Thanksgiving Special: What to Apply from the Pilgrims and Puritans

What to Apply from the Pilgrims and the Puritans. That is the topic we'll discuss this Thanksgiving weekend right here on the Christian Worldview radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through repentance. We hope you are having a meaningful Thanksgiving weekend remembering and expressing gratitude to God for His many and undeserved blessings in your life and our country. You may remember our interview last year with Dr. Stephen Nichols. He's the president of Reformation Bible College, the chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and he's a professor of historical theology. We talked last year about how the Reformation changed Western civilization. Last year was the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation back in 1517. Dr. Nichols is going to join us today, this Thanksgiving weekend on the Christian Worldview, to discuss how the Reformation influenced the early American pilgrims and Puritans, and how those two groups are similar and different. We're also going to talk about how the Puritans' pursuit of sanctification is something that should be emulated by Christians today.

I hope you enjoy this special edition of this Thanksgiving special about what to apply from the pilgrims and Puritans, and how relevant this is for Christians today. Now, just a little background on the pilgrims and Puritans, because I don't immerse myself, and maybe I should more, in early American history, so it seems like every year we come around to Thanksgiving. What was the difference between the Puritans and pilgrims again, and who were their leaders, and where did they come from?

I think it's good to get a little refresher on who they are, so just a quick search on Wikipedia gives a short little background on who they were. It says this, Thousands of English Puritans settled in North America, many in New England. Puritans were generally members of the Church of England, who believed that the Church of England was insufficiently reformed from the times of the doctrines of the Reformation, retaining too much of its Roman Catholic doctrinal roots, and who therefore opposed royal ecclesiastical policy. That's what the Puritans opposed, this hierarchy that had been influenced in the Church of England, under Elizabeth I of England, James I, and Charles I. Most Puritans were quote, non-separating Puritans, meaning that they did not advocate setting up separate congregations distinct from the Church of England.

But, a small minority of Puritans were separating Puritans, who advocated setting up congregations outside the Church of England. The Pilgrims, that's the name of that group, we'll be talking about them today, were Puritans, but they were a separatist group, and they established the Plymouth Colony in 1620. Non-separating Puritans, the ones that weren't active outside the Church of England, but tried to purify it from within, played leading roles when they came to America in establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, the Saybrook Colony, the Connecticut Colony, the New Haven Colony, and others. Most Puritans who migrated to North America came in the decade of 1630 to 1640, in what is known as the Great Migration. So just to summarize, Pilgrims and Puritans are all Puritans. The Pilgrims who came over, we're going to talk about in just a minute, were the ones who wanted to separate from the Church of England because they didn't feel like it could be purified, they wanted to get away from that hierarchical authority that was some of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Europe until the Reformation happened, and then there was the Great Schism in Christianity between the Roman Catholic Church, which stayed, kept all the doctrines and practices they had for millennia, and then the separation was the Protestants, the protesters of the Reformation, people like Calvin and Luther and John Knox and Zwingli and many others.

So these Puritans, whether Puritans or Pilgrims, were directly descendants of those products, those people, the Reformation, influenced greatly by it, and they brought it to America. And they're the ones that influenced our country and started our country down a certain track that we still feel this many, almost 400 years later now than when the Pilgrims first came to America in about 1620. Now I was watching this past, actually last night, PBS had a special in one of their programs called The American Experience on the Pilgrims, and it was very, very good. And PBS can be a little on the liberal side, of course, but watched about two-thirds of this two-hour special, I would recommend it to you.

Of course, there's a few comments here and there with a little bit of a bias, but overall, I think they played it pretty straight, at least what I've seen so far. And it really gives an insightful look at who these Puritans, these Pilgrims are, led by William Bradford, who came over to the New World and what it was like. And so I'd like to play some of the opening of that particular program on the Pilgrims, because it will give you a sense of who they are and just the unbelievably history-making journey that they made, and the difficulty of it, and what it would become, and really what they believed and why they did this. Here's from The American Experience on the Pilgrims.

