We do not know the exact date of the celebration we now call the First Thankdsgivng, but it was probably in late September or early October, so after their crop of corn, squash, beans, barley, and peas had been harvested. It was also a time during which Plymouth Harbor played host to a tremendous number of migrating birds, particularly ducks, geese, and Bradford ordered four men to go out “fowling” . . . The term Thanksgiving, first applied in the nineteenth century, was not used by the Pilgrims themselves. For the Pilgrims a thanksgiving was a time of spiritual devotion. Since just about everything the Pilgrims did had religious overtones, there was certainly much about the gathering in the fall of 1621 that would have made it a proper Puritan thanksgiving. But as Winslow’s description makes clear, there was also much about the gathering that was similar to a traditional English harvest festival-a secular celebration that dated back to the Middle Ages in which villagers ate, drank, and played games. . . Neither Bradford nor Winslow mentioned it, but the First Thanksgiving coincided with what was, for the Pilgrims, a new and startling phenomenon: the turning of the leaves of summer to the incandescent yellows, reds, and purples of a New England autumn. . . The First Thanksgiving marked the conclusion of a remarkable year. Eleven months earlier the Pilgrims arrived at the tip of Cape Cod, fearful and uninformed. They had spent the next month alienating and angering every Native American they happened to come across. By all rights, none of the Pilgrims should have emerged from the first winter alive. . . During the winter of 1621, the survival of the English settlement had been in the balance, Massasoit’s decision to offer them assistance had saved the Pilgrims’ lives in the short term, but there had already been several instances in which the sachem’s generosity could have gone for naught. Placing their faith in God, the Pilgrims might have insisted on a policy of arrogant isolationism. But by becoming an active part of the diplomatic process in southern New England-by sending Winslow and Hopkins to Sowams; by compensating the Nausets for the corn; and most important, by making clear their loyalty to Massasoit at the “hurly-burly” in Nemasket-they had taken charge of their own destiny in the region.

The quotes above are from Nathaniel Philbrick’s bestseller, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Nathaniel Philbrick does a great job of telling the story of the Pilgrims’ voyage and settling in the new world. This work is not written from a Christian worldview, nor is it an attempt at revisionist history, for Philbrick well documents what he writes with most of his information coming from the writings of the Pilgrims themselves. The book is quite an eye opening read though, one that will both inform and hold your attention.

Overall, Mayflower, is an interesting and worthwhile read, especially during this season of the year.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first of the two great commandments, that Jesus declared fulfilled all the law, but there is an element of this commandment that believers and the church have seemingly lost sight of, and let slip away through their hands so to speak in the obeying of that command. The missing element is, loving God with all your mind. The missing element of loving God with all your mind is the focus of J.P. Moreland’s book, Loving God With All Your Mind: The role of reason in the life of the soul. Moreland’s (1997) thesis is stated as follows: I will demonstrate that a major cause of our current cultural crisis consists of a worldview shift from a Judeo-Christian understanding of reality to a post-Christian one. Moveover, this shift itself expresses a growing anti-intellectualism in the church resulting in the marginalization of Christianity in society-its lack of saltiness, if you will-and the emergence of the most secular culture the world has ever seen. That secular culture is now simply playing out the implications of ideas that have come to be widely accepted in a social context in which the church is no longer a major participant in the war of ideas. In the rest of the book, then, I’ll try to demonstrate how the church must overcome the neglect of this critical area of the development of the Christian mind, perhaps the most integral component of the believer’s sanctification (p. 21-22).

Moreland builds his argument by laying a foundation from history by presenting the influences that have eroded the intellectual emphasis that believers and the church use to maintain in the practice of the Christian faith. He then moves to the fact that Christianity is faith of reason, and that mankind has been created with a capacity of reason and how that fits into his being and the transformation process. Then, he progresses into the things that are robbing the Christian of his reasoning power, and how reason works. Once Moreland establishes that man has been created with the ability to reason, and should be using this capacity, he then applies it to various areas of the Christian’s life such as evangelism and apologetics, worship and fellowship, and then integrating it in our specific vocations and worldview. Finally, he offers suggestions as to how believers and the church can recapture the use of the mind and reason in their faith.

In the analysis of the book, there are both negative and positive aspects. Negatively, one might disagree with the section on Philosophy of Ministry: No Senior Pastors (p. 190). Moreland is not a Baptist and calls for a plurality of elders with no senior pastor to govern the church of which many Baptists would disagree. Another area where Moreland seems to miss the mark, he fails to offer any balancing suggestions in his over emphasis on intellectualism. His presentation is borderline elitism, even though he mentions in passing the fact that this book could be taken that way. Most of what he says is true as will be discussed in a moment, but the spirit in which most of what he writes seems not to take into consideration that many within the church do not have the academic backgrounds nor intellectual ability to achieve what he purports in the book. Yes, he is raising the standard high, but many will only be able to achieve a fraction of what he suggests. The church today, is faced with many illiterate people due to a failing education system that has not taught its students the essentials of reading and writing, but has just passed them along to graduation. Moreland does not address this issue, and the fact that the church may have to provide help to the illiterate by teaching them to read. Then there are others, because of various factors who will not have the intellectual ability to read and comprehend at the level that Moreland seemingly wishes for all to attain.

On the positive side, Moreland’s analysis of the state of the culture and the church is correct, and many have exchanged a once vibrant and balanced intellectual approach that could match the secular intellectuals for a total empirical and sensate approach to the interpretation of the Scriptures and the Christian life as a whole. Moreland raises the standard high for all Christians, but especially for Christian leaders, and this is good. He also has a section in the book on intellectual reading that is valuable and practical.

In conclusion, Love Your God With All Your Mind: The role of reason in the life of the soul, by J.P. Moreland is a very worthwhile read and helpful to the spiritual development and discipleship efforts of any devoted Christian and church.

Grace Baptist Church will celebrate its Home Coming Anniversary, Sunday, October 5th with speical speaker: Lewis Nelms of Gospelink (Missions Organization). Rev. Nelms will speak in the 10 and 11 a.m. hours, and then a fellowship meal will follow the morning service. Come join the celebration!