with us, God has
called the people of this country to be ‘a city
set upon a hill.’ ... The promises which he
made to the early comers to His New Israel
remain intact and unmodified, though now a
far greater amendment of our lives is requi-
red in order to fulfill our end of the bargain.”
“For a whole nation to return to the Cove-
nant Way seems impossible. But it is not im-
possible; it has been done before. And we
have the biblical example of Nineveh to prove
it.”
op. cit. page 355.
Have we been saying from time to time, we are too far gone? Have we been saying this is impossible?! We have too many strangers in our midst who are not parties to The Everlasting Covenant! If we had the temerity to rashly bring that in prayer in His very Throne Room before Him (!), what do we suppose He would say? Do we recall WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? Would He say in mercy, (Jonah 3:8-10)?
c 8 But let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth, and cry mightily un-
to God : yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way and from the vio-
lence that is in their hands.
p 9 Who can tell if God will turn and
repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not.
c 10 And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way; and
God repented of the evil that he had
said that he would do unto them;
and he did it not.
Jonah chapter three.
“They turned from their evil way.” Who are “they” (?) that “turned from their evil way”? Who are the “we” in Verse 9 that perished not? Does Verse 8 give us the nouns on whose behalf the pronouns “they” and “we” are used? What are those nouns? Do we need a clue? “Man” is translated from H120 ‘Adam, aw-dawm’, elsewhere translated in a number of places as “Adam”. Here in Nineveh, the capital city, we have Adam and “beast”! Do we have Adam and beast in America today?
Is there anything new under the sun? [Ecclesiastes] Why should it be so surprising that ancient cities also had city ordinances and zoning laws? Do these go all the way back to Cain, the 1st city builder, in Genesis 4? Seriously! Do we have cattle mooing piteously, wandering city streets, having to go without food and water, and wearing sackcloth like diapers? Seriously? How do we explain cows having hands and committing violence with them? Occasionally I meet some students of The Scriptures that have not forgotten The Natural Quorum: “At the mouth of at least two, if not three witnesses are a matter established.” And they will ask me if I have a 2nd Witness. In Acts chapters 10 and 11, what was in the apron let down from heaven in Peter’s Vision? Do The Scriptures instruct us that apron held “four-footed beasts”? If all beasts are quadrupeds, why is it necessary for Peter to report that it was four-footed beasts? Did Peter wish to report that God did not command him to
“Rise...kill and eat” 2-legged beasts? Cannibal is the combination of two Bible names Cain and that wicked angel Baal, who wants our worship or obedience. The H120 ‘Adam, aw-dawm’, is translated differently in the last verse of chapter 4, Jonah 4:11: the “more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand”. Fathers, how old were your children when they learned to discern between their right and left hands? “And also much cattle”: “cattle” is translated from the same Hebrew word as beast in Jonah 3:8.
If both Adam and the uncorrupted beast can repent of “the violence that is in their hands”, is that also possible in America? Did God know more than Jonah? Jonah 3:8-9 contains the Proclamation for the fast in sackcloth and ashes. That Proclamation was issued by the biggest dog on the Front Porch: The King of Nineveh.
In the last chapter, “The Search Ends”, (which is left unnumbered) Marshall and Manuel, continuing their assault on the notion that Revival needs to be popular, point out that “the covenanted Christians in seventeenth century New England were only a fraction of the population” They use the words of Increase Mather who along with Cotton Mather inveighed against the covenantbreaking of the next generation that broke William Bradford’s heart! “… nonetheless that fraction was sufficient to ‘stand for the entire land’ and ‘redeem the whole’”
“But what can we Christians do, that we
are not already doing? The answer is there
in that familiar verse from 2 Chronicles. It is
a phrase we have seen so often that we scar-
cely give it any thought: ‘If my people shall
humble themselves...’ What does that really mean?
It means to have done with the things
of self and ego, to battle them with the same
determination and tenacity which were the
hallmark of the early Pilgrims and Puritans,
as they strove to go the Covenant Way.”
The Light and the Glory. page 356.