Summer was fading fast, and the window for attempting the long and dangerous ocean crossing had already started to close, when on September 6th, 1620, an aging 180-ton ship called the Mayflower weighed anchor off Plymouth, off the south coast of England, and set out on her own across the North Atlantic on what would prove to be one of the most historic voyages of the millennium. It's worth reminding ourselves that at the time, they were a very, very small group of very extreme people. And if we'd never heard of them ever again, nobody would be surprised. And most English people thought that they were well rid of them. The fact that they are, in the long term, extraordinarily successful, that they've found the world's greatest democracy, throws retrospective lustre.

They are, one might say, if you want it to be critical. They're religious nutters who won't settle for anything except the most literal reading of the Bible. They want to transform a nation-state into something that resembles what they take to be a godly kingdom. They weren't the people that you would expect to be founding a new colony. They weren't soldiers. They were not emissaries of a foreign government. They were not particularly well provided with supplies. At least half of them were separatists, that is to say, radical Protestants who were religious exiles, who had been living in Leiden, the Dutch Republic. They weren't the people you would automatically expect to be founding a new outpost of the British Empire. They were in many ways the least likely of task forces for establishing a permanent English presence in the New World. Fewer than 50 of the 102 passengers were adult men, many well past their physical prime.

At least 30 were children and nearly 20 were women, including three expectant mothers. By the time they set sail, England had still not succeeded in establishing a truly viable colony on the shores of the New World. And their chances of survival, let alone success, were all but nil.

OK, that's from the American experience and just watching that special. I mean, this was a crazy journey that stood very little chance of succeeding. I mean, the people were just dying left and right, not only on the Mayflower, but when they got here.

But in previous forays of different groups who had come here, people couldn't get a foothold. And it was just, you can't imagine today because we fly over here on a plane and land and there's hotels. There was nothing.

It was wilderness and American Indians here. It's just completely difficult. It's hard to even imagine. No shelter, nothing. No electricity, no way to go down to the store and get food.

I mean, you're going into the wilderness and your chances of survival are very, very low. And so the pilgrims had gone from, they lived northwest. This particular group lived northwest, I think, 150 miles or something like that of London, probably a small area in England. They left there because they could feel persecution coming. People were being imprisoned for the types of beliefs they had. And so they had to flee England.

And it was hard to get out of England because of the fact that the king wanted complete control over everything. And so they had to kind of sneak out of England to go practice their faith in the more free country at the time, which was Holland. So they went to Holland. They lived there for about 10 years, worked there. And then they noticed their children started to become more Dutch. And they didn't want that. They wanted them to be English. So then they started to have the idea of going to this new world, except no one had gone there really before.

And this was a crazy journey, as you heard in that sound by late in the year. It was a small group. As I said, this is an extreme people. Most English people were well rid of them. They didn't care about them. They thought they were, as I said, crazy nutters or religious nutters, nut cases.

But they founded the world's greatest democracy. They read the Bible literally. They took it as, I believe, biblical born-again Christians.

They read it that way. Now, William Bradford was one of the leaders and became the governor of that colony. And he had a very unusual background. And I won't go into all the details, but he grew up and he had so much death in his life. Both his parents died before he was probably 10 or 12 years old. Everyone in his family was dying.

He had to be raised by an uncle. Then here's a little glimpse into William Bradford's background, who would write the book from Plymouth Colony, Plymouth Plantation, and tell us about what was life like at that time. When he was well again, he went with a friend to All Saints Church at Babworth, miles away, to hear the illuminating ministry of a forward-thinking Puritan preacher named Richard Clifton. Not long after, he found his way down low Common Lane to the home of William Brewster, the warm-hearted, Cambridge-educated postmaster and bailiff of Scrooby Manor, where he came to feel he had found a spiritual home, and where each week a private congregation gathered to hear Richard Clifton and another charismatic minister named John Robinson preach on the need to purify worship of everything worldly, of anything not contained in scripture. I think the sense of faithfulness to scripture is at the heart of it. They want to go right back to the roots and strip away all the human accretions that have come into the worship and the life of the church and get back to a primitive purity.

