A Book, A Charter, and A Prayer

    The original dedication of Virginia to God on April 29, 1607, which we commemorate today, can only be understood within the context of the English Protestant Reformation. Rather than a single event, the Protestant Reformation in England was a series of events which completely transformed the English nation. Martin Luther’s challenge to the Catholic Church in 1517 asserted the authority of Scripture over the authority of the Pope. Luther’s ideas spread rapidly throughout Europe, reaching England shortly thereafter. As Luther was doing in Germany, William Tyndale began to translate the Bible into English, from the original Greek and Hebrew languages. Tyndale had to flee England to continue his translation work and to print Bibles. He was eventually captured and burned at the stake, but not before thousands of English bibles had been smuggled into England. King Henry VIII resorted to using his own reasoning from Scripture to seek the annulment of his marriage to his barren wife, Catherine; when the Pope denied his request, King Henry broke English ties with the Catholic Church and became head of a new Church of England. One immediate result was that, for the first time, English Bibles were to be placed in every church in England by order of the first Protestant Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer (a fulfillment of William Tyndale’s dying prayer: “Lord! open the King of England’s eyes”). Additionally, preaching the word of God became a primary task for clergy in the newly Protestant Church of England.

    Thus, we find that the English Protestant Reformation was transforming the nation before Queen Elizabeth I began authorizing English voyages of discovery and expansion into the New World. The new Protestant faith animated those involved in England’s global enterprise. This was especially true of Richard Hakluyt, a minister whose long career researching and promoting English discoveries and colonization efforts helped bring about the founding of England’s Virginia colony. After Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the world 1577-80 proved that England could compete with Spain’s mastery of the seas, Hakluyt prepared the secretive “Discourse on Western Planting” for Elizabeth I in 1584 to gain financial support for Walter Raleigh’s new colony in North America. The 1588 attack by the Spanish Armada prevented Governor John White’s return to the 1587 Roanoke colonists until 1590–sadly, he discovered no one left in a deserted settlement.

    Almost twenty years after the disappearance of Raleigh’s “Lost Colony,” a new Virginia Company made plans to send English settlers to the more desirable Chesapeake Bay region. Richard Hakluyt was named as one of the seven patentees of the “First Virginia Charter,” April 10, 1606. Given his extensive knowledge of European expansion, he was the likely author of the detailed 1606 “Instructions for Virginia,” which concludes with this exhortation:

Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and to Obtain Good Success is to make your Selves all of one mind for the Good of Your Country and your Own and to Serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness for Every Plantation which our heavenly father hath not planted Shall be rooted out.

    Finally, Hakluyt was also granted permission in November 1606 to go to Virginia with Robert Hunt as minister to the colonists. While Hakluyt did not sail to Virginia, he undoubtedly contributed to the Cape Henry dedication of Virginia to God by planning construction of the cross to be brought over in the first ships and consulting with Robert Hunt about the prayer of dedication to be offered when reaching the shores of Chesapeake Bay.

    The 1607 “First Landing Prayer” dedicating this land to God reflected the purpose of the 1606 “First Virginia Charter” for the “propagating of Christian religion to such people, as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.” The Bible was now the primary source and authority of Christian faith for English colonists. From these small beginnings, the Bible could work directly as a “leaven” to build a “Christian Commonwealth” as envisioned by Edwin Sandys, leader of the Virginia Company in its later years, who worked to establish more liberties in the Virginia colony.

    Many years later, The Declaration of Independence became our national charter– establishing the founding principles of the United States as grounded upon “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” The people at that time had been stirred by the Great Awakening revivals of the 18^th century to return to God and listen to His word. These changes enabled the British colonists in North America to establish a new nation whose Biblical principles defined the moral high ground of American society and inspired many reform movements throughout American history.

    By and large, America has willfully rejected God and His laws today–that is our national sin and that will be the reason for His judgment upon us. The Christian understands there is an ongoing battle between good and evil that must be fought in every generation. When today’s battle between good and evil seems overwhelming, encourage yourself with the promise from Isaiah written centuries before Christ: “When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59:19) Take care “and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2) Only with a transformed mind will we gain the godly wisdom and fortitude needed to do what God commands when He says: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

•   Let us hear God’s living word to us, for “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105)

•   Let us now choose the right path and remember why we were chosen to be His people: “That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

•   Let us stand against the darkness and “walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,” remembering Christ’s words that “in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Proverbs 8:20; Matthew 7:12)

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