Monday, November 25, 2024

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, November 25, 2024

In the USA (and a few other countries), there is a celebration called Thanksgiving. This US holiday (i.e., Holy Day) dates back to times prior to the founding of the United States as a political entity, originating in the days when the Pilgrims came to America.

Background to Thanksgiving

What many don’t realize is the hardship the Pilgrims endured and their efforts to escape persecution in England. How many realize the Pilgrims were attacked, imprisoned, fined, and had their property and assets confiscated? They were literally fleeing for their livelihood. But why? And who were the Pilgrims?

The Pilgrims were those who believed in the Bible but didn’t follow the official state church of England (the Anglican Church). The King or Queen of England (the highest monarch) is also the head of the Church of England—a tradition that continues to this day.

Kings and queens today, though lifelong positions in the United Kingdom, share limited power with elected leaders, such as members of Parliament (the House of Commons and the House of Lords), the Prime Minister, and the judiciary. However, in the past, the King or Queen wielded much greater power. When disagreements arose, the monarch could use both political and church authority to suppress dissent.

One law from the 1600s stated that no one was allowed to belong to or organize a church that was not part of the Church of England. The Pilgrims, desiring to follow the Bible in its purest and plainest sense, sought to establish a church purified from false teachings. They became known as Puritans (Presbyterians and Baptists came out of the Puritan line by the way). Because they refused to conform to the Church of England's practices and methodology and held what they believed were more biblical views, they were seen as "separatists" opposing the Church of England.

This was the situation with the Pilgrims—they were separatists who disagreed with the Church of England on certain points and wanted to serve and worship God distinctly from the prescribed Anglican practices.

As a result, they were hunted, fined, jailed, and persecuted. Some fled to the Netherlands for a time before returning to England to sail to the New World in hopes of finding freedom. After much strife and negotiation, two ships were set to sail: the Speedwell and the Mayflower. However, the Speedwell had to abort its voyage due to leaks. The Mayflower eventually set sail, and after 66 days, the first wave of Pilgrims (102 passengers) arrived in North America at a terrible time of year—November 1620.

The men signed a government charter called the Mayflower Compact. They discovered Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620, and began building. The cold, wet, and sickly conditions caused many to fall ill, and only 52 people survived the winter.

Meanwhile, the Pilgrims developed a good relationship with the natives, even agreeing to be allies in case of war.

The First Thanksgiving

In the fall of 1621, about one year after landing, the natives and the Pilgrims held a three-day celebration of thanks to God. Over the next six years, many other Pilgrims were able to join them from England and the Netherlands.

The celebration became a regular event and is forever marked as the first Thanksgiving festival. When a fledgling United States was gaining independence from England (e.g., the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776), the new nation wanted a day to honor and thank God. 

Thanksgiving was recommended and voted a success. Though the date has shifted a few times, it is now always the fourth Thursday of November each year. Thus, it always precedes the Christmas season, which begins with Advent (the four Sundays before Christmas).

I think it is worth taking a closer look at the congressional committee’s recommendation for a national Thanksgiving Day. It shows congressional unity behind the Triune God, which I will emphasize in bold in the text reprinted below:

“Saturday, November 1, 1777

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.”[1]

Making Thanksgiving Personal

I hope that Thanksgiving is a blessed time for those reading this. I also hope that you take time to personally thank God who created and sustains your very existence. God is loving and wants all to come to repentance and receive the great news of what Jesus Christ has done by sacrificing Himself on the Cross to die in our place to take our sin upon Him. What a loving God and Savior indeed.

Consider as a conclusion, the importance of thanking Christ for what He has done based on Luke 17:11-19 (NKJV):

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.

And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”

And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.

So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? “Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

 



[1] Open source.


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