Life's Inanities and Ironies

The house was small, the village smaller, and the night had been long—four centuries long. Then came a cry. Not the cry of the Messiah (not yet), but the cry of a baby born to a barren woman and a doubting priest. And with that cry, the silence of God shattered like dawn over the Judean hills . Elizabeth ’s neighbors expected the child to be named Zechariah Junior. Tradition demanded it. But when the Holy Ghost begins a new thing, He does not ask permission from family custom. “His name is John ,” the mother declared. The mute father wrote the same on a tablet, and instantly his tongue sprang free after nine months of divine discipline. The first words out of Zechariah’s mouth were not apology but prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel , for He hath visited and redeemed His people!” Church, when God names something, the debate is over. He named that child “John”—the LORD is gracious—before he ever drew breath. And He has named every blood-washed believer “redeemed,” “forgiven,...

 Brethren, the more we gaze upon these Separatist saints, the more we see the Word of God leaping off the page into real history. Their story is not merely “inspiring”—it is a divine typology. God wrote their voyage into the margins of our Bibles as a fresh exhibition of ancient truths. Here are more unbreakable parallels that ought to make every Bible-believing Christian fall on his face in wonder. 6. They were Abrahams, obeying the call to leave kin and country for a land they had never seen.    “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went” (Heb. 11:8).      These Pilgrims forsook houses, lands, fathers, mothers, and the graves of their ancestors because Christ was more precious to them than England itself. They did not wait for a comfortable retirement package. They stepped onto the Mayflower with nothing but the promises of God in ...

 Brethren, when we speak of the Pilgrims , let us strip away the schoolhouse myths , the cartoons with buckles on hats , and the secularized fairy tale of “ friendship with Indians .” Those things happened, but they are not WHY the Pilgrims matter to blood-bought, Bible-believing Christians in 2025. The Pilgrims mattered because they were unashamed, uncompromising, separatist, Bible-saturated saints who counted everything rubbish for the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus their Lord. They were closer to us than most modern evangelicals will ever be. Consider who they really were. 1. They were biblical separatists — not “ tolerant reformers .”       They saw the Church of England as a false church, steeped in Roman Catholic remnants , ruled by a king who called himself head of the church instead of Christ. They believed the Scripture taught that a true church was a gathered company of visible saints , baptized upon profession of faith, walking in covenant tog...