The Bible, Christianity & American Government, Chapter 6:
The Embarkation of the Pilgrims
In 1532, Niccolo Machiavelli published his famous work on political theory, called “The Prince.” He had used Spain’s King Ferdinand (the same one who sent out Christopher Columbus) as a model for perfect governance.
Unfortunately, his model included brutality and ambition, and always endeavoring, “above all things,” to gain “the reputation of being a great and remarkable man” (like Nimrod at the Tower of Babel [see Genesis 10:10 and 11:1-9]), and to always keep “the minds of his people in suspense and admiration” of King Ferdinand and his ambitious pursuit of gold and glory.
Therefore, it should not surprise anyone that the Spanish Conquistadores who colonized America brought with them Machiavelli’s views that in politics, the end justifies the means and that political and public morality are unnecessary, and even to be avoided.
It is important that we understand that these are the fundamental ideas that the “Spanish Golden Age” was built on.
The Spanish Golden Age (the 1500s-1600s) may be considered to have been contemporaneous with what we often call the Renaissance, and its accompanying zeitgeist.
zeitgeist = "the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time." (Bing)
The defining spirit of the Renaissance was “Rebirth,“ which sounds good… But it was actually only the rebirth of pagan Greek and Roman values and ideas that stood in direct contrast to those of Christianity, upon which Medieval Western Civilization had been built.
And interestingly–but not surprisingly–it was (this same) Ferdinand’s grandson, King Charles I of Spain, who later, as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, would condemn the Christian reformer Martin Luther as a heretic, ban him as a political outlaw, and order his writings to be burned.
Yet, soon afterward, Luther working in hiding, translated the Bible into the common language of the German people, inspiring a young Englishman named William Tyndale who just happened to be living in exile in Luther’s hometown in Germany at the time. Tyndale then translated the Bible into English, and had it smuggled back into his home country in England.
60 years later, Charles’ son, Phillip II (Ferdinand’s great-grandson) became the champion of what became known as the Counter-Reformation.
The Counter Reformation was an all-out cultural, religious, and even military war intended to reverse the the work of Luther and Tyndale.
Philip II sent the Spanish Armada (the largest fleet ever seen in Europe up to that time) to attack England, and to restore the religious and political status quo of what had been Spain’s Golden Age. The Armada was destroyed by a storm.
In fact, the Spanish Armada was sent three times to destroy England–in 1588, 1596, and 1597–but it was destroyed three times, each time by bad weather!
Providentially, then, William Tyndale’s Bible seems to have ended up making its way into the hands of a generation of common Englishmen, just as their King Henry VIII was making himself the head of a whole new church in England, and just as England was preparing to replace Spain as a world power.
And it was these same Englishmen who brought that same Bible–and its ideas–to the New World.
In 1607, Captain John Smith was among 100 colonists who planted Jamestown in Virginia. In 1608, Smith became the leader of the community, and established measures to save it from ruin, including an instruction from the Bible.
“If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat”
2nd Thessalonians 3:10
This is not to say that Captain John Smith was, necessarily, a Christian–only that the Bible was already starting to affect the way that everyday people chose to live their lives.
But soon after (in 1620) a group of Christian people established Plymouth Plantation as a Christian community–based on the example of the early church (in the book of Acts).
Their Governor, William Bradford (in his book, Of Plimouth Plantation), called the Plymouth settlers pilgrims, referring to the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 13.
The chapter goes on to say:
“…Those who say such things (calling themselves pilgrims) declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country...”
Hebrews 11:14-16
And that’s the way they lived. They left behind all that England was, and whatever comfort it had been for them, and looked forward to life in this New England, and what they dreamed would be a better world for them and their families.
Other Christians followed them to New England, setting up what they called the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The Governor of the Massachusetts colony, John Winthrop, saw New England prophetically, quoting from Matthew 5:14.
“For, we must consider (he wrote) that we shall be like a City upon a Hill; the eyes of all people are on us.”
John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630
And just a few years later, in 1639, Christians from the (then) small towns of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield in Connecticut drew up “the first written constitution known to history...” The “Fundamental Orders” (as they called them) were based on a sermon by Reverend Thomas Hooker on May 31, 1638. The text for his sermon had been Deuteronomy 1:13.
“Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you…”
Deuteronomy 1:13
In his sermon, Hooker asserted that based on the Old Testament example of the ancient Israelites (which was imitated by early Christians in the New Testament book of Acts), “the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people…”
That idea could not have come out of the Spanish Golden Age. It could not have come out of the Renaissance, or the thought of Machiavelli.
The Bible says that:
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
2 Corinthians 3:17
But the Bible also says that:
“The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs (because it has been subjected to corruption) …”
Romans 8:20
That is why the American experience has not matched up with the prophetic voices of Winthrop and Hooker, or all their hopes and dreams for America.
But one day,
America and “the creation itself…will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the (revelation of the) children of God…”
Romans 8:19, 21
It is time for the children of God in America to shake off the chains of corruption, to step out of the grave-clothes of past experience, and to walk in what has been prophesied over this land.
That is our legacy (and America’s legacy), and (as John Winthrop wrote) “the eyes of all people (shall be) upon us.”