Marshall and Manuel level another hard hitting question and cite (Luke 9: 23).
“Why are so many Christians reluctant to
move into a deeper relationship with Christ?
Because (it is) the Way of the Cross: the way
of self denial --- of unconditional surrender of
one’ own will to God’s will, and of true coven-
ant commitment to one another.
23 And he said to them all, If any
man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me.
Luke chapter nine.
“We need to re-enter the covenant relation-
ship which our forefathers had with God and
with one another...the true measure of our
commitment to Christ is revealed in the hori-
zontal aspect of our covenant.”
op. cit. page 357.
“...We must covenant with one another...to
be open and honest with one another, and to
care enough for one another to help each other
grow out of self and mature in Christ.
For in Christ, we are called to be our bro-
thers’ keepers...”
op. cit. page 358.
“It can still happen. Our forefathers have bro-
ken the trail for us, and shown the way. Their
call is our call. If just a fraction of us Americans
choose to go the Covenant Way, it will suffice.”
op. cit. page 359.
There is one more matter we have read, but did not mention twice! We must not neglect this! In the last and unnumbered chapter of the book, titled “The Search Ends,” Marshall and Manuel present their conclusions on the basis of the 204 historical works listed in the Bibliography, many of them multi-volume sets. On the chapter’s 2nd page, they wrote these words we cite again in part:
“...The promises which he [God] made to the
early comers to His New Israel remain intact
and unmodified...”
op. cit. page 355.
Are promises, vows, and oaths a natural part of Covenants? In the 10 Books of the early History of our Country and Nation in my possession the only one indexing the term “New Israel” is Marshall and Manuel, The Light and the Glory. May I take you to where the Index points us?
“If God had been truly working His purpose
out for America to be what the first Puritans
would call the New Israel,...”
op. cit. page 67.
“Were these, then, the men whom God had
chosen to build His new Israel?”
op. cit. page 84.
“There is no question that the Puritans took
sin seriously ... But they had good reason:
they knew that the very success or failure of
God’s New Israel hung on their willingness to
deal strongly with sin --- in themselves first,
but also in those who had been called with
them to build the Kingdom.”
op. cit. page 171.
In the chapter titled “God’s Controversy with New England,” Marshall and Manuel cite Deuteronomy 8:11 (and following): “Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping his commandments...”
“And this was exactly what was beginning to
happen in God’s New Israel, just one genera-
tion after the arrival of the first comers.”
op. cit. page 213.
This generation, after the first comers, became greedy, complacent, self-oriented people. Did God’s Judgment descend upon them in a general, coordinated Indian uprising? Relations between settlers and Indians had been deteriorating for some time.
On June 21, 1675, the Indians burned all the houses of Swansea, mutilating their inhabitants. When the colonial militia finally arrived, they found a hideous sight! All the corpses of men, women, and children were dismembered. The same was done to Dartmouth and 3 other towns. Then 2 more towns were massacred and torched. As the emboldened Indians, now under King Philip’s command, now numbered 1500 blood lust braves, a greater army than the settlers had ever mustered. Strategically, mentally, and spiritually, New England was wholly unprepared.
The Mathers and fellow ministers preached the necessity for rooting out sin, dealing with it to a degree that America’s eastern coast had not seen for nearly 50 years. Massachusetts declared a fast day. No sooner had the service ended, reports of fresh slaughter arrived. Into towns not yet under attack came survivors, hysterical or dumbstruck by atrocities beyond the mind’s capacity to handle. The settlers still did not take the Mathers and fellow ministers seriously, for they had heard it all so many times before. Finally, it was hard to find any tribe in New England without war-paint, collecting scalps. The hardest hit families and settlements were those who incorporated themselves into towns without first gathering in a church, a brazen act of covenantbreaking! But even the most isolated settlements that kept covenant with God and with one another, God kept covenant with them. A History of Sudbury reveals the reason the Indians chose to attack them rather than Concord. The Indians feared Concord minister Edward Bulkely’s influence with the Great Spirit. Sudbury’s History quotes an old Indian chronicle: “We no prosper if we burn Concord. The Great Spirit loves that people. He tells us not to go there. They have a great man there. He great pray.” [op. cit. page 228.] Did Jesus tend His Flock?
