The Puritans Education

Let us move rapidly, a few hundred years to the time of the Puritans. We see 
the Puritans throwing off the lies from the churches and returning to the 
early church's Hebrew heritage. Marvin Wilson's book, Our Father Abraham 
explains (pp. 127-128):

During the period of the Protestant Reformation (16th century), some signs of the re-Judaization of the Christian faith began to surface, as certain Hebrew categories were rediscovered. The Reformers put great stress on sola scriptura (Scripture as the sole and final authority of the Christian). The consequent de-emphasis on tradition brought with it a return to the biblical roots. Accordingly, during the two centuries following the Reformation, several groups recognized the importance of once again emphasizing the Hebraic heritage of the Church. Among these people were the Puritans who founded Pilgrim America, and the leaders who pioneered American education. We shall comment briefly on the first of these groups before concentrating on the second. 

The Puritans came to America deeply rooted in the Hebraic tradition. Most bore Hebrew names. The Pilgrim fathers considered themselves as the children of Israel fleeing "Egypt" (England), crossing the "Red Sea" (the Atlantic Ocean), and emerging from this "Exodus" to their own "promised land" (New England). The Pilgrims thought of themselves as "all the children of Abraham" and, thus, under the covenant of Abraham. (Feingold p. 46.) 

The President of Yale College used these words before the Governor and General Assembly of the state of Connecticut in 1783: "Their influence on American society was not soon forgotten: more than a century and a half after the first Puritan settlers reached New England, the American people were referred to in a State Assembly as 'God's American Israel.'" (Feldman p. 5)

1600 TO 1800 AD

The International Institute for Christian Studies reports: Just as in Europe with the birth of the earliest universities, "the Christian worldview, more than any other system of thought, dominated American intellectual development during the colonial period.... Regardless of the vocation for which a student was preparing, the colonial college sought to provide for him an education that was distinctly Christian." ..."If colonial higher education operated from a Christian foundation, it did so primarily because such an intellectual framework also characterized the European institutions that served as models for the colonial college founders." ..."Thirty-five of the university men in early New England, including a large majority of the Harvard founders, had attended Emmanuel College of Cambridge 
University.

The key [Bible] verse of the Puritan educators was, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." .Education, for them, had to have at its heart the purpose of creating character and producing leaders. The very word education comes from a Latin word meaning "to lead out." This meant that what God worked inside a person, got processed out into his daily life and thinking. The professor's role was to draw out that which God was putting into the student. (Millar ed.)

During the 1700s Harvard began moving away from its Puritan roots to become thoroughly Unitarian by the early 1800s. A Brief History of Christian Influence in U.S. Colleges by Jay Rogers explains: 

Harvard was founded in 1636 by Puritan Calvinists who recognized the 
necessity for training up a clergy if the new Bible commonwealth was to 
flourish in the wilderness. The kind of teaching that Harvard College was to provide was spelled out in its "Rules and Precepts" as follows: "Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all found knowledge and Learning...." Secularization of the American university began with the takeover of Harvard by the Unitarians in 1805. Actually, the Unitarian takeover was preceded by a protracted struggle between orthodoxy and liberalism, which began in 1701 
when Increase Mather stepped down from the presidency. The liberals, who had obtained a definite majority in the governing Corporation, elected John 
Leverett as president of Harvard College. Leverett, a religious liberal and a 
layman, set the college on its course away from Calvinist orthodoxy. 
The rebellion against Calvinism was a rebellion against the Biblical view of 
man and God. For Unitarians, the worship of God depended on His being what they thought He should be, not what He actually was.

The Unitarians also rejected the Calvinist view of man as being innately depraved. Man, they were convinced, was not only basically good, but perfectible. For this reason, social action became the principal mode in which Unitarians practiced their religion. They were convinced that evil was caused not by man's sinful nature, but by ignorance, poverty, and social injustice. Thus, by eliminating ignorance (through universal public education), they would eliminate poverty and thereby eliminate social injustice. Once this was done and the happy results observed by all, the Unitarians would have proven that they were right and the Calvinists were wrong. (A Basic History of the United States). 

While the early Harvard Unitarians believed that their rational form of Christianity was quite scriptural, the newer generation, influenced by the enlightenment and the intoxicating elixir of Hegelian pantheism, saw no reason why they should subject their emotional, spiritual and intellectual aspirations to the stultifying restrictions of the Bible. 