There's no accident that the larger movement from which the separatists came were called Puritans by their opponents because that's what they were campaigning for, greater purity, greater faithfulness to what they believed they read in scripture. So that was William Bradford's background, and that's what shaped him, the preaching from the pulpit of these preachers who had been influenced by the Reformation. It was scripture alone, it was the solas. Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, for God's glory alone. This is what shaped the worldview of these people who came over to America and started the country that we live in right now.

After this break, we'll come back. We'll hear from Dr. Stephen Nichols, the president of Reformation Bible College, more about the worldview of these pilgrims as they came over to the new world. This is the Christian Real View.

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This Thanksgiving weekend as we talk about what to apply from the pilgrims and the Puritans and a very interesting American experience special on them called The Pilgrims. It wasn't live on television last night. You can just go, I don't know whether you get it on Amazon Prime or PBS app.

I'm sure you can search for it, maybe even find it on the internet and YouTube or something. I just encourage you to watch that. It'll give you a much, much greater insight into who these pilgrims were and just what they went through to found this country and importantly, what they believed that brought them over here. But this week I spoke with Dr. Stephen Nichols, the president of Reformation Bible College and the chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries. He's also a professor of historical theology. The main point of the interview was to talk about the state of theology survey that Ligonier does every couple of years and we did that for part of the interview. Then we got a little bit into Thanksgiving and it began to be a follow-up question, follow-up question, very interesting. So we're going to air the state of theology interview next week. But this week, the good news is we have Dr. Nichols with us to talk about Thanksgiving and the pilgrims. Let's get to the first segment of that interview.

Steve, it's great to have you back on the program we had you on. It was last year in 2017 and so we're grateful you were able to take the time again to come on the Christian Real View. Dr. Sproul went home to be with the Lord last year. I believe it was late last year or about this time last year.

It was December 14th of last year. Yes. Talk about a year later now, looking back, what made Dr. R.C. Sproul unique and what do you miss about him? Oh, wow.

Thanks for asking that. First, it's not only what he held, the beliefs he held that made him unique. I think it's also the way he held them with such conviction and was such a clear communicator. But when you boil it all down, he would say this, the problem is whether it's in the culture or in the church, we don't know who God is. And of course, we think of his classic book, The Holiness of God, his classic sermon on Isaiah 6, holy, holy, holy. And he really just spent his life helping the church, helping anyone come to grips with who God is. And of course, that means who we are in light of who God is. And then that points us right to our need for our kind and loving Savior Christ. And so I've always thought that's a good way to sum up what R.C.

was about. As far as missing him, I just miss him. He was a larger than life personality. He probably thought like Calvin, but he lived like Luther. And it was the closest I'll ever come to a real-life Martin Luther. And someone with that large of a personality, when they're gone, you just miss them. And we just miss him here and just his presence here at Ligonier and here at the college.

Yeah, I can certainly imagine that. Dr. Stephen Nichols is our guest today on The Christian Real View. As you mentioned about Dr. Sproul being known for the holiness of God, one of the special moments in my life was hearing him preach live on that passage of Isaiah 6, about holy, holy, holy, and offering a very exalted, high and holy view of God down in Birmingham, Alabama. That was just a really meaningful moment.

So thanks for reminding us of that. Now, I'm going to tap into your background in historical theology here, as we're around the time of Thanksgiving, where we celebrate America and its founding and so forth. The last time you were in the program, I think I mentioned earlier, that we talked about how the Reformation, back in the early 1500s when that started, in 1517, Martin Luther, how the Reformation changed Western civilization. And that day, you talked about the history even before the Reformation, the Dark Ages, and what led up to the Reformation. Well, today I'd like to ask about what happened after the Reformation. Let's say, I think the Reformation lasted about 150 years, let's say from 1650 on, and its impact on early American history and who these Reformation influencers were. The Puritans, you talked about before our interview today, the French Huguenots. Just give us some history of that and the kind of influence America had from the Reformation early on. Sure, and here's the beauty of this. Let's just tie it into Thanksgiving.

