Glenn Beck not only a Mormon but now promoting New Age religion

The pieces seem to be coming together for the final Antichrist Religion as various channels unite toward one mega-belief system. The Catholic church has been preparing the ground for the incorporation of primitive religions for years as they embrace the pagan practices of the peoples where they dominate -- such as Haiti's voodoo -- and treat Islam as worshipping the same God as Christians. There is also a trend toward refusing to give the gospel based on the false teaching that all religions lead to God, Mother Teresa being a major proponent of that false teaching.

Now New Age beliefs such as promoted by Oprah Winfrey are getting a boost by Glenn Beck, as discussed in this article by Brannon Howse: Glenn Beck's New Book Reveals He Embraces New Age Theology, Is a Knowledgeable Mormon, and a Universalist .

Apparently Mormonism has a lot in common with New Ageism. Here's Brannon Howse on this subject:

In August of 2010, I predicted on my national radio program that it was only a matter of time before Glenn Beck would release a distinctively religious book that would promote his New Age Mormonism and universalism. I sensed that Glenn was setting himself up to be the politically conservative alternative to Oprah.

Many self-professing Christians cannot see what Beck is up to but there are those in the unsaved world that seem to be exhibiting more worldview understanding than some in the Christian community. The Business Insider published an article on January 4, 2011 entitled, Glenn Beck's New Year's Plan Sounds A Lot Like Oprah's New Network.

Last week (second week of January 2011) Beck released his latest book entitled The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life. The book is co-authored by psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow.

Beck's new book is nothing less than the promotion of universalism, postmodernism, and pagan spirituality, also known as the New Age Movement.

The whole article is interesting, and here's another from his site that's equally interesting Glenn Beck and Oprah Winfrey Launch New Age Programming for 2011:

I tried to warn Americans in 2010 that I believe Glenn Beck is guilty of performing a bait and switch on millions of Americans. Beck went from being a TV and radio talk show host that discussed public policy, history, and current news to preaching the same Universalism and New Age theology that Oprah Winfrey has being been preaching for years. In fact, On Saturday, January 1, 2011, Oprah launched her New Age programming for the year with the Oprah Winfrey Network. Oprah drew more than 1 million viewers for its first night on the air.

Glenn Beck has clearly become the Oprah Winfrey of the right and many Christian authors and pastors are eager to appear on his radio and television program despite his heresy because, like Oprah, Beck has taken little known authors and made them a lot of money by promoting their books.

Many Christians continue to defend Beck despite the fact he is becoming more and more blatant in his New Age preaching. I expect Beck will continue to gather around him a huge audience that is looking for a spiritual experience that tickles the ears.

I would never have guessed that there are so many Christians who could fall for this kind of thing. That's at least as disturbing as the fact that the One World Religion is taking shape before our eyes. I hope their fall into deception is temporary.

Christmas is NOT a pagan holiday

I'm more and more convinced that rejecting Christmas as a pagan holiday simply because it replaced a pagan holiday is very wrong. As I said on my other blog about this a few days ago, it is Christ overcoming the world when this happens, quite the opposite of paganism being honored. The paganism is no longer there, Christ has conquered it. There is no one who celebrates Saturnalia on Christmas any more, or if there are some they are out on the fringe and have nothing to do with Christmas anyway.

Likewise, there is no one who celebrates Ishtar on Easter either. Perhaps it should be Passover instead but that's a controversy I'm not going to get into. Easter is now the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Until the owlish ones got all het up about the meaning of the term "Easter" most of us had no idea about its pagan origins and we were better off when we didn't. It's the Lord's resurrection now, that's how people experience it, that's what's in people's minds and hearts and I have to think God knows it and therefore accepts it.

Some Christians also deal with the pagan holiday of Halloween by substituting harvest concepts. Perhaps we should make it an all-out Day of the Harvest of Souls anticipating the Lord's return. This is a perfectly reasonable thing to do with a pagan holiday that we can't participate in.

It's a superstition to make so much out of the bare historical fact when what matters to God is what is ACTUALLY going on in people's minds and hearts -- THAT is what is ACTUALLY being celebrated. The ancient meaning of the date is now meaningless. Nobody would even remember it if it weren't for those who are trying to stumble us over it. It's just another day and if we celebrate Christ on that day then it is Christ's day, not some pagan god's.

