New World and American Zion

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). From the very beginning, America was a mission field. The Spanish, French, and English all believed it was their God-ordained responsibility to evangelize the New World. The first of these European missionaries was Christopher Columbus.

Christopher Columbus When Columbus landed in the New World, he believed he was fulfilling an ancient prophecy. He also believed the Gospel must first be preached to all men. Therefore, if he could find a shortcut to the East, missionaries could reach it faster.

Christopher Columbus Because of Columbus’s voyage and the resulting Spanish evangelistic efforts, Latin Columbus and Queen Isabella America has a higher percentage of professing Christians than that of any other region in the world.

Puritan : John Cotton (1584-1652) John Cotton attended Cambridge University, and after graduation remained on as a lecturer. John Cotton combined both the Bible and natural law in celebrating God’s Promise to His Plantations. His labor and his learning made him one of the most influential leaders in the New World.

Puritan: John Winthrop 1588-1649 An English gentleman, a lawyer, and the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony for over 12 years, Winthrop was a passionate Puritan layman who tried to bring his faith into practice and Establish a “City Upon a Hill” in the New World.

John Winthrop Winthrop is most famous for his "City upon a Hill" sermon in which he declared that the Puritan colonists emigrating to the New World were part of a special pact with God to create a holy community. This speech is often seen as a forerunner to the concept of American exceptionalism.

American Revolution of 1776 Revolutionary leaders Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) James Madison (1751-1836) John Adams (1735-1826) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) They all were committed to a rational Christianity

John Wesley (1703-91) John Wesley, English theologian and evangelist, was a founder of Methodism. He had many followers and sent scores of evangelists into the field. His impact was great and continues more directly to this day than the ones who began the rebirth itself. He was not the first of the first. He was the last of the first and the most effective at European evangelism.

John Wesley John Wesley took the interpretation of the word by Martin Luther and John Calvin to fruition for modern evangelists of today. The word went from the Medieval Catholic Church to the Germans and on to Switzerland and Holland before reaching England and culminating in American evangelism today. That natural process gives us the benefit of everything learned throughout history.

Methodist Church Today Britain The Methodist Church today numbers over 300,000 members. Following divisions in the 19th century, the main branches re-united in 1932. The church is organised into 'circuits', themselves grouped into 33 Districts. Worldwide There are now Methodist churches in nearly every country in the world, and it is calculated that the whole Methodist family numbers some 70 million people. Over the last 40 years major areas of growth have been in Latin America (783%), Asia (690%) and Africa (450%)

Joseph Smith (1805-44) Joseph Smith, was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s.

Joseph Smith In 1827, Smith began to gather a religious following after announcing that an angel had shown him a set of golden plates describing a visit of Jesus to the indigenous peoples of the Amercias. In 1830, Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates as the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon According to the Book of Mormon, the second coming of Christ to America, the New Jerusalem, the City of Zion, would be built on the America as the centre of the kingdom of the God earth. By 1831Joseph Smith had identified the precise location of the American Zion.

Joseph Smith Although Joseph Smith remained married to Emma Smith until his death in 1844, Smith taught and practiced polygamy, marrying several women throughout his ministry, including Helen Mar Kimball and Nancy Maria Winchester when they were only 14 years old.

Question It is always interesting to see some of legislators (who is the Christian) in using the violent actions against the injustice, should these encourage or not ?