Expository Files 2.8
Aug. 1995

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    THE FRONT PAGE

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Jon Quinn

     Welcome to the August issue of Expository Files. Have
you taken your children to see the Disney movie 
"Pocahontas" yet? My wife took our youngest. She said it 
was better than she thought it would be, with less "nature
worship" than what might have been.

     But it was only a movie, and everything I hear is 
that the writers took great liberties with the facts. 
There were several reasons for the establishment of
Jamestown as a colony. The not so politically correct 
charter stated that one of the goals was that of 
propagating the Christian "religion to such people, as yet 
live in darkness and true knowlege and worship of God." 

     Unfortunately, many of the settlers had little room 
for GHod in their own lives. While some of their number
were very devout, we find squabbles breaking out because 
their greed and arrogance. Probably most of them would 
have claimed to be Christian, but as always, the claim is
often made by people with little or no commitment to truly 
exalting Christ in their lives. It takes more than loving 
in word; we must love in deed and in truth.

    Several times it looked as if the first permanent
colony in North America was not going to be so permanent. 
Nine out of ten early colonists died from a variety of 
causes. Help and a new supply of colonists arrived during
the third year of the colony's existence, and one of the 
first thing that the new govenor did was to organize 
worship services and call the people to remember Biblical 
principles of industry and sacrifice. Among these new 
colonists was John Rolfe, who would later marry 
Pocahontas. Concerning the indians, he stated that "...on 
whose faces a good Christian cannot look, without sorrow, 
pity and commiseration; seeing that they bear the image of 
our heavenly Creator, and we and they come from one and 
the same mold..."

     Most of the above information was gleaned from an 
article entitled "Christianity in Jamestown" in the August 
issue of Pulpit Helps; page 20. The thought occurs to me
that perhaps more of the indians would have been impressed 
with the God these people claimed to represent if more of 
the settlers had truly trusted Him in obedience to His 
word. Think about how just a few unrighteous and
hypocritical men could overturn the hard work and good 
examples of the truly faithful. Certainly the same is true 
today, for I fear that many in our nation are just as
estranged from God as the indians were. Like the early 
settlers, many of our problems stem, at least in part, 
from a lack of respect for spiritual, moral and Biblical 
principals. How much better it could be if all men truly
lived by faith.

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