Puritans

TASK 1
The Puritan's beliefs, in my opinion, were insane! They believed that, due to Adam and Eve (the first human beings), all humans were born as sinners. Along with the fact that all of us are apparently sinners, were are also all going to hell, regardless of the fact that some people may live good, pure lives. They believed that only a select few people, themselves, were going to heaven, because god had "chosen" them. Their priests went to Harvard to get their priesthood degree, and after they completed the course, they though that the new priests could interpret the word of god. There was a priest by the name of Johnathan Edwards, which is definitely something that they believed in. To sum it up, they believed in their beliefs, which was very unfortunate for the people of their time.

TASK 2
The things that I have read, and heard, about the Puritans in “Plymouth Plantation” and in the “Sinners in the Hands of God”, make them seem ridiculous. I mean, I guess because their whole community was the same through out, it just seemed normal, but the way that they thought and also the state of mind that they were in has left me in an incredulous state of mind. In the next few paragraphs, you will not be reading any good feedback on the Puritans, because I don’t like them, what they did, or how they though at all.
One of the readings state that when they got off the mayflower and were “ready to perish in this wilderness”, they prayed to god. They say that god heard their prayers and saw their hardships, which caused him to redeem them of all their sins, and made them pure basically. I believe that it is so ridiculous. So many people had hardships back then, so why was it any different for the other people who had it hard? Why were the puritans the only ones who were redeemed of their born sins and made pure?
I was reading about when the Indians finally warmed up to the Puritan’s presence in their land and from how they acted and what they did, and I think that they are the reason we have controlling people in our government today. If the first government in the new land acted this way, that it just rubbed off on other people and it just kept on going throughout the government officials, even up to this day. So the Indians and the Puritans traded gifts etc, and the Puritans actually have the audacity to write about 10 or so rules down for the Indians to follow! Yes, we had a crazy president who wanted to control Iraq and how people acted on the other side of the world, but this was at the beginning! When the Puritans had just arrived on the Indian’s Native land, they were already trying to control how they acted!
Once the Puritans got settled in and got themselves established, they found a so-called “injustice” their community. Apparently they said that men that were old would wash the clothes, etc. of the strong men. They said that the “he that was weak got no more divisions of victuals than a strong man” and even though the weak did not do a ¼ of the work the strong man did. That basically says that because an older man or weaker man couldn’t do as much work as a “strong man” and the old and weak men were still getting the same amount of clothes, food, etc, that it was wrong, and injustice. If you think about it, that’s kind of how it is today, in a sense. Say you were at school and the other boys wouldn’t let you play with them because you were short, even though you were really good. Or say you got less playing time because you were short. It’s something that you really can’t help, which is an injustice in itself.

TASK 3
statement one
There is nothing between you and hell but the air. There is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

They are saying that hell is waiting for you and that the only thing keeping you from hell is God. Although this is true, this is a priest saying this, so therefore he saying this to the people, but not to himself. This is kind of irrelevant to the whole “unconditional election” topic, but the preacher says, “and the mere pleasure of God”, which implies that he is not only just keeping you from going to hell, but that he is also amused by this. It means that since you’re going to hell anyways, he enjoys watching you, scared and unknowing, waiting for him to remove his hands, let his “wrath” come upon you, and drop into hell and burn.

statement two
It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hither to. The floods of god’s vengeance have been withheld.

The priest is saying this to the people, knowing very well that he is an exception to these words. “Your evil works”, he says, not our “evil works”. He therefore believes that they are the ones that have been withheld from the floods of God’s vengeance, for the moment at least (until they are dropped into hell).