The seeds of religious liberty for the American Church did not come from New England leaders such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson-as noble as they and others were. Rather, it came from the Hebrews themselves, whose sacred writings inspired the Puritans. Accordingly, many of the Puritans in seventeenth-century England were learned Hebraists. William Bradford (1590-1657), prominent early American and Governor of Plymouth Colony for more than three decades, maintained an intense interest in Hebrew. Bradford stated that he studied Hebrew so that when he died he might be able to speak in the "most ancient language, the Holy Tongue in which God and, the angels, spake." Cotton Mather (1663-1728), a well-known Puritan minister and scholar from Massachusetts, had a similar deep respect for the Hebrew language. Concerning its importance, Mather once observed, "I promise that those who 
spend as much time morning and evening in Hebrew studies as they do in smoking tobacco, would quickly make excellent progress in the language." (Rosovsky)

America's Godly Heritage

Early American educators are another influential segment that placed a strong 
emphasis upon Old Testament and Hebrew studies. These people were closely 
connected to the "olive root" and insisted, in keeping with their Puritan heritage, that Hebrew be central in the realm of higher education. A study of the beginnings and curricula of many of the Ivy League colleges in the East is a case in point. Hebrew inscriptions, for example, are found on the insignias or seals of such schools as Columbia and Dartmouth. Of particular interest for our purposes are the early years of Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth. 

The last three generations of Americans simply have not been told the truth about American history. Active humanists and the liberal media have for years undertaken a concentrated effort to misinform the American public by attacking the "Religious Right" and rewriting America's Judeo-Christian history in a humanistic tone. The motto at the heart of the American expression "In God we trust" has been exchanged for "In man we trust."

Examine the quotes below. Have you heard them before? If so, you did not hear them in an American public history class:

	1490-1492 - Columbus's commission was given to set out to find a new  world. According to Columbus's personal log, his purpose in seeking  undiscovered worlds was to "bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathens.  .It was the Lord who put into my mind.that it would be possible to sail from  here to the Indies.I am the most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the  Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely ... No one  should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just  and if the intention is purely for His holy service." (Columbus's Book of  Prophecies)
	1606 - The Charter for the Virginia Colony read in part: "To the glory of  His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian religion to such people  as yet live in ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God."
	1620 - King James I granted the Charter of the Plymouth council. "In the  hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the  glory of God Almighty."
	1620 - The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower, in  Plymouth Harbor. "For the glory of God and advancement of ye Christian faith.  doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God and one of  another, covenant & combine our selves together into a civil body  politick[sic]."
	1623 - "But God gave them health and strength in a good measure; and  showed them by experience the truth of the word, Deuteronomy 8:3: 'Man does  not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the  Lord.'" (William Bradford, in BHOPP, p. 175).
	1629 - The first Charter of Massachusetts read in part: "For the  directing, ruling, and disposing of all other Matters and Thinges, whereby  our said People may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as  their good life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of  the Country to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of  Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth, which in our Royall Intencon, and The  Adventurers free profession, is the principall Ende of the  Plantacion...."[sic]
	1638 - The towns of Hartford, Weathersfield, and Windsor adopt the  Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. "To mayntayne and presearve the liberty  and purity of the Gospell of our Lord Jesus, which we now professe...." [sic]
	1639 - The governing body of New Hampshire is established. "Considering  with ourselves the holy will of God and our own necessity, that we should not  live without wholesome laws and civil government among us, of which we are  altogether destitute, do, in the name of Christ and in the sight of God,  combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such government as  shall be, to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of God...."
	1775 - In Patrick Henry's speech: "We shall not fight alone. God presides  over the destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us. The battle  is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains  and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take,  but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
	1787 Article III of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787: "Religion, morality,  and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of  mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
	1789 - George Washington said "Let us with caution indulge the  supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion." (Schroeder  ed. p. 106)
	1794 - John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in a  letter to his wife, stated "God's will be done; to him I resign-in him I  confide. Do the like. Any other philosophy applicable to this occasion is  delusive. Away with it." (Johnston ed. vol. 4, p. 7.)

America, founded as a Christian nation, taught children in their own homes. 
Parents had the sole responsibility for their children's education. The focus 
from the Puritan Calvinists was on studying God's Word. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), speaking of education said, "It seemed to me that the preachers of the grand old truths of the gospel, were likely to be found in an institution where preaching and divinity would be the main objects, and not degrees and other insignia of human learning."

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