I happened to hear R C Sproul talking on this subject over the radio recently. I couldn't find the actual talk online but I did find this brief essay by him on the same subject:

BlogArticles
Is the Celebration of Christmas a Pagan Ritual?
from R.C. Sproul

That question comes up every year at Christmastime. In the first place, there’s no direct biblical commandment to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. There’s nothing in the Bible that would even indicate that Jesus was born on December 25. In fact, there’s much in the New Testament narratives that would indicate that it didn’t occur during that time of year. It just so happens that on the twenty-fifth of December in the Roman Empire there was a pagan holiday that was linked to mystery religions; the pagans celebrated their festival on December 25. The Christians didn’t want to participate in that, and so they said, “While everybody else is celebrating this pagan thing, we’re going to have our own celebration. We’re going to celebrate the thing that’s most important in our lives, the incarnation of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. So this is going to be a time of joyous festivities, of celebration and worship of our God and King.”

I can’t think of anything more pleasing to Christ than the church celebrating his birthday every year.

However, if the consciences of some tell them for the sake of Christ not to celebrate Christmas it seems to me that should be respected, according to scripture:

Romans 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. 10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

At the same time they ought to respect those who do celebrate Christmas for the sake of Christ since in our minds there is nothing pagan about it at all, and stop trying to prove that we're really celebrating something pagan. We're not and the accusation only distresses people who are also members of the body of Christ.

Jesus owns every day on the calendar and should be celebrated on every day.

The Messiah, words and some of the music.

M E R R Y

C H R I S T M A S!

Handel, MESSIAH:

BEHOLD, THE LAMB OF GOD

HE SHALL FEED HIS FLOCK

WORTHY IS THE LAMB & AMEN

The lyrics to Messiah, all straight from the Bible:

*PART I*

OVERTURE

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Tenor) Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness:-Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

AIR (Tenor)
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight and the rough places plain.

CHORUS And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Bass)
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts:-Yet once a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come. The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.

AIR (Bass) But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire.

CHORUS
And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

RECITATIVE.
(Alto) Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name immanuel, God with us.

AIR (Alto) and CHORUS O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain: O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold you God! Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Bass)
For Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

AIR (Bass) The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

CHORUS
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

PASTORAL SYMPHONY

RECITATIVE. (Soprano) There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Soprano) And lo! the angel of the Lord cam upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

RECITATIVE.
(Soprano) And the angel said unto the, Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Soprano) And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:-

CHORUS
Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

AIR. (Soprano)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is the righteous Saviour, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen.

RECITATIVE. (Alto)
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

AIR (Alto)
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

AIR (Alto)
Come unto Him, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

CHORUS
His yoke is easy and His burthen is light.


*PART II*

CHORUS
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

AIR (Alto)
He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting.

CHORUS
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed.

CHORUS
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied -Tenor)
Thy rebuke hath broken His heart; He is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort Him.

AIR. (Tenor)
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow.

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Soprano)
He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of Thy people was He stricken.

AIR (Soprano)
But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.

CHORUS
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.

RECITATIVE. (Tenor)
Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?

CHORUS
Let all the angels of God worship Him.

AIR. (Bass)
Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea, even for Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

CHORUS
The Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers.

AIR. (Soprano)
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.

CHORUS
Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.

AIR (Bass)
Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and who do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed.

CHORUS
Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us.

RECITATIVE (Tenor)
He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision.

AIR (Tenor)
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

CHORUS
Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!


*Part III*

AIR
(Soprano)
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms destroy this body yet, in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep.

CHORUS
Since by man came death,

CHORUS
By man came also the resurrection of the dead.

CHORUS
For as in Adam all die,

CHORUS
Even so in Christ shall all be made alive

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied - Bass)
Behold, I tell you a mystery; We shall not all sleep; but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

AIR. (Bass)
The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality.

RECITATIVE (Alto)
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; Death is swallowed up in victory!

DUET (Alto and Tenor)
O death, where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

CHORUS
But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

AIR (Soprano)
If God be for us, who can be against us? who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.

CHORUS
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.
__ Amen.

