The Joy Of Thanksgiving

A letter from the president of Solutions From Science:

The First Thanksgiving

We do know some things about the first Thanksgiving. But William Bradford, Plymouth’s perennial governor, and his assistant, Edward Winslow, are the only contemporary writers who mention it. They described the celebration briefly. The occasion was a successful harvest after months of extreme hardship and deprivation. The Mayflower survivors invited the Indian king Massasoit to their celebration, and he came with ninety-some of his men. The Pilgrims provided waterfowl and turkey; the Indians added five deer. There were games and athletic contests (William Brewster would probably watch the Lions-Packers game if he were alive today!), and even a joint militia drill. The celebration lasted three days. But neither Bradford nor Winslow actually called the feast “Thanksgiving,” and neither mentioned prayers of thanks or any kind of worship service. This has given occasion for some historians to question whether this “first Thanksgiving” was a religious celebration at all. But that’s because they don’t know the Pilgrims and what they really believed.

Grace and Thankfulness

The Pilgrims were children of the Reformation. Like the 16th century Reformers, they were fully committed to the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. They understood that God graciously declares guilty sinners righteous on the basis of Christ’s perfect obedience and substitutionary death, that this gift of legally transferred righteousness is received by faith alone and that such faith is itself the gift of a sovereign God. But they also knew that grace doesn’t end there. They, no less than the Reformers, had faced the obvious questions: “Why then should believers do good works? Doesn’t the doctrine of justification by faith lead to antinomianism and lawlessness?”

The Pilgrim answer, and the answer of Scripture, involves the nature of saving faith and the work of the Spirit who grants it. In bringing us sinners to faith, the Holy Spirit changes our hearts. He implants joy and a spirit of thankfulness. He gives the converted sinner a delight in serving God. And this thankfulness then, becomes itself a great comfort.

Comfort and Joy

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) is one the oldest Reformed confessions and one the Pilgrims ran into when in Holland. (John Robinson even participated in the theological debates at the University in Leiden.) The questions and answers of the Heidelberg Catechism were framed in terms of comfort and joy, which no doubt shaped Pilgrim thought. In fact, its first question is, “What is thy only comfort in life and in death?” The answer is this:

That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, who, with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto him.

The Catechism’s second question introduces the issue of happiness: What must we know to live and die happily in this comfort? The answer is threefold and for the Pilgrims, a constant reminder: 1) we must know the greatness of our sin and misery; 2) we must know the means of our redemption; and 3) we must know the proper way to be thankful to God. In other words, in order to “live and die happily,” we must not only know how to be saved, but we must also know how to be “thankful to God” for our salvation. The Pilgrims believed happiness grows and is completed in thankfulness. Thankfulness enables the forgiven sinner to enjoy the comfort of the gospel happily, that is, with true joy.

Why Thanksgiving?

But a question arises. Is God being selfish in wanting a thankful people? Not at all. First, as the Source of all life, joy, and blessedness, He knows Himself to be our highest good. Second, He knows that we can’t fully enjoy Him or His gifts apart from true thankfulness. After all, this is the very nature of joy. When we enjoy a thing, we are thankful for it. We praise the gift to the giver and so enjoy both.

“Thank you for this ring! It’s magnificent!”
“What a fantastic dinner! It was the best ever. Thank you.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much! I never thought I’d see Wittenberg.”

When we find joy in another human being, we show our joy and gratitude with words and actions. We praise and magnify the one we love. We are thankful to love and to be loved.

“I’m proud of you, son. You’re the best.”
“I thank God for you every day. My life wouldn’t be the same without you.”
“There’s no one else like you! I love you so much!”

Joy finds its fulfillment in thankfulness, in praise and thanksgiving. Silent joy is a contradiction. Mute appreciation isn’t really thanks. God requires our thanksgiving so that our joy may be full.

The Joy of the Lord

It seems odd that when theologians list the attributes of God, they rarely include joy. A few speak of His “blessedness.” But joy isn’t one we use much. An older writer, William Wisheart (1716), defined God’s blessedness as that attribute, whereby “having all fullness of perfection and sufficiency in himself, he doth most perfectly and unchangeably enjoy himself.” God is wholly blessed in that He fully understands, loves, and delights in His own infinite perfections. For He is absolute life, perfectly good, and wholly glorious. There is nothing we can add to His joy. There is nothing we can give Him that He has not first given us. And so He does not thank us. But He does rejoice over us. He rejoices over His covenant people (Zeph. 3:17). He rejoices in the works of His hands (Ps. 104:31).

The Father loves and delights in His Son (Matt. 17:5). He honors and glorifies Him (John 17:5). The Son rejoices in His Father (Prov. 8:30-31). He seeks His honor, rather than His own (John 17:4). The Spirit brings glory to the Son and not to Himself (John 16:14). From eternity, God is overflowing joy and delight. Furthermore, Jesus in His humanity regularly gave thanks to His Father. He did so before every meal (John 6:11). He gave thanks when He sang songs of praise, whether in the synagogue or in private worship (Mark 14:26). And on more than one occasion, He stopped in the middle of a public conversation or discourse and said, “I thank thee, O Father…” (Matt. 11:25; John 11:41). The joy of the Triune God overflows in the thankfulness of the divine Messiah. It overflows in the praises of all those who call themselves Christians.