The savagery of that war finally filled the churches. So many settlers repented in truth, so many lives reformed, so many broken relationships healed, so many churches renewed their covenants, that God in his Mercy used “the praying Indians” to become scouts, teach the militias guerilla warfare, the same tactics that a century later would utterly confound and frustrate the British regulars under Howe and Burgoyne. Stragglers, and then groups of Indians surrendered to the settlers. On August 26, 1676, Captain Benjamin Church in command of the combined militia routed Philip’s main body of savage marauders by ambush.
“The aftermath of the war which cost propor-
tionately more lives than any other war in
America’s history, and loaded the survivors
with crippling debt, nonetheless proved salu-
tary. Prosperity was indeed lost, but God’s
New Israel was saved --- for a season.
op. cit. page 234.
In their search for “evidence of God’s hand in our nation’s history” Marshall and Manuel wondered over an apparent prolonged lull from the end of the Puritan era to the 1st stirrings of independence.
“If God is indeed the Great Economist, and
if he indeed had a plan and a timetable for
the establishment of His New Israel, where
was the continuity in His handiwork ?”
“...the Great Awakening was actually a re-
awakening of a deep national desire for the
Covenant Way of life.
“... It is a hunger so deeply engrained in the
American national psyche that it can never die,
although it can go fast asleep and lie dormant
for years. God reawakened that desire in the
1740’s --- and what He has reawakened once,
He can reawaken again.”
op. cit. page 240.
“...New England where the groundwork of
God’s New Israel had first been laid.”
op. cit. page 354.
(John 15:4-5). [stand] We conclude this Lesson in the 4th Gospel, John 15:
p 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, ex-
cept it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me.
c 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches :
he that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing.
John chapter fifteen.
“For without me ye can do nothing.”
To be continued, God willing, on the nearest available occasion.
Bibliography
Exodus 19:5. “Keep my covenant.”
Ezra 8:21-22. “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him.”
Verna M. Hall. CHOC 3rd Printing, December 1980. page 184. “such thick antichristian darkness.”
1 Corinthians 11:18-19. “There must be also heresies among you.”
2 Peter 2:1. “damnable heresies.”
qu
“... for without me ye can do nothing” John 15:4-5
By: Walter Giddings
(Exodus 19:5). Do we need a brief review? Covenantkeepers has become a subject matter of large size and long time! Shall we take stock of what we have learned so far? How is it that we are now embarking on Lesson 6 Covenantkeepers, and the precise term “Covenantkeepers” appears nowhere in either testament!
Shall we return to Bible History, at the commanded time in Israel’s Festival Cycle called Pentecost, at the location where Moses shepherded his father-in-law, Jethro’s sheep, opposite Mount Horeb, before Mount Sinai:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my
voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people: for all the
earth is mine.
Exodus chapter nineteen.
“And keep my covenant.” If we become a People that will keep God’s Covenant, or keep “the everlasting covenant” [Hebrews 13:20], will we become covenantkeepers?
If we become covenantbreakers [Romans 1:31], will we still be a peculiar treasure unto The God of the Bible, “above all people”? Or will His Anger wax hot against us? Are we like unto the “ministering spirits” called “angels” [Hebrews 1:13-14]?
Did Adam hearken unto the voice of his wife and choose to eat the forbidden fruit? Did a third of the angels hearken unto Satan, the Devil, the Dragon, that old Serpent, and choose to rebel against The Just and Righteous God who said, “all the earth is mine”? One of the more intriguing Bible Studies is fueled by this question: why is there forgiveness for the Race of Adam, and no forgiveness for the third of the angels in rebellion?! As a child my favorite part of the movie matinee was “Previews of Coming Attractions.” Not only did I get to anticipate seeing and hearing the retelling (hopefully) of great stories, but also, I was at the beginning (hopefully) of hearing and seeing the telling of a great story. My time of pleasure was just beginning and not ending! So many questions; so little time!