Communications from the Lord far more believable than experiences of heaven

Scott Johnson told these stories in his report for December 16: one about a listener of his who had just lost her daughter, and the others about the deaths of his own parents.

The audio stories.

The PDF to the stories.

The link to the listener's You Tube song .

These three stories all involve coincidences and symbolic events that are far more convincing to me as communications coming from the Lord than any of the visits to heaven I commented on in recent blog posts here. These are events of a sort that many Christians have experienced many times, often in connection with the death of a loved one, or in general when reassurance is needed -- or just as a reminder of His presence or a token of His love. It's one way the Lord Jesus communicates to us. It's very touching when He does it, reminding you that you are His, that your loved ones are His.

And HE is the communicator in all these instances, in fact He is the message itself, whereas in the "heaven" stories it's almost as if He's an afterthought or just part of the furniture. He's there in the scene, some bogus version of Him anyway, but He's not the whole point of Heaven as in reality He would be.

In these cases reported by Scott Johnson they pretty clearly came from Him for the purpose of reassuring the survivors that the person who died is safely home with Him. No visits to Heaven, although there was one event sort of like a vision seen by two people, but otherwise just touching coincidences that add up to meaningful communication for those who belong to Him.

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I think I'll just add one of my own experiences of this sort of coincidence although it's nothing compared to the stories told above, and didn't involve anybody's death. On my fiftieth birthday -- a LONG time ago now -- a friend left a bouquet of flowers on my doorstep. The bouquet contained specific flowers that had special meaning to me as representing my family and me, along with a palm leaf which of course represents the Lord Jesus Himself. An odd bouquet, not exactly standard: Tiger lilies, carnations, tiny white daisies and the palm leaf. I immediately knew it was from Him because of what each of those flowers signified to me, about which my friend hadn't the slightest clue -- she'd simply picked up the bouquet in the floral department at the market.

When I was a child my father told me that tiger lily was his favorite flower. I suppose he made up a favorite flower to humor me but I drew pictures of tiger lilies on birthday cards I made for him for years from then on. I'd never seen a tiger lily so I had to find pictures in books, and in fact I don't think I ever saw a real one until I was grown -- I almost want to say until that bouquet but I'm not sure of that. The carnation happened to be my favorite flower at the time of my 50th birthday, as I'd gotten into the habit of buying one or a few at the market to put on the table just for myself. The rest of the story is that I had woven tiny daisies into my daughter's hair for a dance performance when she was six, and they've represented her to me ever since. There's no meaning beyond the flowers representing me and my family, three generations, and nobody would have known any of this except me. And with the palm leaf it was like all of us being gathered under His wing. My father died without Him as far as I know -- that was years before I became a believer -- but I still took the tiger lily as symbolic of my whole family with him as its head, and all in the Lord's hands according to His will. It was like He was right there with me as I thought about the meaning of the flowers.

More on the unbiblical nature of experiences of "Heaven"

I read through some of the reviews of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven at Amazon and one in particular, a 3-star review by D. Graeber gave enough specifics to strengthen the opinion I expressed two posts below. Few of the reviews give any of the description of heaven at all and some complain that very little was actually said about heaven. But this review details enough of what was said to be able to judge it by scripture, and by scripture it fails:

3.0 out of 5 stars
Title is misleading, December 4, 2010
By D. Graeber "pshdsa" -

This review is from: The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World (Hardcover)

The Title makes you think that inside this book is a first person account of heaven and all that is inside. The book is by the boy's Dad about his son. The boy is very reluctant to talk about his experiences in heaven and makes it a big secret that he cannot share. Still, enough leaks out despite this reluctance that raises a few eyebrows. Now given the tragedy of the accident and the awful suffering the boy had to endure, there is a natural desire to believe everything the boy says about his trip to heaven to talk to God.

Still, truth should endure scrutiny.

Alex claims God looks like a person, only bigger. He says some angels are only two feet high. He says you have to make your spirit transparent to see and talk with angels. He says that the new heaven is already created and is in another place right now. He says there is a hole in the outer part of heaven that leads down to hell. He says the devil has three heads and looks decrepit.

All of these claims are extra-biblical. That in itself is reason for alarm. God is a spirit and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, and is our shield and exceedingly great reward. Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man.

