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God’s Hand in History

As the people of God, it is our duty to study history — to know how our Lord has worked throughout time to accomplish His purpose through families and nations. We must seek out the stories of the faith (Deuteronomy 32:7) from past generations and regale our children with the mighty acts He has done to preserve and keep those whose hearts were turned toward Him. In so doing, our children will gain context and have hope (Psalm 78:7) to persevere.

The Stream of Liberty from Calvin to the Foundersby Dan Ford, June 8, 2009: Our founders showed incredible resolve in taking their fight for liberty against Britain, the most formidable military force of their day. Where did they get their resolve — their principles of liberty? In tracing the roots, we learn this: From John Calvin’s indelible writings on civil government through the Puritans who carried his standard in England, the literary path of liberty had been paved for over two hundred years. Read More

Calvin and the Scots-Irish in Americaby Bill Potter, June 5, 2009: Some New England Congregationalists despised them. Radical Irish Catholics hated them as Protestant heretics and interlopers. Many were barefoot and dirty and owned not much more than the clothes on their back. They were the Scots-Irish, and they helped create the United States. And they were Calvinists. Read More

Calvinism and Free Market Economicsby R.C. Sproul Jr., June 1, 2009: Those countries which have been most profoundly influenced by Calvinism are, by and large, those countries which have over the centuries enjoyed the greatest amount of material prosperity. Significantly, Enlightenment optimism about the inherent goodness of man has brought us socialism, communism, and fascism. By contrast, Calvinistic skepticism about the goodness of man has brought us free markets and prosperity. Read More

Fencing the Tableby Marcus Serven, May 26, 2009: Who possesses the authority to admit a person to the Lord’s Supper or to ban the unrepentant sinner from it — the civil magistrates or the officers of Christ’s Church? The debate of this question led to one of the most pivotal showdowns in John Calvin’s ministry; and, in the end, those who adhered to the Scripture prevailed. Read More

The League of Grateful Sonsby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., May 21, 2009: In the last sixty years, fewer people have visited the island of Iwo Jima than have climbed Mt. Everest. Resting at the base of the Bonin Island chain, Iwo is one of the most remote and isolated clumps of volcanic rock and sand in the Pacific. Except for vegetation and the small Japanese military installation that guards the lonely airport, there is little sign of life anywhere on this remote four-and-half mile long outpost. Read More

Lights and Shadows of the Reformation: John Calvinby Carole Adams, May 18, 2009: Celebration is a joyous way to teach our children in order that they might teach their children the truths of His Story that must be preserved, or lost, at our own peril. And the remarkable life and testimony of John Calvin is a landmark well worth celebrating. Read More

Timeline of Key Events in the Life of John Calvin (1509-1564)by Marcus Serven, May 1, 2009: HIS EARLY YEARS: BIRTH AND PREPARATION (1509-1531) 1509 — Born July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France (2nd of six children) 1513 — John’s mother, Jeanne, dies and his Father remarries (exact dates are uncertain) 1521 — On May 19 receives... Read More

A Heart Offered to Godby Marcus Serven, May 1, 2009: Mention the name “John Calvin” in a crowd and oftentimes it will elicit remarks of contempt on the one extreme and deep admiration on the other. This overview of Calvin’s life by Pastor Marcus Serven helps puts the testimony of the great Reformer’s life in its proper perspective. Read More

John Calvin and the Puritan Founders of New Englandby Bill Potter, April 23, 2009: The Puritans, who migrated as families to New England in the 1600s, brought the theology of John Calvin with them to the New World. Their understanding of depravity, covenant, election, grace, and love laid the groundwork for what would in time become a thriving independent nation. Read More

John Calvin on the Familyby Scott Brown, April 13, 2009: In Calvin’s Geneva, all of life was being reformed — including family life. The family reformation that was happening in Geneva, and spreading over Europe, was sparked by simple biblical exposition and warm hearted pastoral care. Calvin wrote much on the subject of marriage and spoke very tenderly regarding a husband’s love for his wife. This article contains some of his most helpful commentary on this pivotal relationship established by God at creation. Read More