Conclusion

The Pilgrims, Puritans, and Reformers are almost always portrayed as obsessive killjoys and miserable downers. There’s little truth in that image. Joy wasn’t an afterthought for our Pilgrim forefathers. For them, joy stood at the beginning, in the center, and at the end. For them, God was joy, even when they were hungry and that same joy expressed itself in thankfulness. For the Pilgrims, a day of rejoicing is necessarily a day of thanksgiving. And throughout Scripture that sort of rejoicing means feasting, fellowship, and worship. The Pilgrims were deeply committed Christians who had braved an ocean and a wilderness to seek and serve God. When they rejoiced together, it would not–could not–be other than a time of thanksgiving to their Lord and Savior. Yes, the Pilgrims gave thanks to God and so should all of us.

Warmly,

Bill Heid
Founder Off The Grid News
President Solutions From Science

Seven Important Quotes to Read at the Thanksgiving Table

1. The Old 100th: The Thanksgiving Psalm of the Pilgrims

It was their deep devotion to God, commitment to sound doctrine and the pure faith which primarily motivated the Pilgrims to endure great trials and hardships for the hope of a multi-generational vision of victory. In obedience to God and to strengthen their spirits, the Pilgrims became known as people of song. They loved to sing and did so often, not only during the meeting of the church, but in the course of daily life. The Psalms were in the forefront of their musical repertoire for life, and few Psalms were as beloved as “The Old 100th.” Because books like psalters were precious and rare, they practiced a form of congregational singing in which one line would be sung or “called out” and the congregation would sing it back in unison. Here is the Old 100th, from the Geneva Bible, set to verse, Pilgrim style:

Shout to Jehova all the earth,
Serve ye Jehova with gladness,
Enter his gates with singing mirth,
No that Jehova, he God is.

It’s He that made us and not we,
His folk and sheep of His feeding
Oh with confession enter ye
His gates, his courtyards with praising.

Confess to him, bless ye his name,
Because Jehova he Good is.
His mercy ever is the same,
And his faith unto all ages. Amen.

2. The Greatest Quote Concerning the Resolve of the Pilgrims

The simple sentence below by William Bradford is one of the most powerful in all of Christian literature, for it is a commentary on the meaning of holy risk-taking and the pursuit of righteousness and the kingdom of God:

So they committed themselves to the will of God, and resolved to proceed.

3. William Bradford’s Multi-Generational Vision

Just over fifty Pilgrims survived the first winter. But from them came more than thirty million descendants and a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. More importantly, their vision was one of holy, Christ-centered, multi-generational faithfulness.

Last and not least, they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least making some ways toward it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.

And also:

Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.

4. The Mayflower Compact: The Document That Shaped American Freedom under Christ

It has been persuasively argued that the Mayflower Compact, signed just prior to the Pilgrim’s arrival in Plymouth, was not only the critical step to quelling unrest and ensuring the unity and success of the Pilgrim society, but it became a foundation for the covenantal understanding of government under God embraced by the colonies and later the Founding Fathers. Significantly, this document appears to be an inspiration for later charters like the Declaration of Independence. It was a document signed by male heads of household and drafted with the goal of establishing a holy and orderly civil society. It begins with the awe-inspiring words — “In the name of God, Amen” — which is arguably the most powerful introduction of any document in the history of Western Civilization.

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.

5. The Eyewitness Accounts of the Thanksgiving Story from Gov. Winslow’s Mourt’s Relation, and from Governor William Bradford’s Of Plimouth Plantation

There are two and only two primary source accounts of the first Thanksgiving. They are presented below in the original English. They must be read in the context of the larger record given by Bradford and Winslow concerning the Pilgrim story.

The Thanksgiving Story as Told by Edward Winslow

Our harvest being gotten in, our governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours ; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.

The Thanksgiving Story as Told by William Bradford

They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; For as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no want.  And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their friends in England, which were not fained, but true reports.

6. The Great Declaration of Praise and Thanksgiving Offered by William Bradford for the Providential Deliverance of the Pilgrims

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice, and looked on their adversity, etc.” Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good, and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry, and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness, and his wonderful works before the sons of men.

7. Pastor John Robinson’s Wise Words of Counsel to the Departing Pilgrims on Their Duties in Building a New Christian Society

The letter of John Robinson to the departing Mayflower Pilgrims ranks as one of the greatest pastoral letters with the most far-reaching influence in all of history. Robinson made the difficult decision to stay behind with those members of the congregation who would not or could not make the journey.

The letter is brilliant for its precision and the powerful concepts communicated, but most importantly, it really embodies the wisdom and holiness of the life and worldview of the Scrooby congregation. Some of the concepts of this pastoral letter were actually incorporated into the Mayflower Compact, a document which itself was built upon themes articulated in the Scrooby Covenant of 1607. Below is a quote, but make sure to read the letter in its entirety.

Lastly, whereas you are become a body politic, using amongst yourselves civil government, and are not furnished with any persons of special eminency above the rest, to be chosen by you into office of government; let your wisdom and godliness appear, not only in choosing such persons as do entirely love and will promote the common good, but also in yielding unto them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations, not beholding in them the ordinariness of their persons, but God’s ordinance for your good; not being like the foolish multitude who more honor the gay coat than either the virtuous mind of the man, or glorious ordinance of the Lord. But you know better things, and that the image of the Lord’s power and authority which the magistrate beareth, is honorable, in how means persons soever. And this duty you both may the more willingly and ought the more conscionably to perform, because you are at least for the present to have only them for your ordinary governors, which yourselves shall make choice of for that work.

Robinson also wrote:

This holy army of saints is marshaled here on earth … under the conduct of their glorious Emperor, Christ. Thus it marches in this most heavenly order and glorious array, against all enemies … peaceable in itself, as Jerusalem … terrible to the enemy as an army with banners, triumphing over their tyranny with patience, their cruelty with meekness, and over death itself with dying. . . . The gates of hell, and all the principalities and powers on earth shall not prevail against it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

by: Vision Forum Ministries’ Doug Phillips