Columbus promised to bring back gold, spices, and silks from the Far East, to spread Christianity, a

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• Columbus promised to bring back gold, spices, and
  silks from the Far East, to spread Christianity,
  and to lead an expedition to China.

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• Columbus saw a sign in his name (Cristoforo or
  Christ-bearer) that he was destined to bring
  Christ across the sea to men who knew Him not.
  The only book that he wrote, Book of Prophecies,
  reveals his deep conviction that the second
  coming of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would
  take place in his lifetime.

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• All of Columbus' sailing journals and most of his
  private letters are saturated with biblical
  references and his heart-felt love for The Lord.
  The flagship, Santa Maria, was named for the
  Virgin Mary, and his ship's sails boldly
  displayed the red cross of Calvary. Every morning
  Columbus held services which included the Lord's
  Prayer, the Creed, and the Ava Maria. When land
  was sighted Columbus thankfully knelt and named
  the island San Salvador which means Holy Savior.

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OCTOBER 12, 1492 SAN SALVADOR
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• Martin Luther contests the abuses of power and
  errors of the Roman Catholic Church. (October 31,
  1517)

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PASTOR JOHN ROBINSON PRAYS FOR PILGRIMS AS THEY
LEAVE FOR THE NEW WORLD (1620)
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Mayflower Compact (Nov. 11, 1620)
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• It was after a day of prayer that the company
  drew up the Mayflower Compact. The document is
  mainly glorified for its declaration of self
  government, but the initial statement clearly
  shows their religious intentions "In the name of
  God. Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the
  loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King
  James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain,
  France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith,
  etc., having undertaken for the glory of God and
  advancement of the Christian faith and honor of
  our king and country, a voyage to plant the first
  colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by
  these presents solemnly and in the presence of
  God, and one another, covenant and combine
  ourselves together into a civil body politic."

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• Recreation of the old Plymouth Plantation,
  Massachusetts

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• Replica of a Jamestown, Virginia home

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• Robert Scruggs House ... typical home of the
  period, near Cowpens Battlefield, South Carolina

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• The first Charter of Massachusetts in 1629 said,
  "Our said people...may be so religiously,
  peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good
  life and orderly conversation may win and incite
  the natives to the knowledge and obedience of the
  only true God and Savior of mankind, and the
  Christian faith which in our intention is...the
  principal end of this plantation." John Winthrop,
  leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, called
  for a Christian lifestyle that would be a witness
  known as "a City upon a Hill."

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• The political and religious repression of the
  1630's was among the worst of times in English
  history. These conditions left the Puritans with
  three alternatives conform, die, or emigrate. An
  estimated 50,000 left in the Great Migration.
  Some of them were the best English minds, and
  most of them chose New England. They swelled
  their population to about 40,000 by 1645, and
  probably made the area the highest per capita of
  college graduates in the world. Almost 100 of
  them were Puritan ministers, who graduated from
  Oxford or Cambridge.

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• The first written Constitution in US history was
  the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639). The
  opening paragraph reads "Windsor, Hartford, and
  Wethersfield...an orderly and decent government
  according to God...for ourselves and our
  successors...together to maintain and preserve
  the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord
  Jesus which we now profess.."

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• In 1643 New Haven, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth,
  and Connecticut (all of New England except Rhode
  Island) joined a common protection agreement
  known as the New England Confederation. The
  opening line reads "Whereas we all came into
  these parts of America with one and the same end
  and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our
  Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of
  the Gospel in purity with peace"

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• In 1649 the Maryland Colonial Assembly enacted
  the much called for, but seldom read Toleration
  Act. Over half the sixteen representatives were
  Roman Catholic and their document said that any
  person "Who shall from henceforth blaspheme
  God...or shall deny our Savior Jesus Christ to be
  the Son of God, or shall deny the Holy Trinity
  the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead
  of any of the said Three persons of the Trinity
  or the Unity of the Godhead...shall be punished
  with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all
  his or her lands."

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• Pennsylvania attracted the most varied groups.
  William Penn, the pacifist son of a naval hero,
  used his family inheritance to found the colony.
• With a charter from King Charles II in 1682, Penn
  set up his "Holy Experiment" as the most notable
  shelter for all religious and political refugees.
  In the first of his four "Frames of Government"
  Penn wrote, "All persons who profess to believe
  Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, shall be
  capable to serve this government in any capacity,
  both legislatively and executively." He also set
  a pattern of fair and just treatment of the
  Indians by purchasing the land from them.

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• The Pennsylvania colony was settled by not only
  the Quakers, but by the German Lutherans,
  Calvinists, Mennonites, and Brethren or Dunkers.
  In the 18th Century Scotch-Irish Presbyterians,
  Anglicans, Amish, Moravians, and Jews enjoyed the
  welcomed liberty. Some have suggested
  Pennsylvania foreshadowed the nation's destiny by
  establishing a providential training ground for
  all peoples. Their pattern was a melting-pot
  experiment in brotherly love for all people under
  God.

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• The most famous education ordinance in US history
  is the 1647 "Common School Law" which was passed
  by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  It is referred to as "the mother of our school
  laws" and the earliest general education act of
  modern times. It was a mandate to place The Bible
  at the center of the curriculum, and it
  established the practice of tax supported public
  schools. The writ clearly stated the mission of
  education
• "It being one chief project of that old deluder,
  Satan, to keep men from a knowledge of the
  Scriptures...It is therefore ordered...that every
  township in this jurisdiction after The Lord hath
  increased to 50 households...one qualified school
  master...teach all such children...to write and
  read."

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• American higher education was born with the same
  Christian roots as the governments. The 1642
  "Rules and Precepts" for Harvard College set this
  goal
• 2. "Let every student be plainly instructed and
  earnestly pressed to consider well the main end
  of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus
  Christ, which is eternal life John 173 and
  therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the
  only foundation of all sound knowledge and
  learning. And seeing the Lord only givest wisdom,
  let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in
  secret to seek it of him Proverbs 23."

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• The second American college founded was William
  and Mary in 1693. The English rulers granted this
  charter
• "Forasmuch as our well-beloved and faithful
  subjects, constituting the General Assembly of
  our colony of Virginia, have had it in their
  minds, and have proposed to themselves, to the
  end that the Church of Virginia may be furnished
  with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and
  that the Christian faith may be propagated
  amongst the western Indians, to the glory of
  Almighty God to make, found, and establish a
  certain place of universal, or perpetual College
  of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages and other good
  Arts and Sciences..."

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
  men are created equal, that they are endowed by
  their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
  that among these are life, liberty and the
  pursuit of happiness. That to secure these
  rights, governments are instituted among men,
  deriving their just powers from the consent of
  the governed. That whenever any form of
  government becomes destructive to these ends, it
  is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
  it, and to institute new government, laying its
  foundation on such principles and organizing its
  powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
  likely to effect their safety and happiness.

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• Article III
• Congress shall make no law respecting an
  establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
  free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom
  of speech, or of the press or the right of the
  people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
  Government for a redress of grievances.

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• "Ah! I have often seen the tears coursing down
  our commander's care-worn cheeks, as he would be
  conversing with a confidential officer about the
  condition of his poor soldiers. You have
  doubtless heard the story of Washington's going
  into the thicket to pray. Well, it was not only
  true, but he used often pray in secret for aid
  and comfort from GOD, the interposition of whose
  Divine Providence brought us safely through the
  darkest days of tribulation."