Sword Fight!by Marcus Serven, March 19, 2009: What kind of man was John Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva? Consider this compelling event from December 12, 1547 — Calvin’s bold entry into the Council of the Two Hundred during the midst of a deadly sword fight! It is a fine example of his courageous character, positive reputation, and frank outspokenness. Read More

After Darkness Lightby Marcus Serven, March 13, 2009: While fleeing from France to Germany in 1536, John Calvin’s one-night detour to Geneva, Switzerland proved to be a decisive moment in history as William Farel convinced the younger reformer to join him in the cause of discipleship there. In time, thanks to Calvin’s labors, the gospel steadily prevailed in Geneva, and the Swiss haven became widely known as the foremost city of the Protestant Reformation. Read More

Calvin and Darwin: Worldviews in Conflictby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., October 24, 2008: During the year 2009, the eyes of the world will turn to remember the anniversaries of the birth of the two most influential men of the last one thousand years — the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Their contrasting visions represent worldviews in conflict. Join us on July 1-4, 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts, as we examine the competing legacies of these giants of the last millennium as part of our Reformation 500 Celebration. Read More

They Came As FamiliesJuly 18, 2007: Why should we celebrate America’s 400th birthday? In this compelling retrospective, those who were among the four thousand who attended the Jamestown Quadricentennial earlier this year — including event organizers, participants, adults, children, and onlookers — share in their own words the importance of this historic remembrance. Each quote is placed within the context of a key observation about the significance of this celebration of God’s providential hand in our nation’s founding. Read More

Remembering Our Jamestown Fathersby Melissa Keen, June 28, 2007: Scriptures commands that children must ask and fathers must tell of the mighty deeds of God in history. One attendee of the Jamestown Quadricentennial explores this theme and offers her observations from the recent week-long celebration that drew more than four thousand to Virginia’s historic triangle. Read More

America’s Get’s Her Birthday Partyby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., June 27, 2007: They came from nearly 50 states to the Jamestown Quadricentennial — four thousand men, women and children. They came representing diverse denominational backgrounds, skin colors and ethnicities. Some were descendants of the Powhatan Indians themselves, or the Jamestown colonists, while others were first, second, and third-generation children of immigrants. And from the opening ceremonies to the glorious closing fireworks on the evening of Saturday, June 16, the Christian families in attendance prayed, played, feasted and rejoiced. Read More

Jamestown’s Providential Legacy: An Unlikely Storyby Wesley Strackbein, June 18, 2007: On June 15, 2007, the Jamestown Children’s Memorial was dedicated on the grounds of Fort Pocahontas. Paid for by the $1 donations of America’s grateful children, this monument was the only Christian landmark erected during this quadricentennial year. These dedication remarks were given as several thousand gathered around the memorial. Read More

America’s First War for Independenceby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., June 8, 2007: Exactly 100 years before the members of the 2nd Continental Congress pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom, Jamestown became the location of America’s first true war for independence. The year was 1676, and the key players were an impatient and heavy-handed governor named Sir William Berkeley, and the charismatic legislator and populist, Nathaniel Bacon. The question was this: What are citizens supposed to do when their wives and children are being murdered and scalped and the civil magistrate refuses to defend them? Read More

Our 1st Founding Father’s Vision for Evangelismby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., June 1, 2007: Richard Hakluyt was the principal visionary behind the founding of America at Jamestown. His writings reached the most influential leaders of his day — including Queen Elizabeth and James I — with the urgent call that “the people of America crye out unto us their nexte neighboures to come and to helpe them, and bringe unto them the gladd tidinges of the gospell.” Hakluyt’s influence on the founding of America as a distinctively Christian and English nation was enormous. Without his efforts, the USA might stand for United Spanish America. Read More

