View source for Mayflower Compact

In the course of time that nation, with new members and new ideas and a new wilderness of modern civilization has been reformed for good and bad. To take an insightful look at the roots and realities of our nations beginning may give us a new view of our own pilgrimage on this planet and the strangers we have become to our own ancestral forefathers.

A heard a pastor state during the Thanksgiving holidays that when the pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact it was a great moment in American history where men came together and decided to “give their leaders the power to make laws.” 

Nothing could be farther from the truth. This thinking may stem from changes wrought in our modern public educational system that has often expressed a different view of history than those who actually lived it. It is also a view born out of a false biblical doctrine that suggests that all governments are instituted by God.

The original Mayflower Compact did not survive but I am pretty sure God's signature is not on that document or any other government document created by the hand of man. Governments are allowed by God, but they are instituted by men, not God, and many governments, even those created by the [[consent]] or by the [[Voice|voice of the people]], are not only contrary to what God desires for men but in truth are historically a ''rejection of God''.<Ref>[[1 Samuel 8]]:7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the [[Voice|voice of the people]] in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.</Ref>

That is not to say that there is no government that is instituted by God, but simply put, except for the rarest of exceptions, most governments instituted by men are fundamentally flawed because men are flawed. The Pilgrims, like many before them and since, were simply trying to find their way back to a state of righteous liberty under God with varying degrees of success and failure.

God seems to have instituted the governing relationship and union of man and woman but binding people together in groups of families to form nations governed by rulers seems to be an invention of [[Cain]]<Ref>Genesis 4:17 “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.”</Ref> and Lemech if not [[Nimrod]] himself.<Ref>Genesis 11:4 “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; ...”</Ref>Most of these city states were established by contracts and consent at first and later by bruit force. What God established, besides the the family, was the [[Ten Commandments]] which contained a prohibition against making contracts and covenants.<Ref>''Exodus 23'':32 “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.”</Ref>


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http://www.hisholychurch.net/kkvv/x3folder/140113societypaths04Core.mp3

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Throughout the [[Bible]] we see stories of God and His prophets delivering men out of the hands of governments that are making laws and ruling over the people. Once the full extent of God's disapproval of this addiction of men to consent to rulers and grant more and more power to men is understood it would seem strange to find any faithful minister of Christ praising the idea of giving men the power to make laws and rule over them.

From [[Nimrod]] to Egypt or Saul to the cry of the [[Pharisees]]<Ref>[[John 19]]:15 “But they cried out, Away with [him], away with [him], crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.”</Ref> there is little biblical evidence to praising the [[Voice|voice of the people]]<Ref>Samuel 8. Voice of the People http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/voice.php </Ref> when they relinquish of rights granted by God to allow men rule over those rights.

The Mayflower Compact was not a “forerunner of the [[Declaration of Independence]] nor the [[CCC|Constitution]].”<Rev>Pilgrim Hall Museum, http://www.pilgrimhall.org/compcon.htm</Ref> There is some serious question as to why passengers on the Mayflower even felt it was needed or what effect it actually had. The idea that this was the beginning of government or granting the power of any men in that place to rule and make laws for everyone else is absurd.

History has been ripe with men who learned to govern themselves or govern their brothers or neighbors. The success stories included men who were self-sacrificing and full of virtue, and the history of the failures were born of another ilk.

In the days of early American settlements men came here for a variety of reasons and diversity of moral values. Some came for wealth and adventure, some for liberty to sin and some for liberty to serve God. 

Phineas Pratt in his own narration of his arrival on these shores in 1622 said, “In the time of spiritual darkness, when the State Ecclesiastical of Rome ruled and over ruled most of the nations of Europe, it pleased God to give wisdom to many, kings and people, in breaking that spiritual yoke.”

The Separatists who came on the Mayflower were the Brownists of Leiden. Robert Browne taught that congregation should autonomously run its own affairs. He and his brother had obtained preaching licenses from the authorities but Robert burned his in protest. By 1579, he was openly criticizing what was called the [[Church]], its administration and leadership in Cambridge and was promptly arrested and jailed. 

During 1583 a Proclamation banned the buying, selling or possession of his writings which led to the hanging of John Copping and Elias Thacker for selling Browne's “seditious” writings on faith and the Church.<Rev>A Book which sheweth the Life and Manners of all true Christians (1582); A Treatise upon 23. of Matthewe and, Treatise of Reformation without Tarrying for Anie (1582)</Ref>

There had been a melding of the right arm of civil or royal government with the will of the Church for some time in England. Since men of the Church began to crown other men over their brothers kings felt it profitable to enforce the will of men claiming to be the Church and servants of God.

These claims were beginning to be questioned by the people. They believed that the real Church was cut from a different cloth that that of those who claimed the office and often put their lives on the line just to ask the question, 
* “What does the Church established by Christ really look like?”

Other questions may arise as we attempt to answer that:

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== Footnotes == <references /> 

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