Last time I began a discussion centered on a sermon that one of our great “Heroes of the Faith”—and a personal hero of mine—delivered many years ago while he was Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I refer, of course, to Rev. Dr. D. James Kennedy (1930-2007), one of the finest examples of Christian patriots our nation ever produced, and one of God’s great and devoted servants his entire life after his Christian conversion. (Just for information: the “D” in Dr. Kennedy’s name stands for “Dennis”; and yes, Dennis J. Kennedy was a dance instructor for a time for Arthur Murray Dance Studio). I’ll remind you again that I’ll be using my own words as much as possible in this article, but I will refer to his words or paraphrase them when I must, to clarify the point he was trying to make in his sermon titled: REMEMBER. I’ll do my best to communicate his thoughts from that memorable message he delivered to his congregation at Coral Ridge Church so long ago.
GOD’S PROVIDENTIAL WORKINGS IN OUR HISTORY
Dr. Kennedy was a great student of American history, and he seemed to especially admire that group of stalwart Christian Separatists called “Pilgrims”, so we’ll begin to examine more of God’s “Providential” miracles with that brave band.
- We know from history (my wife had 3 ancestors who arrived here on the Mayflower in 1620, so I’m well “studied” in Pilgrim history and lore) that our Pilgrim Fore parents arrived upon the bleak and freezing shore of North America in late November of 1620. Some may not realize that they were originally headed for “Virginia”, at that time a large swath of territory on our east coast, extending into what is now New York, because they had originally intended to settle near the mouth of the Hudson River in what is now New York State. Due to “navigation errors”, or possibly due to storms (more of God’s providences ?), they found themselves far north of “Virginia” when they first saw our coastline. Due to harsh weather they decided to stay aboard Mayflower and sail further south. Kennedy tells the story, as follows: They didn’t know that the east coast of America…bristled with tomahawks and hostile Indians, and there was hardly one spot where they might have survived. One of the fiercest tribes dwelt near Plymouth (originally Pawtuxet), but because a plague had come across that portion of land several years before, almost all of them (the Native People of that area) had died. They were gone. They left nothing but (buried baskets of) corn on which the Pilgrims survived the first winter.” (And which the Pilgrims gave payment for to the Native survivors at bit later).
The Pilgrims set sail soon thereafter, attempting to go further to the south where the climate was warmer (it was late November/early December, 1620 by this time), but their Heavenly Father had other plans for them, and providentially “He that rides upon the storms blew again and the waves rose up and fell, and the wind blew, and the Mayflower turned around and headed north and returned to Plymouth (originally Pawtuxet)—the ONLY place where they could have survived (due to the scarcity of the original inhabitants).
- Most students of American history should know of the many instances of God’s Providential miracles during our first War of Independence, beginning in 1775. We know that General Washington claimed, in 1778, that “The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all of this….” Indeed, during the War of the Revolution, God’s miraculous hand seemed to be upon Washington and his rag-tag army. In late August, 1776, after a defeat at the hands of the British army, Washington found himself cornered with several thousand of his men in Brooklyn Heights, New York. He was surrounded, with the British fleet in the East River behind him. The British commander, General William Howe, decided to wait until dawn of the next day before attacking Washington’s forces, for it was almost night. Washington ordered his men to gather all of the small boats up and down the river they could find, and under cover of a “providential” heavy fog that covered their movements, all of the American forces escaped to Manhattan Island and safety.
However, they were observed by a Tory woman who saw the evacuation in progress, and she sent her servant to the British forces to warn them that Washington’s army was escaping. When the servant arrived and began to warn the first troops he came into contact with, they couldn’t understand one word he said, for he had arrived squarely in the HESSIAN LINES—the German mercenaries who were hired by the British king to fight for him against the Americans. Neither could understand the other, and by the time that a translator was found in the morning, Washington and his army had escaped. “He that rides upon the sea had blown again.” God had provided TWO miracles that one night!