Where Did America Truly Begin?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., May 25, 2007: We have heard of the officials who don’t want to “celebrate an invasion.” But there is yet another group who would prefer to forget Jamestown. This group pooh-poohs the idea that America even has an anniversary to remember. They are the regional jingoists. Numerous politicians and pundits driven by sectional rivalries are jockeying for their city to be recognized as the true heir to the title “America’s birthplace.” Plymouth, St. Augustine, Roanoke, or Jamestown — where did America truly begin? Read More

Jamestown and Plymouth: America’s Parent Coloniesby Dr. Paul Jehle, May 22, 2007: Those conducting the “commemoration” of America’s four hundredth birthday have found it difficult to give honor to whom honor is due, referring to Jamestown’s settlement in 1607 as “an invasion” and refusing to “celebrate” it. In this article, Dr. Paul Jehle cuts through the historical revisionism of the Left and demonstrates why we should be grateful for both Jamestown and Plymouth — America’s parent colonies. Read More

Buried Treasure in Virginia?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., May 18, 2007: The Jamestown 400 Treasure Hunt is designed to train Americans to unlock the golden treasure trove of historical evidences that point to the God-blessed and providential origins of this nation 400 years ago through our Jamestown forefathers. To discern the true meaning of artifacts, the hunt requires sleuths to learn to crack more than a dozen different types of anagrams, ciphers and codes, to read Egyptian hieroglyphs — and even to speak a little Cherokee. The hunt is set for an exciting finish on June 11-16 as part of the Jamestown Quadricentennial. Read More

Tax Dollars Trashing Our Historyby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., May 11, 2007: Why worry about the “Shame on Jamestown” rally of the New Black Panther protesters when taxpayer money is going to promote the same spirit of anti-Christian, anti-scholarly, anti-celebration protest in the form of signature events, speeches, displays and publicity designed to train little boys and girls to be ashamed of the founding of America? Doug Phillips proposes a fresh perspective — one based on a historic understanding of who we are as a people and why we have been so blessed of God. Read More

Who Speaks for the American Indian?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., May 4, 2007: Apparently, the hatchet is not buried. Savage philosophies are fighting for primacy this week in Jamestown. Not surprisingly, a war of words has been launched in conjunction with the arrival of the queen of England at Jamestown and the inauguration of America’s 400th anniversary commemoration. Indian activists are propounding a new mythology that teaches that America was founded by ruthless Christians who, very much like Nazis, engaged in a “holocaust” against an innocent and peace-loving people. But who really speak for the American Indian? Read More

The Enduring Legacy of the First Landingby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., April 27, 2007: Four hundred years ago yesterday, the world changed for the better. A cross was planted in the ground and a prayer was offered to heaven. The cross was planted literally, but it was also planted spiritually. We remember the event as the “First Landing” of the Jamestown settlers, but it might be better known as “Covenant Day” for America. The wooden cross of Cape Henry is now gone forever, but the covenant established on that day remains binding. As we remember the 400th anniversary of the First Landing, our people would be well served to acknowledge that once upon a time Americans thought of themselves as a nation under God. Read More

Our Founders: ‘Environmental Imperialists’?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., April 20, 2007: Despite unprecedented access to media and information, American families today have little idea where they came from, let alone who they are. The reason? First, we have set aside the biblical commands for fathers to teach their children the mighty deeds of God in history. Second, we have surrendered our history to philosophically motivated revisionists like those at National Geographic who claim our Founding Fathers were “environmental imperialists.” Read More

Our Most Politically Incorrect Founding Fatherby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq. , April 13, 2007: The most politically incorrect monument to an American Founding Father lies in disrepair on a remote location off the coast of New Hampshire. For those few intrepid tourists who care to journey to Star Island and then take the rocky and somewhat treacherous path to the Captain John Smith Memorial, little awaits them but crumbled remains. But once upon a time, the Captain John Smith Monument boasted a magnificent pillar crowned with the severed heads of three Muslim soldiers. Read More

Racial Unity in America — In 1607by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., April 6, 2007: America’s first permanent European settlement was largely a color-blind society. Religious and cultural differences, not melanin count, divided peoples inhabiting the Virginia of 1607. In fact, it was exactly 394 years ago yesterday on the banks of the James River that ethnic reconciliation was declared by the founding fathers of America with a marriage that would go down in history. The name of this couple: John Rolfe and Princess Pocahontas. Read More

