Down to The Last Strike     

   In baseball terms, for George Washington's team there were two outs and two strikes on the last batter. General Howe's forces were on the verge of a shutout. Game over. No tomorrow. 

   As Howe anticipated his last pitch (attack), with 8,000 opponents trapped in Brooklyn Heights, Washington needed to delay the game (retreat), but how to escape Howe?

   Washington's desperate strategy was to round up every fishing boat and sloop he could find. It was doomed to failure. Moonlight and splashing oars would surely alert the pursuers. 

   A rise of fog covered the East River. 

   In the morning, the British were astonished - their prey had vanished - their provisions, horses and cannons. There would be many extra innings, but never again would the British have opportunity to throw the last pitch. 

   At a crucial moment when Washington had done all he could, the hand of God intervened, so that neither sight nor sound betrayed the outnumbered colonial army. 

   Couldn't this be coincidence? The fog was just one of many examples of providential favor and repeated protection of the Revolution. Many settlers who sided with the cause gave God the glory. 

   Later, during the Constitutional Convention, when a union of states was not universally sought, Washington interrupted the debate to say:

   If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God!" 

           Jimmy

    

By Divine Intervention?    

   Until Christians come to grips with our history, said the authors of The American Covenant in 1981, renewal will be impossible. 

Landing at Cape Cod 

   Consider the Pilgrims' landing at Cape Cod in 1620. The Mayflower was blown hundreds of miles off course. 

   So they began to scout out a place to settle. Had they arrived a few years earlier, they would have been greeted by the fiercest tribe in the region. But by 1617 the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by a plague. This was possibly the only landing where the Pilgrims could have survived. 

A Special Instrument 

   There was one survivor of the tribe, Squanto. He was kidnapped in 1605 and taken to England. He learned English and in 1614 returned to New England with Captain John Smith. Squanto was again kidnapped. 

   He and 24 other Indians were to be sold into slavery in Spain. He escaped and eventually attached himself to the Wampanoag tribe. With his knowledge of English, he was led of God to offer his friendship and help to the Pilgrims. 

   Squanto joined with the Pilgrims and was converted to Christianity. Capt. Bradford considered him "a special instrument sent of God" for their good. He showed them how to plant corn, fertilizing it with fish. He was their guide and their interpreter in dealings with Wampanoag chief, Massasoit. 

   A peace treaty lasted 50 years, with justice for both Indians and Pilgrims. Other English colonies were wiped out by hostile Indians. 

Tomorrow:  Hand of God Rescues Washington's Army 

              Jimmy

   

'Who Cares' Mentality   

   Last week wequoted from a booklet owned by my Dad, with views of Marxists and other humanists which he vehemently hated. All that in 1981, and what would he say now? 

   There are other humanist views: progressive history (Democrats anyone?), historicism, and the existential "who cares" historical, drop-out mentality. We try to understand them, rather than just lament, "Don't they know the Truth?" 

   No, they don't. One secular historian said, about the crimes of the human species - why study it? 

   In 1981, millions of Americans disliked history because they saw it as irrelevant. "Today is what counts." They joked, "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." Bored history students saw their lives as chance evolution.

   "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." Today, they're still with us, and they are in positions of real influence. 

What About Christians?  

   From The American Covenant, 1981, "Many Christians have subconsciously adopted the existential view. They de-emphasize their importance, and see themselves as individuals God plucked out of an evil world and are just awaiting heaven."

   "Their sense of responsibility for the future is lost in the 'now generation,' - nothing to do but work on self improvement. This erases guilt, but does not alleviate responsibility for our nation's crisis," the authors say.

   "It is not the humanists or communists who are responsible for our present (1981) condition, because these people are lost. We should not be surprised. It is the Christian community that has neglected its heritage and forgotten the history - God's history - of America." 

Next: Will Christians denounce the wrong and reaffirm the right?

Landmarks that defy humanists.

          Jimmy

God is crying out all around us.

He is present in the silence of snow-covered mountains.

He is dancing with sunlight that sparkles on ocean waves.

He is hiding in the decaying moss and forgotten places.

The entire sum of Creation, acts of nature, is God waving hello.

GOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK 

John Ortberg

Jacob's discovery:

Jacob called the place where he had the dream "Beth-el,"

that is,

"the house of God, the place where God is present." 

For him it transformed from "a certain place"

nowhere special

to the place inhabited by God himself. 

If we believe, and have the Holy Spirit,

we are that place.

Marxist View of History   

   Picking up where we left off, here is a view from 1844, now shared by many with intentions of reinventing America:

   The entire so-called history of the world is nothing but the creation of man through human labor. -Marx 

   Authors of The American Covenant (1981) said Marx's view and that of his proteges permeated not only the communist world but American culture. It sees man in a godless materialism caught in a class struggle. Their solution: a perfect socialist state. 

   Today, race has replaced class as the focus, but the goal remains. One prolific, humanist historian de-emphasized Christian emphasis on our founding, and debunked the character of our founders. We see this frequently don't we? 

   From the book: Most Americans, whether we know it or not, have been deeply influenced by Docu-dramas such as "Roots," "The Rebels" - portraying history as a race or class struggle between rich and poor. 

   In 1979 (Jimmy Carter time) U.S. News and World Report claimed that most Americans believe what they see on TV, are down on America and free enterprise, and see little hope for the future. A Marxist is taught to exaggerate the evils of free enterprise and deny the fundamental basis of our society: Biblical principles and their influence on and through individuals, say the authors. 

   They continue: All views which deny the sovereignty of God must distort the facts of history (statues must fall?). They become revisionists, and may tolerate any views except the Providential view. This helps explain why Marxists and socialists, when they take charge of a nation, will purge many people, including Christians.  

   Examples: Soviet Union and Cambodia. 

Monday: The "Who Cares" Mentality

        Jimmy

Seeing Clearly Now    

   Either God fathered self-governing Christians 2,000 years ago, and made a covenant with our founders some 245 years ago ... or there is no God, and both history and the future are meaningless. Only the present matters. 

   Whoever wins this struggle will determine our national identity going forward. 

   We can't say today's movers and shakers, educators and "progressive" news media have surprised us with their ideas. They are the world, and U.S. Christianity has been on the decline for decades. 

   In a book, The American Covenant, a humanist is quoted: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created. We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or irrelevant to the survival and fulfillment of the human race. 

   While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.

Cyclical View of History

   The book continues: The cyclical view of history is as old as antiquity and sees the same pattern in the events of men. This view explains China, India, the Middle East, Greece and Rome, and in the 1960s found its way to American college campuses, gaining wide acceptance. 

   17th century philosophers - still being studied - saw life as an endless repetition of living and dying. Individualism replaced tradition. Many students influenced by Eastern religions come to believe nothing (beyond themselves) matters. 

   The importance of individual achievement to better the world is lost.

   Surprised? All the above comes from a book my Dad bought 40 years ago.

 Tomorrow: The Marxist View of History

                 Jimmy