I know that seeing Jesus is a mind blowing experience that surpasses everything. He eclipses angels, archangels, cherubim, everything. Nothing compares to Him. He is the full and complete answer to everything we face in life or will face. His glory surpasses any light we can think or see now. This is entirely missing in this book. Instead, way too much preoccupation with angels, and Alex. What are angels if you have seen the glory of Jesus? I sure don't see this reaction in this book. That is impossible if you have seen the Lord.

Right on, D. Graeber. That does it for me.

The devil has no scruples. He is only too happy to use a small child to promote his program of deceit, even the horrendous story of the suffering of that child and his family. All to manipulate the compassion of readers and make it harder for anyone to think critically about the story.

I can only wonder what's wrong with the supposedly Christian publishers of these books that they haven't the discernment to know they are sending out a counterfeit message, and with the majority of the commenters at Amazon that they accept it so uncritically.

WHERE IS THE BEREAN SPIRIT THAT CHECKS THE SCRIPTURES?

Many think the book will lead people to Christ. What Christ might that be, pray tell? Oh yes, perhaps a few might actually make their way to the true Christ from such a false start, stranger things have happened, but that would only be because of God's mercy, not because of anything in the story itself.

I got to Christ from first believing some Hindu gurus about the nature of God. Had quite a winding road to go from there, although God took me down that road pretty rapidly considering how many different beliefs I had to get through before I reached my destination -- but that's not exactly the normal way people come to Christ and encountering a deception supported by supposed Christians doesn't bode well.

Leftist Revisionist History of the First Thanksgiving and the role of the Indian Squanto corrected by original sources

They have the nerve to call it THE REAL STORY of Thanksgiving.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

Most of us haven't studied enough history to be able to answer this smear job, but I found this page of information which touches on so many aspects of the history of early English and European investigations of America, USING ORIGINAL SOURCES, it makes the cherrypicked lies of the first link only too clear.

The true story is a mixture of good and bad human motivations and relations, as most true stories of human interactions are. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page to "1615" where the relevant information begins that contradicts the revisionist lies.

According to this source I found, it was in 1615 that an English ship took TWENTY Indians to sell as slaves in Spain. Is that a "ship full of Patuxet Indians" as the first link claims? I'm a bit confused by the information at the second link but it appears that the Indian Squanto was among them but went to England rather than Spain, learned English and returned four years later, in time to help the Pilgrims when they arrived.

The first link also asserts without evidence or qualification that it was the slave ship that caused the death of the Patuxit Indians of smallpox, but the second link has better source information and makes it clear that the cause of their death was not known, though it was a "plague" that wiped them out. A "great sickness" also wiped out most of the Pilgrims in their first year. But the need of revisionists is always to blame the "white man" for some reason for everything.

The first link also says the Pilgrims found only one living Patuxet Indian, Squanto, who had "survived slavery," (had he even been made a slave?) but the Pilgrims didn't "find" him at all. Samoset, another Indian who knew some English, made first contact with the Pilgrims and then brought Squanto to them.

Here is a separate page on Squanto linked from the first that says he was not captured to be a slave but was trained to be a guide and interpreter for English sea captains. Later apparently he was captured and sold to Spain as a slave but lived among monks and eventually returned to England. The details are pretty complicated but his life as a slave appears to have been very short lived at most. But he did return to his native land in 1619, finding his own people wiped out by "the plague," and was a great help to the Pilgrims when they arrived -- as much for his own benefit as out of kindness to the Pilgrims, but why not, that's the story of humanity after all.

This same page on Squanto says that the "plague" that killed so many Indians was never clearly identified, though apparently Europeans were immune to it.

[NOTE: Before the Great Plague of 1616-17 had finally run its course, it killed between one-third to perhaps as much as eighty per cent of the Indians of southern New England, located between Narragansett Bay and the Penobscot River. The disease has never been identified. "The savages died like rotten sheep, and their bodies before and after death were exceedingly yellow." Europeans were apparently immune to the plague's ravages, and not all tribes in the area were affected by the Great Plague, as the Massachusetts tribe to the north of the Patuxets seems to have escaped unscathed.]

