Till Kingdom Come
The Pilgrims were part of a greater movement - stretching
back to Wycliffe and Tyndale - to place the Scriptures
into the hands of the common man. Yet what they tried to
do with those Scriptures is virtually unknown, even though
their moving story is told year after year in America.
Vivid images remain with us: fleeing persecution in England,
leaving Holland, crossing the perilous sea, settling in
Plymouth, suffering heroically through their first winter,
receiving gracious help from the Indians.
For most of us, their story ends a few months later with
the first Thanksgiving. They went on with a life we know
very little about, and eventually this great and free nation
was born. It is not too clear in the textbooks anymore,
but somehow the two - their life and our nation - are connected.
These brave but simple and humble men and women had more
in their hearts than the great idea we associate with them:
religious freedom.
That was part of it, but they came for more than a safe
haven for their children from the worldly temptations of
Holland. They actually came to recreate on the shores of
America the life of the first church - what the world saw
in Jerusalem in the first century. We tend to see "the
Pilgrims" in a certain way that makes it hard for us to
understand what their life together meant to them .
They shared all things in common, not just as a business
arrangement with their financial backers, but as an expression
of their fervent faith. They were out to bring the "Kingdom
of God" to earth. At the least, they sought to be "stepping
stones" for those who might come after them, "one small
candle" that "may light a thousand." [1] But
they wanted to be stepping-stones to somewhere, a light on
the path there.
In their own estimation, they failed . They didn't
become what they wanted to, but settled for something far
less. This was their sorrow, their heartache, and their
profound disappointment. They dreamed much more greatly
than we have understood, even though the whole story is
written in Bradford's own journal, Of Plymouth Plantation. In
their own words, the Pilgrim story raises profound questions
about the dream, the cost, and even the possibility of
bringing the Kingdom of God to earth.
That such a goal filled the hearts of a group of English
countrymen is perhaps the greatest wonder of the story,
which begins, in this sense, long before any of them were
born. It begins with the "morning star" of the Reformation,
John Wycliffe, whose work was continued a century later
by William Tyndale. Tyndale's translation remains the foundation
of English translations of the Bible to this day. In them
burned a fire to purify the church and to give the common
man the word of God. For many centuries it had lain hidden
in the hands of the clergy and in the dead languages of
scholars. They thought that perhaps if the common people
had the Bible, the first, pure love of the primitive church
might blossom on the earth again.
What will the plowboy do with the Word of God?
In the most famous incident of his life, Tyndale insists
on the necessity of the common man knowing the Scriptures
and no longer being held in ignorance. When confronted
by a clergyman as to what was wrong with their ignorance,
since they have the Church to teach them, Tyndale cuts
to the heart of the matter. What about the times when the
pope is at variance with God's laws? The priest responds
that it would be better to do without God's laws than the
pope's. In the answer that shaped his life, and secured
its violent end, Tyndale vowed, " I defy the Pope and
all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years I will
cause a boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scripture
than you do."
Some seventy years after his death, that plowboy - that everyman - joined
a group of Separatists in Scrooby, England. They were the
most radical of the Puritans who believed in complete separation
from the established church.
That twelve-year-old boy was William Bradford, whose devotion
to the cause cost him the loss of his family, for they
disowned him. But his decision meant much more than alienating
his family. It placed him at odds with the governing authorities
of the English church and state, at whose hands he and
the others suffered persecution.
Bradford saw this treatment as nothing less than the opposition
of Satan. As he would write in his journal, the evil one
was "loath his kingdom should go down, the truth prevail
and the churches of God revert to their ancient purity
and recover their primitive order, liberty, and beauty." [2]
The desire to see the churches restored to how they were
at first, back to their "primitive order," was the powerful
motivation that sustained the Pilgrims through all their
difficulties. It is why they were given the despised name
of "Separatists" and known as radicals and driven out of
England. It set them on a course to the "wilderness" and "strange
lands" and a life filled with "weal and woe." [3] They
knew blessings and the keenest of sufferings in a way those
who safely adventure less in life will never know.
It was through Bradford's eyes that history would see
the Pilgrims, as his journal, Of Plymouth Plantation, forms
our chief record of their remarkable life. His poetry and
history reveal the deep stream from which this spiritual
movement flowed, and the rocks over which it floundered,
and upon which it died.