We face a formidable Choice: we can be covenantkeepers; or we can be covenantbreakers!!! How did this formidable Choice become so real to the country dwellers of England engaged in innocent husbandry? How did these rural folk, engaged in crop and animal husbandry, come to seek out, and hearken to, and heed persecuted preachers, in place of preachers delivering homilies approved by the monarchy?! Is this History a witness to the Convicting Power of The Holy Spirit? Is that why (!) we public fools did not get this History in The Public Fool System? Is that Rebel Angel the power behind the Throne of The Department of Education?
The Rural Folk of England at the beginning of the 17th century, who became the severely tested Pilgrims of New England, were barely a hundred years advanced from receiving The Word of God in their own native Anglo-Saxon tongue.
(Ezra 8:21-22). How familiar were the rural folk of 17th century England who became Pilgrims with these words of Scripture?
p 21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at
the river of Ahava, that we might
afflict ourselves before our God, to
seek of him a right way for us, and
for our little ones, and for all our
substance.
c 22 For I was ashamed to require of
the king a band of soldiers and horse-
men to help us against the enemy in
the way: because we had spoken un-
to the king, saying, the hand of our
God is upon all them for good that
seek him; but his power and his
wrath is against all them that forsake
him.
Ezra chapter eight.
“The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him.”
According to William B. Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, 1857, “The arrangements for the departure of the emigrants being completed, the whole congregation met for humiliation and prayer on the 21st day of July 1620, when Mr. Robinson preached, with deep emotion, from Ezra 8:21-22. The close of his discourse is thus given by Mr. Winslow:
“... Here also he put us in mind of our
church covenant, at least that part of it where-
by we promise and covenant with God and one
another to receive whatsoever light or truth
shall be made known to us from his written
Word; but withal exhorted us to take heed
what we received for truth, and well to examine
and compare it and weigh it with other Scriptures
of truth before we received it. For saith he, it is not
possible the Christian world should come so lately
out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that
full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.”
The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America. Compiled by Verna M. Hall. San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education (FACE), 3rd Printing, December 1980. page 184.
“It is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once.” Are we, some more than 400 years later, coming lately “out of such thick antichristian darkness”? Who says we have it all together? Even Paul admitted that the local churches of the 1st Century, even the Apostolic churches, did not have it all together! (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). Did Paul receive reports of divisions in the church?
p 18 For first of all, when ye come to-
gether in the church, I hear that there
be divisions among you; and I partly
believe it.
c 19 For there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are appro-
ved may be made manifest among you.
First Corinthians chapter eleven.
Why did Paul believe there are divisions among us? Do The Scriptures say there will be heresies among us? Or do The Scriptures say “there must be also heresies” among us? “Must be”?! What is with that?!! To what purpose (!) must there be heresies among us? Show of hands: who can tell us? What functional purpose can there be in “there must be also heresies” among us?
So “that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” What if it is my turn to serve as the perfect bad example? Is there any sheep among any flock who is immune from serving as the perfect bad example? What if it is my turn to serve as the perfect bad example? Will you know what to do when I start preaching Heresy (!!!) from this Pulpit? Show of hands. Why did Paul “partly believe there (would)...be divisions among you”? That’s us! Hello congregation!
(2 Peter 2:1). Paul is not the only Apostle preaching, there must be also heresies among us. Peter also warns us:
1 But there were false prophets also
among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon them-
selves swift destruction.
Second Peter chapter two.
“There shall be false teachers among you.” Considering that Christ’s Body on earth is called The Church Militant because of her warfare, why should this surprise us? If I, through ignorance, preach Heresy, does that make me a false teacher? How dangerous is that?! The term “damnable heresies” appears in this verse! What is Peter telling us? Are heresies able to damn us?
The best definition I ever heard for Heresy came from Pastor Jerry of Christian Reform Fellowship. He said a number of times from the Pulpit: Heresies are lies about Jesus Christ! If I tell a lie about Jesus Christ, have I preached a falsehood? If I preach a falsehood, have I become a false teacher? Does that sound good?! Is The Judgment for a Sin committed in ignorance, different from The Judgment for a Sin committed willfully? Is the damage done, for both, the same?!