The story of Squanto ends:

In November 1623, while on a trading expedition to the Massachusetts Indians, Squanto came down with Indian fever. Squanto died suddenly, "attended with bleeding much at the nose." Before his death, Squanto talked with Governor Bradford and asked him "to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven, and bequeathed sundry of his things to sundry of his English friends as remembrances of his love, of whom they had a great loss."

Bradford's appreciation of Squanto was expressed in his history, Of Plimoth Plantation, when he says: ". . .Squanto continued with them (the Pilgrims) and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died."

Now I'm going to copy out a very long passage about the period after they connected with Squanto, including the first Thanksgiving and the breakdown of friendly relations with the Indians.

CONTINUING PEACEFUL RELATIONS

During the next few months, the Native Americans and the colonists worked together to till and plant the first successful crops. The first feast of Thanksgiving, in October of 1621, was a harvest festival filled with fellowship, good food and games. The Indians and the colonists shared the fruits of their labor: venison, duck, turkey, corn and pumpkin.

We are told any misgivings between the two races faded from memory and the peaceful relations between the Pilgrims and their Indian friends continued. In his A Letter Sent from New England in December, 1621, Edward Winslow reported: "Wee have found the Indians very faithfull in their Covenant of Peace with us; very living and readie to pleasure us: we often goe to them, and they come to us; some of us have bin fiftie myles by Land in the Country with them; the occasions and Relations . . . Yea it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with a feare of us, and love unto us, that not onely the greatest King amongst them call Massasoyt, but also all the Princes peoples round about us, have either made sute unto us, or beene glad of any occasion to make peace with us, so that seaven of them at once have sent their messengers to us to that end . . . So that there is now great peace amongst the Indians themselves, which was formerly, neither would have bin but for us; and we for our parts walke as peaceably and safely in the wood, as in the hie ways in England, we entertain them familiarly in our houses, and they as friendly bestowing their Venison on us."

TRADE WITH THE PILGRIMS

The Pilgrims had a deep and sincere friendship for the natives that endured for over fifty years. Nine thousand years of coping with the wilderness had ceased with the arrival of a more advanced culture. Rugged cutting steel blades, farming tools, trim clothing, warm blankets, glass and metal containers and ornaments that no stone or shell work could duplicate-all these were available for trade. The Indians had all the makings of a good trade-plenty of pelts and a surplus of land. Outside their planting fields and villages lay vast tracts of unused countryside. John Josselyn, a non-puritan who visited America for a second time in 1663, reported, "Their merchandise are their beads [wampum], which are their better money. Of these there are two sorts: blue beads and white beads. The first is their gold, the last their silver. These they work out of certain shells so cunning… They drill them and string them, and make many curious works with them to adorn the persons of their sagamors and principal men and young women, as belts, girdles, tablets, borders for their women's hair, bracelets, necklaces, and links to hang in their ears."

THE GATHERING STORM CLOUDS OF DISTRUST

The peace born of mutual support and trust eventually eroded. Another plague-the small pox epidemic of 1633-34-swept away thousands of Algonquins and made more land available. Only between fifteen to eighteen thousand Native People still survived in all of New England. Meanwhile, the expanding colonial towns were bulging with the new arrivals, eager to start claiming and clearing their own piece of America.

LAND DISPUTES

Land transfer was not a simple matter. The colonial laws guarded the rights of the natives. Only through qualified agents could purchases be made. Interpreters must be present, as well as several witnesses for both parties. The Indian owner or his family must be present for the formal signing, for unlike communal tribal lands of the western Indians, much of the land was owned by individual tribesmen. Finally, the sachem must also add his mark if he were in agreement. If all this puzzled the land-rich warrior, he may have been aware of his rights under English law. And when all was said and done, he generally retained his right to hunt and fish on the property. To the twentieth century mind, trade goods seems a small price to pay for a slice of real estate. But values must be interpreted as to time and place, and the Algonquin was certain he had the best of the bargain. In 1675, a full-scale war erupted between the increasing number of colonists and the Indians. Now known as King Phillip's War, after the name of the Massasoit's son, who was then chief, the clash lasted eleven years and caused great destruction on both sides.

The Wampanoag were defeated, and peaceful relations between the two groups were forever shattered.