The depth of the bond these men and women had, and the
cause to which they dedicated their life, can be glimpsed
in this passage from Bradford's journal, concerning their
time in Leyden, Holland: 
Being thus settled (after many difficulties) they enjoyed
many years in a comfortable situation, enjoying much sweet
and delightful society and spiritual comfort together in
the ways of God, under the able ministry and prudent government
of Mr. John Robinson and Mr. William Brewster... So as they
grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the Spirit
of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness
and many came unto them from different parts of England,
so as they grew a great congregation. [4]
Of this great congregation, fifty or so would adventure
the journey to America in 1620 after lengthy discussion
of the dangers and the costs, and the rewards. Concerning
the hope that filled them, Bradford wrote:
Lastly (and which was not least), a great hope and inward
zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least
to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing
the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts
of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones
unto others for the performing of so great a work. [5]
Of all that happened to them there, many books are written
and many stories are told. It is part of America's rich
heritage of freedom and courage. Many even take note of
what they say was their brief flirtation with communism.
Later editors even use the word to subtitle that portion
of Bradford's journal. Yet such was not their word for
their way. Rather, it was their common course, which
was to them the ancient purity and primitive
order, liberty, and beauty of the first church, where "all
who believed were together and had all things in common." [6]
The End of the Common Course, AD 1623
After sufferings greater than most of us have known, they
faced another lean year, with little prospect of supplies
coming to them from England. One issue above all dominated
discussion - their "common course" was not working. " So
they began to think how they might raise as much corn as
they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done,
that they might not still thus languish in misery. At
length, after much debate of things, the Governor [Bradford
writes of himself] gave way that they should set corn
every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust
to themselves ." [7]
And this decision "had very good success, for it made
all hands very industrious... and gave far better content."
Among those who had survived those first terrible years
only a few were left for whom the common good made them very
industrious and gave them far better content .
Bradford notes very wisely that such a "common course and
condition" will not work among men, as generation after
generation of utopians, socialists, and communists have
learned to their hurt (And to the hurt of countless others).
Bradford says they dream that the " taking away of
property and bringing in community into a commonwealth
would make them happy and flourishing ." Then he tellingly
adds, " as if they were wiser than God."
For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed
much confusion and discontent and retard much employment
that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For
the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and
service, did repine that they should spend their time and
strength to work for other men's wives and children without
any recompense... And for men's wives to be commanded to
do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing
their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery,
neither could many husbands well brook it... Let none object
this is men's corruption, and nothing to the course itself.
I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them,
God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them."
No, they couldn't live this way. They could separate from
the corrupted church, cross the ocean to escape the corrupt
societies, but they could not escape the corruption of
man's condition. Nor have others been able to live this
way. All who try strike hard against selfish human nature.
Alas, the "common course and condition" is the way of dreamers... but
still, Bradford writes: charge nothing against "the course
itself." The pain he felt at giving way to the grim taskmaster
of necessity he hid away. There was no time to think of
it with their survival at stake. But the ache and the doubt
and the sorrow never went away.
Had they abandoned the gospel way, the "primitive pattern" and
settled for something much less? That it was God's way
for men today he had no doubt, for creation and the nature
of mankind bore witness to it, [8] but
long ago, when the church was young, in the days of their "ancient
purity... order, liberty, and beauty," they had done it.
What had changed from the days of the apostles? Why couldn't
they do it now? Bradford turned away from the question,
unable to face the answer.
The Fair Pretense of Necessity
Time, diligent labor, and the chances of history - all
these brought prosperity, finally, to the little band of
Pilgrims. The second decade of their existence, the 1630s,
saw the Great Migration of Puritans fleeing England to
establish their own theocracy in the Bay Colony just to
their north. Trading with them chan
ged everything:
And no man now thought he could live, except he had lots
of cattle and a great deal of ground to keep them; all
striving to increase their flocks. [9]
But as the Pilgrims spread out, Bradford recorded in his
sorrow:
The church also was divided, and those who had lived so
long together in Christian & comfortable fellowship
now parted and suffered many divisions. And thus was this
poor church left, like an ancient mother, grown old, and
forsaken of her children.
Sometime after 1650, historians believe, several years
after his last entry, Bradford was reading over his journal.
An old man then, he came upon a section he had written
in 1617. As he read, his heart was pierced with sadness
as it spoke of how his people had once been...
