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"We and They Come From One and the Same Mold"
Welcome to the August issue of Expository Files. Have you taken your children to
see the Disney movie "Pocahontas" yet? My wife took our youngest. She said it
was better than she thought it would be, with less "nature worship" than what
might have been. But it was only a movie, and everything I hear is that the
writers took great liberties with the facts. There were several reasons for the
establishment of Jamestown as a colony. The not so politically correct charter
stated that one of the goals was that of propagating the Christian "religion to
such people, as yet live in darkness and true knowledge and worship of God."
Unfortunately, many of the settlers had little room for God in their own lives.
While some of their number were very devout, we find squabbles breaking out
because their greed and arrogance. Probably most of them would have claimed to
be Christian, but as always, the claim is often made by people with little or no
commitment to truly exalting Christ in their lives. It takes more than loving in
word; we must love in deed and in truth.
Several times it looked as if the first permanent colony in North America was not going to be so permanent. Nine out of ten early colonists died prematurely from a variety of causes. Help and a new supply of colonists arrived during the third year of the colony's existence, and one of the first thing that the new governor did was to organize worship services and call the people to remember Biblical principles of industry and sacrifice.
Among these new colonists was John Rolfe, who would later marry Pocahontas. Concerning the Indians, he stated that "...on whose faces a good Christian cannot look, without sorrow, pity and commiseration; seeing that they bear the image of our heavenly Creator, and we and they come from one and the same mold..."
Most of the above information was gleaned from an article entitled "Christianity in Jamestown" in the August issue of Pulpit Helps; page 20. The thought occurs to me that perhaps more of the Indians would have been impressed with the God these people claimed to represent if more of the settlers had truly trusted Him in obedience to His word. Think about how just a few unrighteous and hypocritical men could overturn the hard work and good examples of the truly faithful. Certainly the same is true today, for I fear that many in our nation are just as estranged from God as the Indians were. Like the early settlers, many of our problems stem, at least in part, from a lack of respect for spiritual, moral and Biblical principals. How much better it could be if all men truly lived by faith.
Jon W. Quinn
The Front Page
From Expository Files 2.8; August, 1995
