Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

The City of Salem

John Endicott, born in Cornwall, England, joined with six other men to obtain the grant of the Massachusetts Bay Charter. In 1628, Endicott's expedition landed in the New World. Endicott and the group of about 100 people named their settlement in honor of the ancient city that became Jerusalem. In Genesis 14:18, Abraham met Melchizedek in the city of Salem, which was near the place where God established His covenant with Abraham. Salem later became the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. By naming their settlement Salem, Endicott's men commemorated the first covenant between God and mankind. The founders of Salem considered themselves to be the spiritual heirs of the Old Testament, or new Israelites. Understanding this, it was only suitable that they should name their first settlement Salem, after the Holy City of God (later called Jerusalem). They likened their leaving England and crossing the Atlantic to Israel leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. At the dawn of the American Revolution, one colonial assembly referred to the American people as "God's American Israel." John Endicott served as governor until John Winthrop arrived in 1630. Winthrop and about 900 colonists went to Salem first and then moved on to settle Charlestown. During the American Revolution, the battle of Bunker Hill was fought at Charlestown. The colonists continued to explore the land and later established the city of Boston, located at the mouth of the Charles River. It was in Boston Harbor that the famous Boston Tea Party took place. It demonstrated the colonists' beliefs that they were being unfairly taxed without being represented in English government. This was not the kind of freedom that they were promised in their charter. It was tyranny! Cotton Mather, the famous Puritan minister, referred to Winthrop as Nehemias Americanus, the American Nehemiah. In the Bible, Nehemiah was the man who led Israel back from captivity to the Promised Land and began rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Winthrop saw New England as a religious and political refuge. In his letters, he referred to it as a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14) and the New Jerusalem. Winthrop became God's assistant in building the new vineyard of the Lord, America. For the Love of Hebrew Many of the Puritan ministers were well versed in the Hebrew

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