The Puritans' Beliefs

THE PURITANS' BELIEFS


The Puritans believed that because of the sin that Adam and Eve committed everyone was born a sinner. They believed that God only saved a certain few and the rest were certain to go to hell. They had in there mind that it was no way to earn God's grace, also they believed that Jesus didn't die for all he only died for a certain few. Which I strongly disagree with because I was taught that Jesus died for all of God's children.They believed that human kind was utterly dependent upon God for salvation and they also believed that the church should be organized from scripture. I'm pretty sure there's other things they believed in but these are the things that caught my eye.

MY RESPONSE TO THE READING
William Bradford's journal isn't something that I'm use to reading but I'm going to try my best and summarize what I've read and learned from the reading. Bradford was one of the leaders of the English Puritan Separatists, who we now call "The Pilgrims". He started writing a journal in 1620 and it was completed around 1650. Inside his journal he talked about his feelings while on The Mayflower and the things they went through to start their Puritan Colony.

From what I could understand The Puritans were searching for a place they could make a home. They eventually found a place which is known to us today as America, but it was already occupied by the Indians. It's like the Indians were afraid of the Puritans they would show their faces but run when approached. Also the Indians would do crazy things like take the Puritans tools while they were eating dinner. Then on the 16Th of March a certain Indian came amongst the Puritans , they talked and he introduced them to the others that were there. After talking for awhile the Puritans and the Indians made peace with each other. The Puritans had to follow by the terms that were set by the leader of the Indians one of the terms was "that neither he nor any of his should injure or do hurt to any of their people".

They had their first harvest in 1621, in the summer everything was alright for the them but when winter came it was like a drought. In 1623 they started something called private and communal farming. They decided that because there was not much supply and they never knew when to expect any, each family would be assigned to a piece of land according to the number of the family. This turned out to be a good idea, the women now went willing into the fields now and took their kids along with them. Which before if something like this would have been done it would have been looked at as a weakness.

I really didn't understand how he spoke but I tried to summarize it the best way I could. I feel like the Puritans came and took over the Indians land. They acted as their friends but all they were trying to do was take over the land. Which brought confusion and discontent! They had some crazy beliefs about the wives should behave. They thought that the wives should be obligated to services for other men, like dressing their meat and washing their clothes. It was like some kind of slavery. The Puritans believed that everyone should have everything alike and be alike. To me the Puritans were strange and had some unbelievable beliefs, which I learned from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I did the best I could trying to explain the little that I read and could understand.

I chose these two of the four beliefs at the beginning of the post that I could find evidence for:

Total Depravity- through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful-concept of Original Sin(Natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it)

Unconditional Election- God "saves" those he wishes- only a few are selected for salvation(The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God, without and promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being drunk with your blood)