Thanksgiving Day by Pastor Tim Boffey
On the last Thursday of November, America takes time off from its ordinary pursuits to observe the civic holiday of Thanksgiving Day. Or, does it? For most Americans, the ordinary pursuits of life are beer, football, overindulgence and jocularity. On Thanksgiving Day, these pursuits simply shift into overdrive, unhindered by the tedious habit of work. Thanksgiving Day seems to underscore what is truly important to Americans: pleasure. Pleasure in and of itself is not evil, but when it becomes the summum bonem of a nation, watch out! The God of nations still reigns on high, Who, when warning Babylon of its imminent demise, said, therefore hear now this, thou that art GIVEN TO PLEASURES, that dwellest carelessly...(Isa.47:8). We do well to regard that at the root of the filthy debauchery of condemned Sodom and Gomorrah (the ancient folks with gays in the military) was pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness (Eze.16:49). Scripture describes perilous times as being typified (amongst other things) by the attitude, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Ti.3:4). Thanksgiving Day means different things to different people, but for too many it only means a long weekend, one day of which is a paid bacchanalian pleasure-orgy. For others, it marks the traditional beginning of the most critical time of year for their business weeks of frenzied consumerism climaxing in that most noble of holy days, Christmas (Roman Saturnalia in a new Christian dress). If I sound cynical here, it is only because it is taboo to speak out against what any discerning person knows: that the primary reason such holidays have such universal support is ye know that by this craft we have our wealth (Acts 19:25).
NOT LOST ON ALL AMERICANS
Still, for others, Thanksgiving Day has rich roots in American tradition which hearken back to a simpler and more reverent era. Thankfully, the significance of such a holiday is not entirely lost on all Americans, but perhaps some historical review, and some practical and Scriptural exhortations are in order.
Firstly, we take notice of the fact that, since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (THANKS be unto God for His unspeakable Gift... (2 Co.9:15"), men are no longer (and never again shall be) under the dispensation of shadows and darkness known as the law, which was profuse with required observations of holy days. These things were only temporary portentions of the reality of Jesus Christ and His work of salvation, and expired with the passing away of the old testament order (Gal.3:19-25; 4:9-10; Col.2:14-17; Heb.9:9-12).
For a Christian to set aside a special time of thanksgiving is not wrong, but as a holy day it is not required and is certainly not a test of righteousness or fellowship. A government which recommends to its people a time for earnest thanksgiving to the true and only LORD God THROUGH the Lord Jesus Christ (by Whom ONLY supplications are acceptable--Jn.14:6; 1 Jn.2:23; Rom.7:25; Heb.13:15) does well, for its secular power is ordained of God (Rom.13:1) and should be used to encourage the people to righteousness, which exalts a nation (Pr.14:34). How important is thankfulness to righteousness?
Consider the wretched excesses, sexual immorality, carnality and violence to which the nations were turned over (Rom.1:22-32). That slippery slope began with when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, NEITHER WERE THANKFUL...(v.21).
Throughout U.S. history, various presidents have issued Thanksgiving Day proclamations: Washington, Madison and Lincoln for example. This was apparently done by men who lacked prophetic foresight of the inventive constitutional reinterpretations by twentieth-century Supreme Court justices who somehow found a wall of separation between church and state in the First Amendment, thus twisting the obvious intent of the constitutions framers, to wit, freedom OF religion to freedom FROM religion. The only way such a doctrine may be found in the First Amendment is if it is encrypted in mystic form. Perhaps our recent noble jurists had access to Prophet Joseph Smith's miraculous Moronic spectacles which enabled only them to see what was hidden therein. Or, perhaps the First Amendment is just another example of things that least do mean what they most do say, as Freemasons affirm concerning their Janus-faced symbols and mysteries. Pardon my cynicism, but there may even be some connection here.
Nevertheless, federal authority continues to sanction Thanksgiving Day. Even our current CIC, Bill Clinton has issued such a proclamation, though I must confess that such sentiments from him seem rather hollow (Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? James 3:11). Somehow, official encouragements to Americans to pause, recognize and thank God is not deemed a violation of the separation argument, whereas permitting a prayer at a high-school graduation is a gross breech. I suspect that this is either because: 1) the language of the latest proclamation is so broad, non-descript, non-sectarian and non-judgmental that nobody but an atheist could take exception to it, or 2) the ACLU (Anti-Christian Lawyers Union) has not yet devised a way of purging Thanksgiving Day without jeopardizing the commercial value such a tradition represents. Let us be thankful that the Lord God reigns, of Whom it is written, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain (Ps.76:10). But, I have digressed.
PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH PLANTATION
The recognition of a day of thanksgiving precedes the founding of our present form of government as witness the proclamations made by the Continental Congress (1777), or the colonies in New Netherlands (1644), Connecticut (1639) and Massachusetts Bay (1630). But, undoubtedly the rootstock and model of all such declarations is that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation immediately after their first harvest in 1621. To these humble (yea, HUMBLED people -- as their experience testifies) we owe much, not the least of which is a free-enterprise system (they tried communism and it failed miserably) and Thanksgiving Day.
The Pilgrims, it must be remembered, were a sub-sect of the Puritans in England, who opposed the oppressive and unjust policy of the Divine Right of Kings. The Puritans were ultimately responsible for the cancellation of that concept when the treasonous King Charles' head one day fell into a basket. In these people breathed the sweet air of liberty; not just liberty from royal indifference and injustice, but liberty of soul and conscience. Whether the Pilgrims fully identified with the political objectives of Cromwell and the rest of the Puritans is a matter of conjecture. It seems that their primary reason for seeking a new country was to escape religious bigotry, assuming great risk for the opportunity to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Unlike the many envoys and adventurers which preceded them under the banner of the Roman Church, they did not come to exploit the New World, but to (as they prayed) afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance (Ezra 8:21). In conversation, the President of Argentina once said to the statistician, Roger Babson, I have been wondering why it is that South America with all its natural advantages, its mines of iron, copper, coal, silver and gold; its rivers and great waterfalls which rival Niagara, is so far behind North America. After short contemplation, he answered his own question, I have come to this conclusion. South America was settled by the Spanish, who came to South America in search of gold; but North America was settled by the Pilgrim Fathers, who went there in search of God. A fair summary, indeed.
Some have postulated that the Pilgrims had aspirations of establishing a theocratic kingdom of God on earth in the New World. This may be true in view of the theological ideals of the Puritans in general and some of their spiritual cousins of Calvinist descent, but it is above suspicion that spiritual things, not carnal, were their primary incentives.
MAYFLOWER COMPACT
The Pilgrims left England in 1608 for the more tolerant lands of Holland, where they labored industriously until they, after trial and disappointment, secured a patent from the Virginia Company of London. Finally, in 1620, after their first vessel, the Speedwell, returned home with a belly full of water and was declared unseaworthy, the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower. For over two months they endured the dim, musty, wet, infested bowels of the Mayflower, surviving on þfoodþ which most dog- food manufacturers would today reject.
At last, land was sighted on November 9th; not the shores of more moderate Virginia, but the colder and less forgiving Highlands of Cape Cod. Before any disembarking, the company on the Mayflower drew up the novel Mayflower Compact, of which it has been observed that this constituted the first time in recorded history when free men had voluntarily covenanted together to formulate their own government. Thus was the precedent for Constitutional America set.
After sundry explorations of the area, and finding the natives and elements less than receptive, they finally found good harbor at Plymouth Rock. But in the week that it took to dispatch all goods and passengers from the Mayflower as it anchored in deeper waters, future colony governor William Bradford's wife fell overboard and was drowned. Some say it was suicide brought on by fits of depression. In time, 99 of the original 102 went ashore, and commenced to endure the most miserable of fortunes: hunger, privations, sickness and death. Before a year passed, only half of them remained alive.
The expected threat of Indian attack strangely did not materialize, though. It was later discovered that the fierce, ruthless Patuxet Indians who once dwelt where the Pilgrims landed had been mysteriously wiped out by plague in 1617. In the middle of March of 1621, an Indian who had been watching the Pilgrims walked boldly into their camp. As proof that the Pilgrims were surely arrived in America, Samoset's first words to them in broken English were, Have you got any beer? Funny, but apparently true. Samoset was a Sagamore who had had interaction with English vessels and learned English in the process. He told the Pilgrims that the Wampanoags were the nearest Indian nation, about forty miles distant. Their chief, Massasoit, would be very honored to establish peaceful relations with the people of the Great White Spirit. Shortly thereafter, an apprehensive parlay was arranged with Massasoit, who came in full regalia with a complement of some sixty painted warriors. With them was the last surviving Patuxet Indian, named Squanto, who spoke excellent English and served as interpreter. Providentially, fifteen years prior, Squanto had been befriended by an English explorer, Captain John Weymouth, who took him to England. Upon his return, Squanto was kidnapped and sold as a slave to the Spanish in the Caribbeans. A priest befriended him and helped him to Spain, from where he eventually got to England, met Samoset and returned to Patuxet to find it devastated. Though he had been misused, Squanto had developed an appreciation for the English, and an affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, being baptized in his name.
