Day Three

Now begins the chronicle of the third day of the Heroes, History, & Hope Tour!  I hope you all are able to catch a glimpse of what it was like to be at all these historic sites.  I'm very grateful I have been given this rare opportunity to learn about the spiritual heritage of my fathers in the faith.  It is also sobering to realize that I, along with all my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, have a responsibility to not let the sacrifices of those who went before us to be in vain.  We have a lot of work to do, a lot of enemies to face, and a lot of ground to retake!  But these two passages of Scripture bring me comfort and encouragement:

"There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord." (Proverbs 21:30-31)

"For You have girded me with strength for battle; 
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 
You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, 
and I destroyed those who hated me." 

(Psalm 18:39-40)

Day 3 opened up the second segment of the tour, which focused on the Pilgrims.

The day begins at Plymouth Rock!

 For this last segment of the tour, a number of my friends from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine came to join us.  With the addition of one more family from Missouri, we had more than twice the size of our original group from Princeton.  As I always say, the more the merrier!

A much larger group

Plymouth Rock!  What a treasure!

The street by the waterfront in Plymouth

We'll visit this museum on Friday

Meeting new friends

Plymouth Bay

Speaking about the significance of the Mayflower Compact

Governor Bradford

Resolute and grim

Helpful information for tourists

The Pilgrim Sarcophagus

The Pilgrim Sarcophagus was erected on the site of where it is believed that the Pilgrims buried their dead during that first terrible year in 1620-1621.  Because they didn't want the neighboring Indians to see how rapidly and devastatingly the colonists were being depleted in numbers, the Pilgrims buried the dead in one common, unmarked grave.

Speaking about the legacy of Edward Winslow

 "The Pilgrim Fathers were ever mindful of their place in history.  Although they were  a small, modest, and unassuming band and probably not much of a force in their own day, these Pilgrims were very much aware of their past and of their responsibilities towards their friends in England and Holland, as well as to their posterity."

Inscription on the sarcophagus

Walking down Leyden Street; the oldest street in Plymouth

Trying to give my lecture while holding on to my notes as the wind blew

Interns keep stragglers together :)

The Brewster Garden

Capturing the essence of Ruthie Barton

The Pilgrim Maid

The plaque honoring the Pilgrim women

Theological orthodoxy comes with a cost

This church, pictured above, has quite the story behind it.  Basically, the first church in Plymouth (which you will see in pictures below) had begun to slide into the heresy of Unitarianism by the late 1700's.  Several men in the congregation however stood up for the doctrine of the Trinity.  When the differences could not be resolved and the movement into Unitarianism continued, these men and their families, left and started this church right next door.  Their hope was that they would both serve as a light and as a testimony to the fact that truth always perseveres against falsehood.   To this day, there is still a congregation that meets here and, for the most part, worships God according to His infallible Word.

The sad reminder of how the foundations of even the oldest churches can be eroded away by heresy

Universalism and Unitarianism in its basic expression

Beautiful church....bad theology

After touring Plymouth, we came to end our day at Burial Hill...

The Patriarch of the Pilgrims

Sacred ground for the American Protestant

Bradford's eulogy

The rock of remembrance for a great man of God

The skull and crossbones on the graves

For those who may be wondering, the reason the Pilgrims put pictures of a skull and crossbones on the tombstones was to remind the living of their mortality and that it is the fate of every son and daughter of Adam to one day, return to the dust from which we were made, unless the Lord should return.

Burial Hill

A somber scene

The hope of all those who go to be with the Lord when they leave this mortal world:
 

"But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (I Corinthians 15:54-55)

With the tour activities concluded for the day, it was nice to come home with the Hamann family and relax!  During the evening, I taught the Hamann kids how to play Jenga, which is a Stanton favorite!

Be careful!

The master Jenga player :)

That's all folks!  However, I will continue to post the pictures from the last two days of the tour.  Keep coming back for more!