Here we are coming into the Thanksgiving season. So we talk about this, I talk about this a lot, of the Puritan roots in America, and we talk about New England, colonial New England, and we should. The sort of fountain, these great New England Puritans for this great American Christianity. But there was a group of French Huguenots, of course, they were always on the ropes. The Reformation never quite got established in France like it did in the Swiss city-states, or in the German regions, or on the British Isles. But in France, it was always on the ropes and persecuted. Of course, these are the Huguenots.

In the 1560s, a group of these French Huguenots made their way here to Florida and established what was called Fort Caroline along the St. John's River. Interestingly enough, they came in like 1562, 64. Here's the thing, on June 30th, 1564, they actually had a Thanksgiving day. I'll just give you the quote because it's brilliant. This is the leader of the group said, on the morrow, about the break of day, I commanded a trumpet to be sounded, that being assembled, we might give God thanks for our favorable and happy arrival.

Then we sang a psalm of thanksgiving unto God, beseeching him that it would please him of his grace to continue his accustomed goodness towards us. And it goes on and on. Of course, they're going to end up getting killed by the Spanish and the Catholics and the establishment of St. Augustine, which is what everybody thinks of Florida. But this is 1564.

This is here in Florida. These are French Huguenots. One of the first things they do once they get settled is they have a service of thanksgiving.

Just a beautiful moment and something for us to remember this week. Talk about the Puritans as well, some of the New England Puritans and how their influence was so strong as well. So this is the stronger group. And of course, their influence was much more long lasting. And so now we're in the 1620s.

And a similar thing there. It was probably not November. It was probably either late September or early October. This was 1623. But there was a Thanksgiving feast and we have records of it. And we don't know everything that was eaten there. We know that ducks were eaten and geese were eaten. It does say other fowl, so there might very well have been a turkey.

But we don't know for sure. But the same thing there. And the idea is recognition that this is God's hand of blessing and that we owe him thanks. And of course, as this group of people get established there in New England, they bring a huge structure to America as a nation and what will come of America in those early centuries in its formative period. And so they established the first universities.

So they established, of course, Harvard and Yale and Dartmouth and Princeton. They're involved, of course, in the awakenings and the revivals. But in addition to that, this group is contributing significantly to much of what is the texture and fiber of American culture.

So, you know, we can't really understand. We talk about the founding fathers of America as being those at the time of the revolution. But really, the founding fathers are these Puritans and these original settlers of New England. What were the distinctives of the Puritans' beliefs? What was their worldview like?

And how was it different than the more celebrated or more well-known, the pilgrims who came over and had that first Thanksgiving? So, you know, the Puritans do represent that more Reformation arm coming out of the British Isles. So Puritans is sort of an umbrella term. You had Anglicans who were Puritans. You had Congregationalists. They were called Independents in old England. In New England, they're called Congregationalists.

This is the majority of them, of course. But you go over to old England, there were even early Baptist people like John Bunyan, you know, would be of a Baptist persuasion. So Puritan is sort of an umbrella term.

The main group that came to America, of course, was the Congregationalists in that particular view of church government. But this is an emphasis on the sovereignty of God. This is the heart of Puritan beliefs is really the heart of the Reformation. The emphasis on the sovereignty of God. The emphasis on the authority and centrality of God's word. The doctrines of grace as understood within a Calvinistic framework. So total depravity and unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints. That was all part and parcel of what they believed. The centrality of worship for all of life. So that whether you were in the church service and worshiping God or you were chopping wood or you were trying to put in a field of crops into a field that had rocks and you're making your way into this frontier.

