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The Last Judgment

Echo for Two Lutes

Echo for Two Lutes

Francis Pilkington
(c.1565-1638)

Beautifully performed by Maurizio Manzon and... Maurizio Manzon.

Happy New Year! Eschaton Approaches!

"Happy New Year! The end of the world is nigh!"

For those who are in Christ, these phrases should not seem incongruent. We understand that the end of this world will coincide with the beginning of a better one.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

-- Revelation 21:1-5

Whatever your eschatology, eschaton is one year closer today. Praise God!

Hear the words of Christ:

"I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

-- Revelation 3:11-13

Worship Christ, The Newborn King

Adoration of the Shepherds (1622)

Gerard (Gerrit) van Honthorst (1590-1656)

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.

Thanksgiving be unto our God

Let us give specific thanks today, specifically to God.

"... Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen."

Revelation 7:12























Old Woman Praying (1656)
Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Re-bunking Thanksgiving

Today, I ran across a number of very interesting articles by Dr. Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, historian and former Chief Curator of the "Plimoth Plantation" in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In his essays, Bangs "re-bunks" Thanksgiving. That is to say, he reclaims a number of elements of the traditional Thanksgiving story that have been supposedly "debunked" by revisionist historian. Most significantly, he counters the pernicious and oft-repeated claim that the holiday has been a secular celebration since its outset, and that the first "Thanks" were given to the Natives, instead of God.

Here is an excerpt:

"Our knowledge of the 1621 Thanksgiving comes from Winslow and Bradford. Winslow's choice of words, understood by his contemporaries, implies to us that the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for their preservation and for the plenty that gave hope for the future. Winslow specifically tells us that the colonists sat down with their Native neighbors and enjoyed several days of peaceful rejoicing together. It is a history with potent symbolism, and it needs neither apology nor distortion."

Bangs approach is scholarly and non-sectarian. He counters historical fictions from various interest groups -- secularist, libertarian, and fundamentalist among others -- who have sought to advance their worldview by misrepresenting the facts of this central celebration of American life.

Also, he puts turkey back on the first menu!

Here is essay #1, on George Mason University's History News Network:

The Truth About Thanksgiving Is that the Debunkers Are Wrong

The above article contains a link to a second, much longer part of the essay on Sail 1620, the award-winning website of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the link within the article didn't seem to work, so I will provide it here:

Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce

ADDENDUM:

I later ran across another article on the same subject, by the same author, which is cleanly-formatted and more concise. You might read this article first to get an overview of the subject, and then move on to the preceding articles if you would like to flesh out the details:

A Historian Looks Anew at Thanksgiving













The Mayflower on Her Arrival in Plymouth Harbor
By William Formsby Halsall (1841-1919).
Painted in Massachusetts, 1882.