How America’s History Hollers Hope

In 1620 a group of Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower.

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Their mission, summed up in the Mayflower Compact, was clear:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names; Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord King James, of England, France and Ireland eighteenth and of Scotland fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620.

Did you catch the phrases “for the glory of God” and “advancement of the Christian faith”?

Ten years later (1630), the Puritans, led by John Winthrop, also set out with a grand purpose. Their purpose was best summed up in a sermon by Winthrop, entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.” The basic premise of his message was for God’s people living in New England to become a “a city on a hill.”

Some 350 years later, President Ronald Reagan, in his 1989 Farewell Address to the nation, offered up a similar grand vision for a “shining city upon a hill.”

Note the common catchphrases:

• Glory of God

• Advancement of the Christian faith

• City on a hill

• Shining

The Pilgrims, the Puritans, and the President—all three—took their kingdom cue from King Jesus.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).

Our country surely has its fair share of problems, past and present. Yet the purposes of God in time and history shall stand. His kingdom—which is far bigger than one nation under God—will not be crushed (Matt. 16:18), now or ever.