That's worship. And so it's not just a religious view, it extends to their work and also to how they view their neighbor. And so there really is a total theology here that is a full world and life view of these Puritans. And, you know, of course, they weren't perfect. We've got the Salem witch trials. So we've got to acknowledge their flaws.

These are sinful, fallible people like we have sinful, fallible people in the pages of scripture. But there was a robust theology there that they were applying not just to their life in church, but to all of life. And that was very much the Puritan way. They loved learning. They loved exploring God's world.

Early classes at Harvard required students to compose original poetry. So, yeah, I think sometimes we have these diminished views of who the Puritans were. And I think we're better off to see the richness of the texture and richness of Puritan culture and what the Puritans bequeathed to us. And how about the difference from the pilgrims? Okay, Stephen Nichols will answer that question right after this second break of the day here on the Christian worldview. A lot more coming up on this Thanksgiving special.

Stay tuned. I'm David Wheaton. We need to identify doctrinal error and make sure it gets out of the body.

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Your e-mail and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit the Christian worldview dot org. On behalf of the Christian worldview, we hope that you and your loved ones are having a meaningful Thanksgiving, not just a happy one, we'd like you to have a joyful one, but also a meaningful one as you think about the meaning of Thanksgiving and who these people were that founded this country. And who were the pilgrims? Who were the Puritans?

What did they believe? And helping us get to that today is Dr. Stephen Nichols, the president of Reformation Bible College, also the chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries. And in the last segment, he talked about Dr. R.C.

Sproul, who founded Ligonier and who went to be with the Lord last year. That's why we had that part of the interview to kick it off today. But in listening to the opening segment about the pilgrims and what they believed in William Bradford and their fidelity to Scripture and the influence that was on them from the Reformation period, I just had the thought that if you don't know about or if you forget about your history, in this case American history and what this country was founded upon, the principles and values that these people, the pilgrims and Puritans brought over from England, if you don't know about that or forget about it, like I think most people in America do not know about it, I could be much better at it. Like I said at the beginning, we need refreshers on what these people believe, because if you don't know about it or you forget your history, you're going to morph into something else.

And that's exactly what's happened in our country today. People don't know about this or they don't care about it, they don't think it's important. It is critically important, the values and the principles and the beliefs upon which this country is founded, because now we've lost that. Very few people understand what these pilgrims believed and why it's important.

And so we've drifted so far away from it. We're trying to change that a little bit today on the program, trying to get refreshed on who the pilgrims and Puritans are, and Dr. Stephen Nichols is helping us do that. And before the end of the last break, I would just ask him about the difference, the distinctions between the Puritans, which is the umbrella group, and who the pilgrims were and how there were some similarities and differences.

Let's get back to the interview with Dr. Stephen Nichols. And how about the difference from the pilgrims? Yeah, so when you come to the pilgrims then, I don't want to say it was totally a business venture, but it was far more of a business venture that brought the pilgrims than it was religious freedom and the desire to establish a truly religious culture free from the crown of the Puritans. So it's not as stark as that, but there is that distinction between the two.

Of course, it's a couple generations later that the two colonies are going to merge and become one, but initially there is some of those distinctions. Dr. Stephen Nichols with us today on the Christian worldview. We're getting into some of the Reformation impact here, the Reformation on early American history. Just one more question for you, Steve, has to do with one of the distinctives of the Puritans was their emphasis on personal sanctification, personal holiness, trying to become more like Christ. Now, Dr. John MacArthur was recently on the program and he was talking about the new Calvinism who embraced the doctrines of grace and Calvinism and so forth. But he said there was a big missing doctrine that they de-emphasized and that was the doctrine of sanctification, the call to be holy as I am holy, God says. Talk about how the Puritans emphasized sanctification, how that is to be pursued.