PEACE TREATY
A six-point peace treat which lasted twenty-five years was hammered out between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags. Squanto then remained with the Pilgrims and taught them invaluable skills for survival in this new frontier. Fever took him in September of 1622. He died longing to see the Englishman's God in Heaven. But in the fall of 1621, after a bountiful harvest for which Squanto's industry was greatly responsible, Governor Bradford declared a day of Thanksgiving to God. It was enjoyed by Indian and Pilgrim alike, Chief Massasoit bringing ninety of his people and also supplying a substantial portion of the repast.
In reviewing and researching for this article, I came across information which is shedding new light on Thanksgiving Day for public school children. The spin doctors are doing a marvelous job of revising this history to make it more politically correct. To sum it up, like Disney's Pocahontas, the real protagonists during the Colonial Period were the native Indians. The Indians were generally peaceful, harmless, flower-loving natives who lived in harmony with nature and one another. The antagonists were the profiteering Europeans (especially the English), whose ambitions were to pillage, plunder and exploit the New World and to tolerate the Indians only until they had the upper hand, deceiving them at every turn. It cannot be denied that there were mistakes, abuses, broken treaties and other shameful things that happened during Colonial and Constitutional relations with Indians. Such injustices are not acceptable.
But to paint all settlers with the same brush is equally unjustifiable. I noted that one of the most grievous things that the Pilgrims did, according to one revised public school Thanksgiving Story, was The Pilgrims started telling their Indian neighbors that their Indian religion and Indian customs were wrong. God forbid!! Such narrow-mindedness in our age of enlightened multiculturalism, polyethnicity and tolerance is simply, well, INTOLERABLE. The article closes, But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important. Vice-President Al 'tree-hugger' Gore would be moved.
Friends, there may be some things that European Christians did that were not beneficial for the Indians, but converting them was not one such thing. The peaceful, harmonious, harmless New World Indians were as often as not bloodthirsty savages at war with other tribes. Their religions were hardly harmless when you consider the human sacrifice that was demanded by the thousands every year by the Aztecs or Incas for example. The Mound-Builders of Alabama ritually sacrificed children to appease their 'harmless' nature spirits. One should read the account of the first contact made with the Tsimshian Indians of the Pacific Northwest, when McDougall watched tribal members chase down one of their own women, carve her up while still alive and ingest her still hot flesh while she screamed. These are not isolated instances, either.
To the intelligentsia of today, a truly great evil was the simple fact that Europeans moved in and took away the historic homeland of the natives who dwelt here. Curiously, is this not exactly what has happened to the Palestinians in the Middle East for Israel's sake, and is virtually universally lauded by the same intelligentsia? Ah, consistency, thou art a fair virtue.
Revisiting the Pilgrims' experience, consider the heart of these people who had only recently seen the stormy clouds of trouble roll back from their lives. This first Thanksgiving Day was close on the heels of some of most bitter times that try mens' souls, and yet they fretted not against God. Their attitude was, 'What, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil (Job 2:10)?'
Thanksgiving is not meant only for times of ease and prosperity. 'In EVERYTHING give thanks..(I Thess.5:18).' How easy it is to bless and thank God when 'the Lord giveth,' but can we do the same when 'the Lord taketh away?' For every person who is sure that he has Christ, there is always something to be thankful for, even if all creature comforts dissolve: 'Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation (Heb.3:17-18).' Contrast the Pilgrims' attitude with the person who this Thanksgiving curses God because his cable company is not delivering a decent broadcast of the big game. How far as a nation have we deteriorated, allowing our liberties to undo us. Humility and thankfulness begat liberty and the daughter has devoured the parents. As a crowning debauchery, the first Pilgrim Church is today a Unitarian Church of sodomites. I hope those Pilgrims were buried face down.
BE THANKFUL ALWAYS
Be thankful always, friends, even for your government which seems to be becoming the enemy of true religion, for so are we commanded (I Titus 2:1-3). At least give thanks that 1) the President is limited to two terms, 2) that it is no worse than it is. I realize that this may be a true test of your faith, but while you are giving thanks for Bill Clinton, give thanks also for the God who overrules all governments, saying to the proud waves of the wicked, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further...(Job 38:11).' Most of all, again, 'thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift (2 Co.9:15).' (Pastor Tim Boffey, 210 Bent Tree Circle, Hayden, AL 35079. E-mail:) TBOFFEY@aol.com
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