Pastor of the Pilgrims, John Robinson: 100 Bible Verses That Made America

Hello, it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we?

Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. That should brighten your day a little, actually a lot. So sign up now at ChumbaCasino.com.

That's ChumbaCasino.com. Abusers in Hollywood are as old as the Hollywood sign itself. Underneath it lies a shroud of mystery. From Variety, Hollywood's number one entertainment news source and iHeart Podcast, comes Variety Confidential. I'm your host, Tracy Patton, and in season one, we'll focus on the secret history of the casting couch.

So join us as we navigate the tangled web of Hollywood's secret history of sex, money, and murder. Subscribe now to Variety Confidential wherever you get your podcasts. With the best all-inclusive vacation deals to Mexico and the Caribbean, booking your getaway with cheap Caribbean vacations means you have more freedom to do your deal. Whether you want to enjoy snorkeling, endless margaritas, and more, or simply soak up the sun and sand in a tropical paradise, Cheap Caribbean Vacations has your deal for that. Plan and book the exact getaway you want at exactly the right price for you by using our exclusive budget beach finder.

Or find a featured all-inclusive package and do your deal at CheapCaribbean.com. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, who's the author of 100 Bible verses that made America, defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith.

Let's take a listen. After King Henry VIII severed ties with Rome and appointed himself the head of the Church of England in 1553, three groups of Protestants emerged. First, the Anglicans who continued within the traditions of their church. Secondly, the Puritans who wanted to work within Anglicanism to reform and to purify it. And third, Separatists and dissenters who were determined to establish their own independent congregations. Over the next hundred years or so, the Puritans and the Separatists faced extreme pressure from the English crown and this compelled many of them to flee their country.

One of these men was named John Robinson. Born in 1576, he had gotten his education at Cambridge, which was a hotbed of Puritanism. It was the intellectual center of the Puritan movement. And during his studies there, John Robinson adopted the belief system of the Puritans. After graduation, he became the pastor of St. Edward's Church in Norwich, England.

But King James I put so much pressure on the Puritans that Robinson found it impossible to continue being a pastor. As a result, he began meeting with other Separatists in the home of William Brewster in the village of Scrooby. There was also a 16-year-old who worshipped with the same small congregation and his name was William Bradford. John Robinson became the spiritual leader of this group and the pastor of this informal church. But it was the church that met in this house, which contained the seeds of the United States of America.

When these Christians face the imminent possibility of imprisonment, they had to make a very hard decision. John Robinson, William Brewster, William Bradford, and the others left their native land of England and emigrated to Holland. John Robinson began pastoring his congregation, which was now in the Dutch city of Leiden.

The church flourished and tripled in size there, but these dissenters grew concerned at how easily their children were being assimilated into the Dutch culture. They were strangers in the land. Somehow, an idea arose in their hearts to emigrate to the New World, where they could establish a colony to freely pursue their English customs while retaining religious liberty.

It was a breathtaking idea. With the exception of Jamestown, no English colony had survived in the New World, and Jamestown was hardly an exception. It was a disaster. Of the 3,600 settlers sent to Jamestown, 3,000 of them had perished. Going to the New World must have seemed to these dissenters like colonizing the moon, yet they felt compelled to go. They said, it is not with us as with other men whom small things can discourage or small discontentments cause to wish themselves home again.

As William Bradford would later write, they knew they were pilgrims. Their beloved pastor John Robinson was heartbroken when he realized he couldn't leave the bulk of his congregation to travel with these pilgrims. He hoped to join them later, but death kept him from fulfilling his dream. Unable to go himself, Robinson led his church in a very emotional send-off.

About 125 members signed up for the first voyage with the rest planning to come later. Robinson proclaimed a day of solemn humiliation on which he delivered a passionate sermon based on Ezra chapter 8 verse 21, which is about Ezra leading the remnant of Jews from exile to the promised land. Robinson's text apparently encompassed the paragraph from verses 21 to 23, which says, then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road because we had spoken to the king saying the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against those who forsake him. So he fasted and entreated our God for this and he answered our prayer.

After his sermon, Robinson led the congregation in powering our prayers to the Lord. Then he traveled with the pilgrims to the harbor where the reverend pastor it is said fell down on his knees and they all with him with watery eyes commended them with the most fervent prayers to God. From Death's Haven, the pilgrims sailed to Southampton where they boarded a creaky little ship called the Mayflower. This group of pilgrims ended up on Cape Cod and established the Mayflower Compact. They went on to establish the city of Boston and begin building homes and churches and schools including Harvard University. They wanted to establish a nation based on biblical Judeo-Christian values. Nothing like this had ever been done before in history and it was their love for liberty and freedom that paved the way for the values that were later incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

The Great Puritan Migration led by John Winthrop occurred between 1630 and 1640 resulting in the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony but before the Puritans were there, there were the separatists, the pilgrims, who came to Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower in 1620 in the search of freedom and for the sake of the of the Gospel. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks to Robert Morgan who's the author of 100 Bible verses that made America defining moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. The story of the pilgrims. The story of the real founders of this country. Here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day we set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present from small towns to big cities and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things but we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and make a donation to keep the stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. With Lucky Land Slots, you can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather's fine but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky.

No, no, nothing like that. It's just these cash prizes add up quick so I suggest you sit back, keep your tray table upright and start getting lucky. Play for free at LuckyLandSlots.com.

Are you feeling lucky? No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. Abusers in Hollywood are as old as the Hollywood sign itself. Underneath it lies a shroud of mystery. From Variety, Hollywood's number one entertainment news source and iHeart podcast comes variety confidential. I'm your host, Tracy Patton, and in season one, we'll focus on the secret history of the casting couch.

So join us as we navigate the tangled web of Hollywood's secret history of sex, money, and murder. Subscribe now to Variety Confidential wherever you get your podcasts. Congratulations to Boston Children's Hospital, first place award winner for innovation in industry at the 2023 Unconventional Awards presented by T-Mobile for Business. Boston Children's is dedicated to improving and advancing the health and well-being of children around the world through its life-changing work in clinical care and it is home to the world's largest pediatric research enterprise. Boston Children's is revolutionizing health care with T-Mobile's 5G solutions. Through secure, private, and reliable networks, practitioners can access internal systems and applications securely from virtually anywhere. T-Mobile for Business congratulates Boston Children's Hospital for their innovation and unconventional thinking.