And if that truly is the case about the fact that that's been de-emphasized in some of the newer groups that do believe in Calvinistic doctrines. Well, I have the highest regard for Dr. MacArthur and I think you're looking at someone who is now coming up on his 50th anniversary here next year from the pulpit of Grace Community Church. And one who was involved as a grandfather alongside of his good friend R.C. in bringing about this Reformed resurgence. You know, there's this old, when E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen. I definitely think when John MacArthur talks, we should listen because he saw the rise of this and was part of it and now he has a great perspective to look at it. So I have a high respect for him, high regard for his perspective on things.

I think there's a lot of truth to what he's saying. You know, you can recover parts of the Reformation and parts of being Reformed without other parts and you do that to your peril. And whether it's in the Puritans or the Reformers or just simply being Reformed, yes, there's the emphasis on the gospel. There's certainly the emphasis on conversion and justification by faith alone. But there is also this emphasis that we are brought into the Christian life and we do a disservice to sever justification from sanctification or justification from the call to discipleship. And you think of Dr. MacArthur's book, of course, the Gospel According to Jesus and what he was seeing then and his clarion call for the church to take discipleship seriously. So you come to the Puritans and one of the beauties of the Puritans, of course, is their view of the visible sainthood that as we are professing Christians who profess our faith in Christ, we need to live that out in our lives by pursuing lives of holiness.

Of course, the word pure is in that description Puritan. And these are not self-righteous, holier than thou people, but they were committed to this call that we are to live like Christians in the world and we are to live out our sainthood in the world and seek and strive to be obedient to God and follow God's commands and pursue who he is. We have to talk about the gospel. We must talk about the gospel. We must talk about ourselves as unworthy sinners and in need of grace and justification by faith alone. But if we're not talking about sanctification and we're not talking about... I mean, you see this in Paul's epistles, right?

It's always we have been saved so that now we can live as Christians and so we can pursue holiness and pursue the Christian life. So again, I would definitely listen to the wisdom of Dr. MacArthur and pay attention to his observation. He has a great perspective and it would be wise for us to listen to what he has to say. People might be listening as they drive around in their cars today. It's a busy shopping day.

People are out and about on this holiday weekend. And let's say someone's tuned into the program that's never tuned in before. They're trying to make sense of all that's being discussed today about the Reformation and the Puritans and the pilgrims and so forth and sanctification. Would you just describe what you mean by what is the gospel and how someone can be made right with God and why there's a necessity for us or there's a call for us to be right with God?

That's a great question and we absolutely must have clarity here. So we begin with who God is. We begin with this idea that there is a creator and this creator has revealed himself in his word. He has made himself known in his word. And what we've learned as we look to his word is that we, his creatures, were disobedient.

You know, this is a season of Thanksgiving. Well, there's a text in Romans 1 that says we did not give him thanks. Instead, we sort of turned against God and worshiped the creation rather than the creator. And that's our sin. That's our sin before God. It was the sin of our first parent Adam in the garden who disregarded God's word and disobeyed God. And he plunged all of us into sin. And the reality is not only are we born a sinner, but we sin and we turn our back on God. God in his graciousness sent his son, his only son, his beloved son.

And Jesus, when he came in the incarnation, was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus did what we cannot do. He kept the law.

He was perfectly obedient to his father. But he also undid what we did do. And so while he was perfect and sinless and obedient, he was condemned to the cross and died on the cross. And what scripture says about this event, this historical event, was that this was God pouring out his wrath upon sin. And so Jesus is our substitute in our place who died in our place. And as this sinless, spotless lamb, he took upon him our sin. And so we can stand forgiven. We can have our sins forgiven. We can approach this holy creator God that we are separated from. And it's all because of what Christ has done for us. So the gospel is very simple.

God is holy. We are sinful. We need a substitute. And that substitute is Jesus Christ. And we're coming soon into the Christmas season here.