We come now in our Review to a quotation which had a profound effect upon me. Of all the quotes selected from 204 historical sources this is the one to which I kept returning! This is from William Bradford in his chronicle “Of Plimoth Plantation”:
“... I must begine at ye very roote & rise of
ye same. “ .. they shook off this yoake of anti-
christian bondage, and as ye Lord’s free peo-
ple, joyned themselves (by a covenant of the
Lord) into a church estate, in ye felowship of
ye gospell, to walk in all his ways, make known
or to be made known unto them, according to
their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost
them, the Lord assisting them.”
CHOC page 185.
“To walk in all his ways, make known or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.” What do we see in these words? Pew sitters:
Humility. Do ignorant children get corrected a lot?! Who here can give me an example of that which the Pilgrims were ignorant of? Compared to us, they knew a whole lot more about church government and civil government than we do!! Who here can even now, show of hands, name the 4 Realms of Government with which our forefathers were fully cognizant? All 4 Realms of Government! How many hands do we have? Could we learn from them?
Of what were the Pilgrims ignorant? Half their number sickened and died the 1st Winter in New England! From their own chronicles, what was it they did not know and understand? Of what are we ignorant?
Is it “possible the Christian world” is, in our day, “come so lately out of thick antichristian darkness,... that full perfection of knowledge” does not “break forth at once”? Just this past June 2024, Louisiana reinstalled The Ten Commandments in their Public Fool System classrooms. And has the American Civil Liberties Union vowed to fight that civil liberty as a violation of The First Amendment? Does Satan and all his unholy horde have blessed assurance of our rank ignorance? When was the last time we read the 5 Freedoms of The First Amendment? How do the 1st Two Freedoms read?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; ...”
The Constitution for the United States of America. Amendment I. 1791.
Where in The First Amendment do we see a prohibition against posting The Ten Commandments in the classrooms of the Public Fool System? If anything: is prohibiting “the free exercise ... of” religion verboten?!!! Has “full perfection of knowledge” broken forth “at once”? Or is it “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” [Hosea 4:6]? Do we begin to get the impression that our Forefathers who settled here were better men than we are? How many American pulpits are filled with men (and female sodomites!) that are no priests to The God of the Bible?
Do we recall any one of the Pilgrims’ ignorances? Do we recall they did not preach God’s Law on clean and unclean meats? They took from the sea what God forbids to His Covenantkeepers! Are we better because we know something they did not know? Should we be asking ourselves, if men like them were unaware of God’s Law on clean and unclean meats, what are our ignorances wherein American pulpits of our day are filled with male and female sodomites that are no priests to The God of the Bible? Should our prayer be the same as theirs? Should we pray that The God of our Fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, would so convict us with the zeal to join ourselves together “(by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate in ye felowship of ye gospell, to walk in all his ways, make known, or to be made known unto them ... the Lord assisting them.”? Is it true, O Heavenly Father, if you turn us, we shall be turned back to You?!! Oh LORD, please “assist us,” as you did them, for Jesus’ Name Sake, and in Jesus’ Name! And all the People said ...!!!
We continue our Review. Marshall and Manuel in their unnumbered chapter titled, “The Search,” said this about “the early comers (as the first Christian settlers called themselves)”:
“… they saw no delineation between the
two Testaments, believing that an unchang-
ing God had written them both. They saw
themselves as being called into a direct con-
tinuation of the covenant relationship be-
tween God and Abraham...”
Peter Marshall and David Manuel. The Light and the Glory. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977. pp. 23-24.
And Marshall and Manuel quote Genesis 12:1-2 and Genesis 17:7-8!
“And as each church community grew and
became, in effect, a town, these covenants pro-
vided the pattern for the first successful civil
governments in the western hemisphere.”
op. cit. p 24.