So that it is not with us as with other men whom small
things can discourage or small discontentments cause to
wish themselves home again. For we were a body in a most
strict and sacred bond and covenant together, the violation
of that bond was a serious matter. In that bond we held
one another strongly tied to care for each other's good,
and for the good of the whole...
Suddenly, the compromises they had made became blindingly
clear to him. He took his pen to the original manuscript
and penned words in the margin that are still legible.
They tell us a great deal of the deep regret of Bradford's
last days. His words ring out as a death knell through
the bells of time, telling of a movement overcome by the
very sins it strove to escape:
"O sacred bond, whilst inviolably preserved! How sweet
and precious were the fruits that flowed from the same.
But when this fidelity decayed, then their ruin approached.
O, that the ancient members had not died or been dissipated
(if it had been the will of God) or else that this holy
care and constant faithfulness had still lived, and remained
with those that survived, and were in times afterwards
added unto them.
But (alas) that subtle serpent, the devil, has slyly wound
himself among us under fair pretenses of necessity and
the like, to untwist those sacred bonds and tried, and
as it were insensibly by degrees to dissolve, or in great
measure, to weaken the same.
I have been happy, in my first times, to see, and with
much comfort to enjoy, the blessed fruits of this sweet
communion, but now it is a part of my misery in old age,
to find and feel the decay and want therefore (in a great
measure) and with grief and sorrow of heart I lament and
bewail the same. And for others' warning and admonition,
an
d my own humiliation, I do here note the same. [10]
Many have taken Bradford's warning and learned his "lesson" not
to share all things in common. But was he merely telling
us that it doesn't work? If this is truly what he meant,
then the stepping stones the Pilgrims laid lead nowhere
man has not already gone time and time again. But if the
Pilgrims began to walk the way of the primitive church
in purity, order, liberty, and beauty, as the
believers in Acts 2 and 4 did; if they thought they were
no longer natural men, bound to seek after all that the
Gentiles seek after, but that by seeking first His Kingdom,
God would supply all these things to them; [11] then
anything less than what the Pilgrims adventured is far,
far from the path of those stepping stones, in some great
darkness away from the light of their one small candle.
Bradford's humility allowed him to face the reality of
why their "common course and condition" ended: the devil
prevailed over them, dividing them as he has always divided
men, in the fear for their own lives and prosperity. If
you feel his sorrow, then perhaps you will, like we did,
hold the stones of Zion "dear, and have pity on its dust," and
sense that now is the time for compassion and favor upon
her.
You will arise and have compassion on Zion; for it is
time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has
come. Surely Your servants find pleasure in her stones
and feel pity for her dust... He has regarded the prayer
of the destitute and has not despised their prayer. This
will be written for the generation to come, that a people
yet to be created may praise the LORD. (Psalm 102:13-14,15-18,
NASB)
King David wrote this long ago. He was speaking of the
spiritual nation that would yet bear the fruit of the Kingdom
and become the witness of the Kingdom of God to all the
earth. [12] Its beginning
will be nothing less than the place the early church began,
which the Pilgrims had the courage to attempt, even if
they lacked what they needed to finish. [13] They
will know that the belief in the most famous verse in the
Bible, John 3:16, is realized in Acts 2:44-45:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Now all who believed were together, and had all things
in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided
them among all, as anyone had need. (Acts 2:44-45)
And they will understand that there is a way to know they
have passed from death and into life:
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and
believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall
not come into judgment, but has passed from death into
life. (John 5:24)
We know that we have passed from death to life , because
we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother
abides in death. (1 John 3:14)
Any spiritual movement not built on this foundation will
see the gates of hell prevail against it, even as William
Bradford saw happen to his Pilgrims.
[1] William Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation , Random House (paperback edition),
1981, pp. 26, 262.
[2] Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation , pp. 1-2
[3] And at the end of
his life, Bradford would say those things had been "the
means of grace" and through which "a pilgrim passed I,
to and fro." Poem written on his deathbed in 1656, which
may be read at: www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliampoem.htm
[4] Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation , p. 17-18
[5] Bradford, p. 26
[6] Acts 2:44
[7] All quotes in this
section about the common course: Bradford, p. 132-134
[8] For more on this
understanding, see What about the Heathen? on
page 78
[9] Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation , p. 281-282 (both quotes)
[10] Bradford, Of
Plymouth Plantation , Introduction, p. xvi.
[11] Matthew 6:31-33
[12] Matthew 21:43
and 24:14
[13] Luke 14:26-33
Back