And this is really the story of Christmas. Jesus came into this world to save us from our sin. And he is the spotless lamb who can take away our sin. And so the gospel just points us to Christ and what he did for us on the cross. And then we're called to respond to all you just said by repenting of our sin. And entrusting by faith in who Christ is and what he did for us on the cross.

Absolutely. So thank you very much for explaining the gospel, Steve. Dr. Steven Nichols has been with us today on the Christian Real View. We're so thankful for you, Dr. Nichols. My pleasure. Thank you for spending the time and explaining a wide range of subjects today. We just wish all of God's best and grace to you and your family this Thanksgiving and through the Christmas season. Oh, very kind of you. Thanks. Thanks for having me on and just really enjoyed the time with you.

And Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Okay, that was Dr. Steven Nichols. And the good news is, more good news is he's going to be coming on next weekend as well on the Christian Real View to talk about Ligonier's State of Theology worldview study. So you won't want to miss this part two with Dr. Steven Nichols and so appreciate the way he explained the gospel. I hope anyone listening who has never repented and believe the gospel will consider that and turn to Christ for salvation.

More on the Christian Real View after this. Here's Mike Gendron previewing his DVD on apostasy. We'll see how apostasy is the result of Satan's relentless attacks on the church. We'll also look at four steps that characterize a church's drift into apostasy. Then we'll look at the history of the church, a chronological development of the Roman Catholic religion and its drift into apostasy.

And lastly and most importantly, what are you and I to do in the midst of this great apostasy and the growing ecumenical movement? The DVD is titled Roman Catholicism's Drift into Apostasy and contains two messages. You can order it for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview.

Normal retail is $15 plus shipping. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Social justice is a gospel issue. This has become the mantra of many evangelicals. Rectifying perceived inequities of race, gender, sexuality, poverty, immigration, amongst others, is considered a top priority. But what exactly is social justice? Is working for social justice a biblical mandate, an application of the gospel? Kell Beisner has written an insightful booklet entitled Social Justice, How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. Also included in this revised 44 page booklet is a copy of the just released statement on social justice in the gospel.

You can order the social justice booklet for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Final segment of the day here on the Christian worldview radio program.

This Thanksgiving weekend we're talking about what to apply from the pilgrims and the Puritans. And we heard from Stephen Nichols today from Ligonier and Reformation Bible College talking about what they believed and the pursuit of sanctification that this group was known for. They were striving to become like Christ. It just wasn't about, quote, getting saved, justification. But it was the second tense of salvation. Salvation is in three tenses. Justification, you're declared righteous. Sanctification is the second tense. That's where God is making you more righteous while you live here on earth. And the third tense is glorification, when he will make you perfectly righteous in heaven. So the Puritans pursued hard after sanctification.

That is something that is gravely missing from the evangelical church today and something we need to deeply consider. And as we think about where this country is now and the worldview divide in this country, I read a column this week called Thanksgiving, the National Day of Mourning. It was written by a man named Allen Salway. He's a 20-year-old Lakota Indian. He's a student, writer, and community organizer from the Navajo Nation. And I'm going to read a few paragraphs from his column on his perspective on Thanksgiving. And I think this perspective that he had is unfortunately shared by more and more people, especially on the left today in America, that the Christian entry into this new world here was a net, very negative thing. It was a genocidal entry into this country, and it was oppressive.

And you're going to be able to see the Marxist oppressor versus the oppressed worldview in some of the paragraphs that he writes here. He starts out by saying, being a young native student in America during October to late November is complete mental exhaustion. This time of year in particular, society continuously pushes us into oppressive climates, where we are gaslighted through a series of holidays that either reimagine history, play on, and exploit painful stereotypes or both. Columbus Day dresses up the genocide of our people as, quote, civilizing us. Halloween perpetuates the stereotypical Indian.