Verna M. Hall in her compilation, The Christian History of the Constituton of the United States, in this same vein, under the Heading “The Republican Form of Government Christian Principles Produce Local Self-Government” presents excerpts from Edwin Hall’s The Puritans and their Principles published 1846:
“‘Christianity,’ says Montesquieu, ‘is a stran-
ger to despotic power.’ ‘The religion,’ says De-
Tocqueville, ‘which declares that all are equal
in the sight of God will not refuse to acknow-
ledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of
the law.’”
“The tendency of the true Gospel principles is
to bring the most absolute despotism under the
limits of law;...to prepare the people to govern
themselves.”
“Let us turn once more to the republican featu-
res of the churches organized by the Apostles...
the manner of their ruling was not to be ‘Lords
over God’s heritage;’ ‘Whosoever will be chief
among you,’ said the Saviour, ‘let him be your
servant.’”
CHOC, pp. 27-28.
“That a drought could be broken, or an Ind-
ian attack averted, by corporate repentance is
an idea which sounds alien to many Christians
today. Yet it was central to the faith which
built this country, and is one of the most promi-
nent, recurring themes of the Bible.”
Marshall and Manuel. The Light and the Glory. p 25.
“Yet in the early days of our history, it is
astonishing to see how few people it took to
begin a cycle of repentance, followed by the
return of God’s grace.
op. cit. p 26.
Marshall and Manuel in the last chapter of the book, also unnumbered, titled “The Search Ends”, wrote these words:
“Entering into covenant with us, God has
called the people of this country to be ‘a city
set upon a hill.’ ... The promises which he
made to the early comers to His New Israel
remain intact and unmodified, though now a
far greater amendment of our lives is requi-
red in order to fulfill our end of the bargain.”
“For a whole nation to return to the Cove-
nant Way seems impossible. But it is not im-
possible; it has been done before. And we
have the biblical example of Nineveh to prove
it.”
op. cit. page 355.
Have we been saying from time to time, we are too far gone? Have we been saying this is impossible?! We have too many strangers in our midst who are not parties to The Everlasting Covenant! If we had the temerity to rashly bring that in prayer in His very Throne Room before Him (!), what do we suppose He would say? Do we recall WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? Would He say in mercy, (Jonah 3:8-10)?
c 8 But let man and beast be covered
with sackcloth, and cry mightily un-
to God : yea, let them turn every one
from his evil way and from the vio-
lence that is in their hands.
p 9 Who can tell if God will turn and
repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not.
c 10 And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way; and
God repented of the evil that he had
said that he would do unto them;
and he did it not.
Jonah chapter three.
“They turned from their evil way.” Who are “they” (?) that “turned from their evil way”? Who are the “we” in Verse 9 that perished not? Does Verse 8 give us the nouns on whose behalf the pronouns “they” and “we” are used? What are those nouns? Do we need a clue? “Man” is translated from H120 ‘Adam, aw-dawm’, elsewhere translated in a number of places as “Adam”. Here in Nineveh, the capital city, we have Adam and “beast”! Do we have Adam and beast in America today?
Is there anything new under the sun? [Ecclesiastes] Why should it be so surprising that ancient cities also had city ordinances and zoning laws? Do these go all the way back to Cain, the 1st city builder, in Genesis 4? Seriously! Do we have cattle mooing piteously, wandering city streets, having to go without food and water, and wearing sackcloth like diapers? Seriously? How do we explain cows having hands and committing violence with them? Occasionally I meet some students of The Scriptures that have not forgotten The Natural Quorum: “At the mouth of at least two, if not three witnesses are a matter established.” And they will ask me if I have a 2nd Witness. In Acts chapters 10 and 11, what was in the apron let down from heaven in Peter’s Vision? Do The Scriptures instruct us that apron held “four-footed beasts”? If all beasts are quadrupeds, why is it necessary for Peter to report that it was four-footed beasts? Did Peter wish to report that God did not command him to
“Rise...kill and eat” 2-legged beasts? Cannibal is the combination of two Bible names Cain and that wicked angel Baal, who wants our worship or obedience. The H120 ‘Adam, aw-dawm’, is translated differently in the last verse of chapter 4, Jonah 4:11: the “more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand”. Fathers, how old were your children when they learned to discern between their right and left hands? “And also much cattle”: “cattle” is translated from the same Hebrew word as beast in Jonah 3:8.
