“The majority of Christians had no idea that May through June of 2007 was the 400th anniversary of the landing and settlement at Jamestown. This is a disturbing fact. It’s a reminder that a nation that has lost its memory of the past has no clear path to take for the future. Paul reminded the Corinthians to avoid Israel’s mistakes (1 Cor. 11), and the writer to the Hebrews told his Christian readers that there was a great cloud of witnesses that had preceded them giving them hope for the enduring walk that was ahead of them (Heb. 12:1). History is important to the biblical writers, and it should be important to us. Christianity is more than a philosophy of life; it is life rooted in real historical events. Without that history there is no Christian faith. The advance of the Christian faith is history writ large on the landscape of the world. The events of Jamestown are the embodiment of God’s providential faithfulness in history. It’s a constant reminder that God’s kingdom advances through the efforts of imperfect people led on by the Spirit and Power of God. Their graves and monuments are a silent and steadied witness that others preceded us and made our world possible

The Jamestown Quadricentennial should remind all Christians what is possible. When you walk the quiet ground of Jamestown you are reminded that voices spoke there, voices that uttered prayers in thanksgiving to God even in times of trials and great tribulation. If their efforts are to mean anything, then their efforts must be embodied in their descendents. We are today’s Jamestown. We embark on a similar mission of advancing the kingdom again in the midst of hostile forces. There were casualties then, and there will be casualties today. Like our predecessors, we will not give up hope. Where the remnants of their church and fort stood, God has blessed his church with edifices that ring the coastlines and traverse the cities of this nation from sea to sea. The men of Jamestown crossed an ocean in three small ships and laid the foundation for a nation in a wilderness. God has put so much more at our disposal. How can we despise these gifts and claim that future battles are hopeless to fight? We owe the people of Jamestown hundreds years of faithful work to continue their once lost legacy.”

—Gary DeMar