- And finally, at Yorktown, Virginia we see another of God’s Providential “miracles” occurring. By October of 1781, the British commander, General Cornwallis, found himself trapped at Yorktown, with the combined armies of the Americans and the French (under their commander, Lt. General Jean de Vimeur, Count de Rochambeau, but under George Washington’s overall command), in front of him and the sea at his back. He tried to do what Washington had done five years earlier—move all or most of his men away from Yorktown in small boats. As Dr. Kennedy recounted it: …that night he had all of his British soldiers get into rowboats with whatever they had. He had gotten most of his army in the boats and off the shore when ‘He that rules the waves’ blew again and those waves rose up and swamped them so they were flailing in the waves and trying desperately to get back to shore. The following morning, General Cornwallis…walked between the twin lines of the American troops, along with his entire army, to the slow drumbeat of defeat.” Cornwallis’ world had, indeed, “turned upside down”.
It seems apparent to me, at least, that “the invisible hand of Him who plants his footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm…brought us to this land of freedom.” That’s what Dr. Kennedy said, and I believe it. There are many more examples just during our War of the Revolution about God’s providential miracles, especially how He seemed to protect General Washington from harm during battles when his horse was shot out from under him, when musket balls passed through his coat or uniform, but never a serious scratch was incurred. Could our Heavenly Father have been preserving George Washington for another, greater task in the years after the Revolution? With the benefit of hindsight it is obvious that the answer to that question is “yes”!
++++++++++++
It is a clear lesson both of Biblical teaching and of our history that God protects and liberates both people and nations that obey and honor Him. Scoffers may declare that providential “miracles” are just random “co-incidences”; I prefer to think of them as “God-incidences” and not “random” at all. We as Christians know that as long as we stay vigilant, neither Satan nor his “gang” can prevail. Why is that? Satan can’t prevail against us because by the power of God’s Holy Spirit Christians have total power. On the other hand, we also know that God does allow the “God of this world”—Satan—the Devil—Old Nick—Beelzebub--whatever he has been called through history—to EXIST among us. What does that infer? Well, it seems to me that when a nation—like the U.S. for example—a nation once proud of its constitutional freedoms and endowed with multiple blessings—loses its vigilance, its concern for righteous living, its desire to protect the helpless (the unborn, for example) and provide untold opportunities for its people to excel—when such a nation becomes “lukewarm” and turns away from God at an increasingly rapid pace, just as OUR nation has done, after a certain time of “patience” and calling that nation—us—to repentance, God will surely remove His hand of protection and will allow Satan—who despises ALL of humankind—to drive that nation to destruction and certain enslavement of its people.
How close are we to that time of “destruction and enslavement”? I can only respond to that question by observing that we, as a nation, are much closer to the precipice of destruction than we were before the evil administration of the Marxist/progressive Comrade Joe Biden came on the scene. (In fact, some patriots believe that our nation has already gone over that “precipice”.) It is obvious that Biden and his Klan of New Bolsheviks are hell-bent (literally and figuratively) on the destruction of our free enterprise economic system that gave such a high standard of living to so many of us for so long, and are willingly doing the “bidding” of their masters in The Council on Foreign Relations, the no longer very hidden globalists of the “Deep State” and its “New World Order”, and are kowtowing to the commands of that fascist wanna-be tyrant, Klaus Schwab and his truly sinister World Economic Forum. Most informed Americans know that we have been on a “downhill slide” as a nation for many decades, and Comrade Biden and his band of Merry Marxists are only one symptom of our long-festering national ROT.
The evil Fascists of the World Economic Forum, as they plot their “Great Reset of Mankind” from Davos, Switzerland, and the equally evil Fascists who direct The Council on Foreign Relations in its quest for their long sought “New World Order” (a goal so loved by our late President, CFR member George H.W. Bush), are but symptoms of a great Satanic EVIL that has enslaved and confused the minds and souls of Americans, and sadly many Christians, for generations. They—we all—are being dragged, mostly unknowingly, into the fatal pit of political and religious CONFUSION and ever-increasing susceptibility to the lies and deceits of the Evil One who works through those entities mentioned above.
Our Founding generation gave us the underpinnings of a free enterprise system, and more freedoms and blessings than we could count. These things, in reality, were the results of their love for and commitment to Jesus the Messiah, and during their Revolutionary War they declared that they had “no king but King Jesus”. We need that same spirit this very day, for if we as Americans determine that Jesus the Messiah is not our LORD, then the “vacuum” will be filled by some other “lords” not of our choosing, and the reality of “Hell on Earth” will be upon us!