If both Adam and the uncorrupted beast can repent of “the violence that is in their hands”, is that also possible in America? Did God know more than Jonah? Jonah 3:8-9 contains the Proclamation for the fast in sackcloth and ashes. That Proclamation was issued by the biggest dog on the Front Porch: The King of Nineveh.
In the last chapter, “The Search Ends”, (which is left unnumbered) Marshall and Manuel, continuing their assault on the notion that Revival needs to be popular, point out that “the covenanted Christians in seventeenth century New England were only a fraction of the population” They use the words of Increase Mather who along with Cotton Mather inveighed against the covenantbreaking of the next generation that broke William Bradford’s heart! “… nonetheless that fraction was sufficient to ‘stand for the entire land’ and ‘redeem the whole’”
“But what can we Christians do, that we
are not already doing? The answer is there
in that familiar verse from 2 Chronicles. It is
a phrase we have seen so often that we scar-
cely give it any thought: ‘If my people shall
humble themselves...’ What does that really mean?
It means to have done with the things
of self and ego, to battle them with the same
determination and tenacity which were the
hallmark of the early Pilgrims and Puritans,
as they strove to go the Covenant Way.”
The Light and the Glory. page 356.
Marshall and Manuel level another hard hitting question and cite (Luke 9: 23).
“Why are so many Christians reluctant to
move into a deeper relationship with Christ?
Because (it is) the Way of the Cross: the way
of self denial --- of unconditional surrender of
one’ own will to God’s will, and of true coven-
ant commitment to one another.
23 And he said to them all, If any
man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily,
and follow me.
Luke chapter nine.
“We need to re-enter the covenant relation-
ship which our forefathers had with God and
with one another...the true measure of our
commitment to Christ is revealed in the hori-
zontal aspect of our covenant.”
op. cit. page 357.
“...We must covenant with one another...to
be open and honest with one another, and to
care enough for one another to help each other
grow out of self and mature in Christ.
For in Christ, we are called to be our bro-
thers’ keepers...”
op. cit. page 358.
“It can still happen. Our forefathers have bro-
ken the trail for us, and shown the way. Their
call is our call. If just a fraction of us Americans
choose to go the Covenant Way, it will suffice.”
op. cit. page 359.
There is one more matter we have read, but did not mention twice! We must not neglect this! In the last and unnumbered chapter of the book, titled “The Search Ends,” Marshall and Manuel present their conclusions on the basis of the 204 historical works listed in the Bibliography, many of them multi-volume sets. On the chapter’s 2nd page, they wrote these words we cite again in part:
“...The promises which he [God] made to the
early comers to His New Israel remain intact
and unmodified...”
op. cit. page 355.
Are promises, vows, and oaths a natural part of Covenants? In the 10 Books of the early History of our Country and Nation in my possession the only one indexing the term “New Israel” is Marshall and Manuel, The Light and the Glory. May I take you to where the Index points us?
“If God had been truly working His purpose
out for America to be what the first Puritans
would call the New Israel,...”
op. cit. page 67.
“Were these, then, the men whom God had
chosen to build His new Israel?”
op. cit. page 84.
“There is no question that the Puritans took
sin seriously ... But they had good reason:
they knew that the very success or failure of
God’s New Israel hung on their willingness to
deal strongly with sin --- in themselves first,
but also in those who had been called with
them to build the Kingdom.”
op. cit. page 171.
In the chapter titled “God’s Controversy with New England,” Marshall and Manuel cite Deuteronomy 8:11 (and following): “Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping his commandments...”
“And this was exactly what was beginning to
happen in God’s New Israel, just one genera-
tion after the arrival of the first comers.”
op. cit. page 213.
This generation, after the first comers, became greedy, complacent, self-oriented people. Did God’s Judgment descend upon them in a general, coordinated Indian uprising? Relations between settlers and Indians had been deteriorating for some time.