The peaceful relations between the Pilgrims and Indians had lasted 54 years, during the lifetimes of the Massasoit and the original members of Plymouth Colony. [my emphasis]

Part V. First Pilgrim Thanksgiving

The background for the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving is found in Bradford's History. In the fall of 1621, their first fall in the New World, "They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwelling against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength, and had all things in good plenty; for as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All summer there was no want. And now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first, but afterward decreased by degrees. And besides water fowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, and now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.--And thus they found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their out-goings and in-comings..."

In their first ten months at Plymouth, just passed, they had erected seven dwellings, a Common Meeting house and three small store houses for food, clothing and other supplies.

In spite of their numbers having been cut in half by sickness and death, they found reasons for thankfulness. They had gained their foot-hold on the edge of an inhospitable continent. They were well recovered in health and strength. They were making the best of a hard life in the wilderness. They had proved that they could sustain themselves in the new, free land. They were assured of the success of their purpose of establishing freedom. They had made firm friends with the Indians, who had been so kind to them.

The original account of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving is in a letter from Edward Winslow in Plymouth, dated Dec. 21st, 1621 to George Morton in England. It was printed in Mourt's Relation, London, 1662. Winslow relates the following: "We set last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas. According to the manner of the Indians we manured our ground with herrings (alewives) which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase in Indian corn. Our barley did indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering. We feared they were too late sown. They came up very well and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together, after we had gathered in the fruits of our labors. They four in one day killed as many fowl as with little help besides, served the Company for almost a week, at which time, amongst our recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their great king the Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. They went out and killed five deer, which they brought in to the Plantation, and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. Although it not always be so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. -- We have found the Indians very faithful in their Covenant of Peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us. Some of us have been fifty miles into the country by land with them. -- There is now great peace amongst us; and we, for our parts, walk as peaceably and safely in the woods here as in the highways in England. - I never in my life remember a more seasonable year than we have enjoyed. -- If we have but once kine, horses and sheep, I make no question but men might live as contented here, as in any part of the world. -- The country wanteth only industrious men to employ, for it would grieve your hearts to see so many miles together with goodly rivers uninhabited, and withall to consider those parts of the world wherein you live to be seven greatly burdened with abundance of people."

For three days the Pilgrims and their Indian guests gorged themselves on venison, roast duck, goose and turkey, clams and other shell-fish, succulent eels, corn bread, hasty pudding, leeks and water-cress and other "sallet herbes," with wild plums and dried berries as dessert, all washed down with wine made of the wild grape. The affair was more like an out-door barbeque for the entire population, than a family reunion dinner.

This feasting involved the preparation of unusually large quantities of food, some of it unfamiliar. Only four of their married women had survived, and only five teenage girls, three of those being the sole survivors of their families. They must have been extremely industrious and efficient, and they must have worn themselves ragged, trying to fill a hundred and forty demanding stomachs for three days. Sufficient tribute has never been paid to them for making these festivities a success, under such trying conditions. Indeed, even the success of the Colony rested largely in their most capable and devoted hands.

The gathering was enlivened by contests of skill and strength: running, jumping, wrestling. Also, there were games of various kinds. The Indians were probably amazed to learn that the white men could play games not unlike their own. The Indians performed their dances and struck up their singing. Standish put his little army of fourteen men through their military review. Then followed feats of marksmanship, muskets performing against bows and arrows. The Massasoit and his braves headed home at last with a warmth of feeling for his white friends which survived even the harsh tests to which it was soon subjected.

Thus they elaborately celebrated the prospect of abundance until their next harvest.

Part VI. STARVATION TIME & FIVE KERNELS OF CORN

The first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 was a bountiful feast, but the inventory taken afterwards in preparation for winter proved the Pilgrims had grossly overestimated their harvest. The only way they could possibly get through the winter was to cut in half the already weekly rations of food. To make matters even worse, the ship Fortune arrived shortly thereafter with 35 new settlers. Only three were women. They came empty-handed and poorly clothed; ill-equipped for the approaching winter. Bradford wrote, "They were lusty young men, and many of them wild enough, who little considered whither or about what they went.-But there was not so much as biscuit or cake or any other victuals for them, neither had they bedding, but some sorry things they had in their cabins; not a pot nor pan to dress any meat in; nor over many clothes.-The Plantation was glad enough of this strength, but could have wished that many of them had been of better condition, and all of them better furnished with provisions."

