The first command with promise in the entire Bible promises that “it will be well” for those who honor their fathers and mothers. I believe Americans would be well served to consider the implications of this principle on a national level. Psalm 78 reminds us that the most blessed nation in the world suffered because the fathers of one generation failed to remind the children of the next of the great deeds of God in their nation’s history. The failure of the fathers to teach providential history to their sons and daughters resulted in social collapse, military defeat, and hopelessness. Why? The children lacked context.

I am truly grateful for the blessing of God on this nation. How good the Lord Jehovah Jireh has been to us. He has providentially poured out blessings unprecedented in the history of the West. He has given us a rich, glorious and blessed heritage rooted in the faithfulness of a great cloud of witnesses who walked before us. Their testimony, and the work of God in their lives, gives context to the mission and message of this present generation.

With this in mind, Vision Forum recently enjoyed our seventh annual Faith and Freedom Tour. For the Phillips family this trip was a highlight of our year. Bless the name of Christ! Over the next few days, I will be posting pictures and a few comments from the trip beginning with those below:

One of the oft overlooked heroes of this great nation is John Smith. What a man! But for him, Jamestown would have self-destructed. He single-handedly kept the men focused, organized and inspired during some very dark hours. His life was simply epic. As a boy he lived in the woods, as a teenager he had already killed a number of Turks in battle and rescued a castle, and by the time he was twenty-eight and heading for Virginia, he had a remarkable reputation as a hero and adventurer across Europe. His motto, represented above on the statue, means “to conquer is to live.”

Vision Forum historian Bill Potter shares insights on the current battle over historical interpretation of the Jamestown Colony.

Here I give a message on the life of John Smith, including his illustrious conquests against Islam.

This is one of my favorite historical markers at any site in the United States. Located on the site of the Jamestown church, which introduced protestant Christianity to North America, it proclaims that Jamestown gave to our nation the Christian common law. This common law is derived from taking the eternal truths of biblical law and applying them to changing cultures. It is the opposite of the evolving philosophy of law, because the common law affirms that law is transcendent.

One of the highlights of the trip was watching the older girls take initiative to come along side, befriend, and even teach the younger girls. Here Kelly Brown helps out Liberty Phillips.

Molly Valenti takes time for a photo with Faith Phillips. They are sitting inside a tent in which a new Jamestown archeological excavation is underway.

Providence Phillips enjoys his first (ex-utero) Faith and Freedom Tour.

Lourdes Torres (one of the dearest friends of the Phillips family) and Samuel Turley (Henty aficionado par excellence) visit inside of the rebuilt Jamestown Church where the first representative assembly in America took place, and where orthodox Christian worship was first instituted in North America, paving the path for what would become a distinctively Christian nation.

This tree was planted two weeks after my birth on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the Magna Charta, the great document of legal freedom which affirmed the fact that the king is under God’s law, that the law is no respecter of persons, and secured the God-given legal rights of Christian Englishmen.

Jubilee takes notes on the grass of Jamestown as Bill Potter lectures.

The liberals and revisionists who tend to manage the great historical landmarks to our liberty simply despise public markers like this one mounted on the wall of the first Jamestown church building. They want you to believe the myth that Christianity is oppressive, and all savages lived an idyllic life of nobility before the invasion of European Christians. In contrast, this marker (placed three quarters of a century ago) praises the religious conversion of a Virginia Indian, who rejected the savage and occult tradition of his people, converted to Christianity and saved the lives of many women and children from being brutally murdered by his own tribe.

Miss Samantha Clark and Miss Megan Valenti listen to a message on the influence of Christianity on the Jamestown settlement.

One of the great blessings of this trip was the tremendous diligence of the young men and women to take notes and drink deeply from the messages and locations.

Pocahontas was the first known Christian convert, and the subject of the first recorded Christian baptism in North America.