7/12/26 - WiFi Land / THE US 250TH AND THE INDIGENOUS AMERICAN INDIAN

Good morning Wildfire land all over the world today. We greet you in the name of he who is himself the light of truth without any shadow of turning. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom be glory both now and forevermore. Amen. Well, we've all heard the expression that life can be messy. The thought is simply that life has its best of times and its worst of times. But the thought of life being messy does remind us that a Pollyanna view of life where we expect everything to be days of wine and roses, lives of happiness and smooth sailing is naive. Of course, this is a worldly perspective that leaves out the perfect providence of God for every person's life. So, let's consider Numbers 14. When Israel was in the wilderness at the border of Canaan, the unbelieving masses wanted to return to Egypt. When they thought of life in Egypt, they only remembered the fish and the melons and the vegetables which they freely ate. But they forgot the terrible bondage of the taskmasters under whose whips they had groaned. Their life in Egypt had been anything but happiness and smooth sailing. Israel was not being honest regarding their history. We have just celebrated the 250th anniversary of our nation. And during times of celebration, it is easy to forget that just as our own lives can be messy, so can the life of a nation. For instance, there are those that speak of the founding of our nation in glowing terms of faith and godliness. And these express a desire that the US return to its roots of faith in God as expressed by the nation's founders. Now, certainly, this is a most honorable aspiration. But it is the Bible that is the foundation of faith and not men, even the most noble of men. So, let's consider some simple historical facts about our great nation early on. First, both the Pilgrims and the Puritans, as godly as they were, had a misunderstanding of the Bible as it relates to Christ's church. Both groups likened themselves to Israel of old. And sometimes they even referred to themselves as English Israel. They saw themselves pictured in ancient Israel, who was delivered by God from Egypt for a new life in the promised land of Canaan. They likened the king of England to Pharaoh, the crossing of the Atlantic as Israel's crossing of the Red Sea, the difficulties they faced like Israel's trials in the wilderness, and they saw America as the promised land of Canaan. And they saw the indigenous American Indian as the Canaanites. Wow. Now, Christians often use biblical typology typology for the Old Testament to help deepen our understanding of the New Testament. But it is the New Testament that interprets the Old Testament and not the other way around. The Book of Hebrews is an excellent example of this. The truth of God is given in types and shadows in the Old Testament, but the doctrine of Christ and his church is given in the New Testament. Now, the great problem with many of America's early Christians is that they actually believed that they were the fulfillment of the Old Testament types. They believed that they were literally the new Israel and that America was literally the promised land and that the American Indian was literally the Canaanite and therefore irredeemable. Now, there were some of the early colonial Christians who strongly opposed this faulty biblical view. But nevertheless, such corrupt views of the colonies and especially of the American Indian continued and became a subtle rationale for the displacement and even slaughter of these indigenous Americans. Even the Declaration of Independence, the American Indian is referred to as merciless Indian savages. And amazingly, this after the declaration of the law of the truth that all men are created equal. And we should note that the American Indian was enslaved in the colonies long before the importation of Africans as slaves. And so, influenced by the sinful genesis, the American Congress in 1830 enacted the Indian Removal Act. This led to among other atrocities the Trail of Tears where some 4,000 Cherokees died in an a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions. Now, there are volumes of historical literature that chronicle the events leading to the founding of this great nation. And like all history, even our own personal history, there's lots of messiness, lots of misunderstanding, and anything but days of wine and roses. And of course, so much in the consideration of history depends on your frame of reference and what you want to highlight and even what you want to remember and what you want to forget. We already mentioned Israel's forgetfulness of their own history in Egypt. So, as we continue to celebrate the founding of this great nation, the United States of America, let us do it with the same honesty and humility with which we celebrate God's mercies in our own lives. Lives that were messy for each of us, especially me, but lives in which the wise providence of God used the mess to teach us to go forward and not backward. And remember, we are writing more of our own history even today. In Jesus' name. Amen.