Thus after a month the Fortune returned to England. The Fortune itself had to be supplied from the scant stores of the Colony for her return voyage.

Grim starvation now threatened their annihilation. The Pilgrim colonists could only tighten their belts. Many times the colonists supplied unexpected arrivals and distressed mariners, sometimes in large numbers, from their slender store.

The houses were very small, barely large enough for the families who, despite cold, hunger and sickness had built them. The new arrivals busied themselves by making additions to the seven houses where they were quartered.

From the first, the colonists had been repeatedly promised provisions from England, but the much needed relief never came.

The colonists struggled through the winter, but by May 1622 their food supply was completely gone and the harvest was four months away. According to Edward Winslow's account, the wildlife and fish were in short supply because the number of fowl decreased during the warm months and lacking the proper fishing gear they were prevented from taking advantage of the abundance of cod in the area.. Winslow stated, "And indeed, had we not been in a place where divers sorts of shell fish may be taken with the hand, we must have perished."

In desperation, Winslow was sent 150 miles up the Maine coast to buy, beg or borrow whatever provisions the English ships there could spare. All who were asked gave what they could and not one would accept payment of any kind.

By the time Winslow returned, the settlers were literally starving. The provisions were a godsend but there were many mouths to feed; when rationed out, each person received only 1/4 lb. of bread a day.

[The "Five Kernels of Corn" material is based largely on the work of Susan E. Roser of the Canadian Mayflower Society.]

1622 SUMMER HARVEST FAILS

The long awaited harvest of 1622 was a dismal failure. The Pilgrims had not yet perfected the art of growing corn. They had been busy building the fort and their lack of food that summer had left them too weak and weary to tend the fields properly. It seemed they now faced the prospect of another year with little food.

Yet another ship arrived at Plymouth, the Discovery, this one from Virginia on its way home to England. It had a cargo of what the settlers needed - knives, beads and assorted trinkets which could be traded with the Indians. Seeing how badly they needed the goods, the captain cheated them miserably, but they considered the ship's arrival a blessing - they could now trade with the Indians for food.

Corn was not known to Europeans until it was discovered in America. It is not too much to say that without the indigenous Indian corn, the Pilgrims could not have survived. None of the great variety of English garden seeds they had brought with them and planted ever produced a good harvest. Their food supply became precarious. Occasionally a deer, wild turkey, partridge or quail was bagged, if the hunters were fortunate; fish when fishermens' luck permitted, lobster, alms and eels, if and when they could be found. Wild berries, grapes, groundnuts, strawberries and such could be plucked in their season. Besides not having sufficient grain to make bread, they were also without butter, cheese and milk because they had no cattle.

By early 1623 the shallop had been rudely fitted out as a fishing vessel. It was constantly at sea, coming ashore only long enough to unload a catch and change crews. For months at a time the Pilgrims' diet consisted of fish, clams, groundnuts and whatever deer or water fowl could be hunted. Bradford wrote of this time, saying, "By the time our corn is planted, our victuals are spent, not knowing at night where to have a bite in the morning, and have neither bread nor corn for 3 or 4 months together; yet bear our wants with cheerfulness, and rest on Providence."

It was at this time, awaiting the harvest of 1623 they lived four or five days at a time on a few grains of corn.

Again their hopes rested on a good fall harvest. A six-week drought began in June and the crops turned brown and were slowly withering away. They turned to the only hope they had - intervention by God, and appointed a solemn day of humiliation and prayer. They assembled one July morning under a hot, clear sky and for nine hours prayed. Their prayers were answered by the next morning, and for the next two weeks they were greeted, in the words of Winslow with "such softe, sweet and moderate showers . . . As it was hard to say whether our withered corne or drooping affections were most quickened and revived." [my emphasis]

It turned out to be a double blessing from above. That same month arrived the ships Anne and Little James with 60 new settlers which came loaded with provisions.

The harvest in the fall of 1623 proved to be the best yet. It also promised a new beginning for the Pilgrim colonists, and they never starved again.

THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC COLONY HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED SUCCESSFULLY IN THE NEW WORLD

There are many side pages linked from the above at the site that have more good information.