On June 21, 1675, the Indians burned all the houses of Swansea, mutilating their inhabitants. When the colonial militia finally arrived, they found a hideous sight! All the corpses of men, women, and children were dismembered. The same was done to Dartmouth and 3 other towns. Then 2 more towns were massacred and torched. As the emboldened Indians, now under King Philip’s command, now numbered 1500 blood lust braves, a greater army than the settlers had ever mustered. Strategically, mentally, and spiritually, New England was wholly unprepared.
The Mathers and fellow ministers preached the necessity for rooting out sin, dealing with it to a degree that America’s eastern coast had not seen for nearly 50 years. Massachusetts declared a fast day. No sooner had the service ended, reports of fresh slaughter arrived. Into towns not yet under attack came survivors, hysterical or dumbstruck by atrocities beyond the mind’s capacity to handle. The settlers still did not take the Mathers and fellow ministers seriously, for they had heard it all so many times before. Finally, it was hard to find any tribe in New England without war-paint, collecting scalps. The hardest hit families and settlements were those who incorporated themselves into towns without first gathering in a church, a brazen act of covenantbreaking! But even the most isolated settlements that kept covenant with God and with one another, God kept covenant with them. A History of Sudbury reveals the reason the Indians chose to attack them rather than Concord. The Indians feared Concord minister Edward Bulkely’s influence with the Great Spirit. Sudbury’s History quotes an old Indian chronicle: “We no prosper if we burn Concord. The Great Spirit loves that people. He tells us not to go there. They have a great man there. He great pray.” [op. cit. page 228.] Did Jesus tend His Flock?
The savagery of that war finally filled the churches. So many settlers repented in truth, so many lives reformed, so many broken relationships healed, so many churches renewed their covenants, that God in his Mercy used “the praying Indians” to become scouts, teach the militias guerilla warfare, the same tactics that a century later would utterly confound and frustrate the British regulars under Howe and Burgoyne. Stragglers, and then groups of Indians surrendered to the settlers. On August 26, 1676, Captain Benjamin Church in command of the combined militia routed Philip’s main body of savage marauders by ambush.
“The aftermath of the war which cost propor-
tionately more lives than any other war in
America’s history, and loaded the survivors
with crippling debt, nonetheless proved salu-
tary. Prosperity was indeed lost, but God’s
New Israel was saved --- for a season.
op. cit. page 234.
In their search for “evidence of God’s hand in our nation’s history” Marshall and Manuel wondered over an apparent prolonged lull from the end of the Puritan era to the 1st stirrings of independence.
“If God is indeed the Great Economist, and
if he indeed had a plan and a timetable for
the establishment of His New Israel, where
was the continuity in His handiwork ?”
“...the Great Awakening was actually a re-
awakening of a deep national desire for the
Covenant Way of life.
“... It is a hunger so deeply engrained in the
American national psyche that it can never die,
although it can go fast asleep and lie dormant
for years. God reawakened that desire in the
1740’s --- and what He has reawakened once,
He can reawaken again.”
op. cit. page 240.
“...New England where the groundwork of
God’s New Israel had first been laid.”
op. cit. page 354.
(John 15:4-5). [stand] We conclude this Lesson in the 4th Gospel, John 15:
p 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, ex-
cept it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me.
c 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches :
he that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing.
John chapter fifteen.
Bibliography
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Ezra 8:21-22. “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him.”
Verna M. Hall. CHOC 3rd Printing, December 1980. page 184. “such thick antichristian darkness.”
1 Corinthians 11:18-19. “There must be also heresies among you.”
2 Peter 2:1. “damnable heresies.”
quoting from William Bradford’s chronicle, Of Plimoth Plantation. CHOC page 185.
The 1st 2 Freedoms in The First Amendment, 1791.
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Luke 9:23. “let him deny himself”
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The Light and the Glory. pp. 357, 358, 359.
“It can still happen.”
“The promises .. remain intact.” The Light and the Glory. page 355.
Index New Israel : pp. 67, 84, 171, 213.
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Index New Israel: 234, 240, 354.
John 15:4-5. “without me ye can do nothing.”