And the worst yet is Thanksgiving, the most nationalized, whitewashed version of history ever to happen to a marginalized group. Bear in mind, we Native Americans were prohibited from practicing our own culture until just under 40 years ago. But still, schools take aspects of our culture and distort them for fun and offensive activities in the name of teaching, quote, history. These practices are extremely detrimental to native youth because it effectively teaches us that blatant racism against us is acceptable and allows a highly negative representation of our culture to be portrayed in the media. Natives are also exposed to mass amounts of racism during the first year of our Western educational journey in pre-K.

I was myself the only native student enrolled and was put into school plays where I was given the role of the happy native boy bringing food to share with the pilgrims. In reality, the actual history behind Thanksgiving Day is dark and twisted. This holiday can be sugarcoated as much as people like to justify colonial violence. But note that it is a painful annual reminder of our genocide and white supremacy, two of the very foundations of this country alongside slavery. Now, it would be false enough for someone to believe that narrative. Of course, there were atrocities done on both sides and so forth. But it would be false enough to believe that one-sided view of American history. But the fact that so many people, especially in academia today and on the left, go with this narrative far more than they did in the past is very, very sad. Now, I'm going to compare that to a column written on GotQuestions.org, which talks about what should be the focus of Christians on Thanksgiving.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, but just a couple paragraphs before the end of the program. As these pilgrims who were seeking religious freedom and opportunity in America, not genocide, by the way, they weren't coming to kill all the Indians, gave thanks to God for his provision for them and helping him find 20 acres of cleared land for the fact that there were no hostile Indians in that area for their newfound religious freedom and for God's provision of an interpreter to the Indians in Squanto. In other words, they weren't coming to kill the Indians, they're coming for religious freedom to live here in peace with them. Along with the feasting and games involving the colonists and more than 80 friendly Indians who they weren't trying to kill, just as a reminder, who added to the feast by bringing wild turkeys and venison, prayers, sermons and songs of praise were important in this celebration. Three days were spent in feasting and prayer.

And now we can hardly spend one day before we start thinking about Black Friday and going spending billions of dollars on material items. Scripturally, we find things related to the issue of Thanksgiving nearly from cover to cover in the Bible. Individuals offered up sacrifices out of gratitude in the book of Genesis. The Israelites sang a song of Thanksgiving as they were delivered from Pharaoh's army after the crossing of the Red Sea.

Later, the Mosaic law set aside three times each year when the Israelites were together. Those were the three feasts. They were about thanksgiving to God. The book of Psalms is packed full of songs and thanksgiving, both for God's grace to the Israelite people as a whole through his mighty deeds, as well as for his individual graces to each of us. In the New Testament, there are repeated admonitions to give thanks to God. Thanksgiving is to always be a part of our prayers. Some of the most remembered passages on the giving of thanks are as follows. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Philippians 4-6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 1 Timothy 2.1, Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. The last paragraph says this, Of all God's gifts, the greatest one he has given to us, for which we should be thankful, is the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. On the cross of Calvary, Jesus paid our debt of sin so a holy and just judge could forgive us our sins and offer us eternal life as a free gift. This gift is available to those who will call on Christ to save them from their sin in simple but sincere faith. We, like the pilgrims, have a choice.

In life, there will always be those things that we can complain about. The pilgrims had lost many loved ones, but there will also be much to be thankful for. As our society becomes increasingly secular, the actual giving of thanks to God during our annual thanksgiving holiday is being overlooked, leaving only the feasting. Remember, it's Turkey Day. May God grant that he may find us grateful every day for all of his gifts, spiritual and material.

God is good, and every good gift comes from him. Thank you for listening today to this thanksgiving special of The Christian Worldview. We hope you have a meaningful thanksgiving. Take some time to read the Word and thank God for all the good gifts that he has given us. Just as a program update, our annual print letter is coming out this week.

You can view it online as well. Take advantage of the new element to The Christian Worldview, the short takes. Also consider The Christian Worldview store for giving a meaningful gift this Christmas.

We do live in a changing and challenging world, but let's be thankful because Jesus Christ, he is the same yesterday, today and forever. Call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian Worldview is a weekly one hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.