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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Our Christian Pilgrims and Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Pilgrims came to America from Holland, having left England because of the lack of religious freedom.  The Old Testament was a part of their studies. The Reverend who sent them over on the Mayflower was John Robinson.  He never made it to America but his son,  Isaac did. 

This religious group was different from the businessmen who landed in the southern portion of America a little earlier.  These were religious people landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620 who felt they were the founders of a "New Israel."  Part of their studies included studying Hebrew and bridging the Holy Land and America.  They even pledged to restore Jews to their ancestral homeland. 

This "restorationist" movement grew in colonial America and influenced the founders:

1. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted Moses leading the children of Israel to serve as the Great Seal of the new USA.

2. John Adams wrote that he wished the Jews were again in Judea as an independent nation.

3. Abraham Lincoln backed the noble dream of a re-created Jewish state.

4. Woodrow Wilson, descending from Presbyterian ministers, declared, "To think that I...should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people." 

5.  Harry S. Truman saw himself as Cyrus, assistant in creating Israel.  He voted for Israel's birth in the UN. It took America 328 years to fullfill a goal the founders had first wished for, but they did it. 

Thanksgiving is a recreation of a holiday mentioned in the Old Testament that survives today with the Jewish people.   That was one of the first acts after a harvest in America. 

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