The Grand Family of America’s Birthdayby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., March 30, 2007: If you were standing on the hallowed grounds of the James River for the 1807 Jamestown Jubilee, you might have met revolutionary war hero John Tyler and his 17-year-old son, John, Jr. Fifty years later, John was no longer known as Jr., but as the former president of the United States of America he gave the keynote at the 250th Jubilee of Jamestown. For America’s 400th birthday, Harrison Tyler, the grandson of the 10th president of the United States, will serve as grand marshal to the Jamestown Quadricentennial. Read More

Kingdom Seeds at America’s Birthby Dr. Paul Jehle, March 28, 2007: America’s Quadricentennial is upon us. What lessons will we learn? In this brilliant overview of the period leading up to to the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, Dr. Jehle traces — in a year-by-year survey — the lives of the leading characters whom God used to establish the Jamestown, and later, the Plymouth Colonies, tying together key lessons from this remarkable time that we can pass onto to our children. Read More

Do You Know the Jamestown ‘Firsts’?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., March 26, 2007: Once upon a time, students were required to know the historical significance of Jamestown and to interpret the events surrounding our founding through the lens of biblical Christianity. They could learn, for example, the long lists of providential “firsts” established at Jamestown. Do you know the Jamestown “firsts”? Read More

Restoring the Ancient Landmarksby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., March 23, 2007: The Jamestown Children’s Memorial is the only significant monument which will be dedicated for the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement. Paid for by the one-dollar donations of grateful children and carved by the same company that built the now-legendary Alabama Ten Commandments Monument, this memorial will be crowned with a sculpting of Holy Scripture opened to Psalm 78 — the text which admonishes fathers to teach the providences of God so that their children might have hope. Read More

A Review of Peter C. Mancall’s “Hakluyt’s Promise”by Bill Potter, March 23, 2007: A Christian scholar, and an ordained Anglican clergyman, Richard Hakluyt’s fervor for exploration and colonization fueled the fire of the British to carry the Gospel to the heathen people of the New World and spread English culture to unknown lands. Hakluyt dedicated his life to advance this cause through his pen, and his influence was staggering. In this book review, historian Bill Potter summarizes Peter C. Mancall’s Hakluyt’s Promise — an excellent work on the “press agent of adventure” — without whose influence there might never have been a Jamestown or Plymouth Colony. Read More

Who Will Win the War on America’s History?by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., March 16, 2007: It’s a tale of two cities. But this time the cities have the same name, the same founding fathers, and the same anniversary. As America remembers her 400th birthday at Jamestown in 1607, two competing histories and two rival visions of our nation have emerged. The winner will define the way the boys and girls look at themselves, their future, and their nation. Read More

The First Charter of Virginiaby Herbert W. Titus, J.D., March 6, 2007: The Jamestown Colony was founded for the express purpose of winning the native peoples of Virginia to Christ. The 1606 Charter — Virginia’s first — was based on the Great Commission. And while those who gave their all for this visionary enterprise could not have known the events that would unfold in the next 170 years, by the Providence of God, they acted in such a way as to lay the seedbed for American independence and liberty. If that independence and liberty is to be preserved, we must return to the godly principles that gave rise to the United States of America. Read More

Celebrating America’s 400th Birthdayby Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., February 8, 2007: For two hundred years, Americans have recognized the importance of commemorating the providential goodness of the Lord through our nation’s birth at Jamestown. But for America’s 400th birthday, what should be a celebration of gratitude to the Lord is fast becoming an homage to revisionist historiography and political correctness. Yet, by God’s grace, grateful Christians have an opportunity to officially celebrate America’s great heritage on her 400th birthday. On June 11-16, Vision Forum Ministries is seeking to rally Americans from shore to shore to come to Jamestown and remember the Ebenezer stones of God’s providence in our nation’s founding as part of a grand, week-long event — the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. Read More

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God’s Hand in History