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On this date 400 years ago, the Rev. John Smith and John Carver formed the Landover Baptist Church. Pastor Bathfire was kind enough to open the Church archives to me for some historical research on the origin of the Church, and I'm happy to be the first to publish the story here, illuminating certain points in early American history along the way.
On November 18, 1620, Mayflower passengers the Rev. John Smyth (an ancestor of Landover's Pastor Deacon Smith) and John Carver (an ancestor of Pastor Ezekiel Flint, though admittedly through the lesser female line) caught Carver's maidservant Dorothy spreading the vile heresy that Jesus was crucified using four nails, when all good people know that the Romans used only three. To keep this vicious lie from spreading and thereby endangering the souls of all members of the venture, Smyth and Carver tied Dorothy to the mainmast and lit a bonfire beneath her to drive the Devil out.
Unfortunately, Myles Standish and Captain Christopher Jones intervened, extinguishing the flames before Dorothy's soul departed her body, thus ensuring that the devilry would continue in the midst of the flock. (This led to no end of trouble around seventy years later.) Nevertheless, Smyth and Carver on that day pledged to form a new Christian church to fight infernal influence in the New World, spreading the good news of the gospel the "whole land over." Thus the Land Over Baptist Church compact was formed. And their church--our church--has been blessed by the Lord ever since.
Due to some fire damage to the ship, Captain Jones declared that they would have to make landfall for repairs over the winter if the company were to survive. Moved by the prayers of Smyth and Carver, God relocated the North American Continent several hundred miles eastward, and the crew of the Mayflower spotted Cape Cod the very next day. The Pilgrims made landfall in Massachusetts, establishing their colony there rather than at the originally planned Virginia location.
One year later, the Pilgrims invited their new neighbors to a grand feast of Thanksgiving to celebrate the anniversary of their new church.
On November 18, 1620, Mayflower passengers the Rev. John Smyth (an ancestor of Landover's Pastor Deacon Smith) and John Carver (an ancestor of Pastor Ezekiel Flint, though admittedly through the lesser female line) caught Carver's maidservant Dorothy spreading the vile heresy that Jesus was crucified using four nails, when all good people know that the Romans used only three. To keep this vicious lie from spreading and thereby endangering the souls of all members of the venture, Smyth and Carver tied Dorothy to the mainmast and lit a bonfire beneath her to drive the Devil out.
Unfortunately, Myles Standish and Captain Christopher Jones intervened, extinguishing the flames before Dorothy's soul departed her body, thus ensuring that the devilry would continue in the midst of the flock. (This led to no end of trouble around seventy years later.) Nevertheless, Smyth and Carver on that day pledged to form a new Christian church to fight infernal influence in the New World, spreading the good news of the gospel the "whole land over." Thus the Land Over Baptist Church compact was formed. And their church--our church--has been blessed by the Lord ever since.
Due to some fire damage to the ship, Captain Jones declared that they would have to make landfall for repairs over the winter if the company were to survive. Moved by the prayers of Smyth and Carver, God relocated the North American Continent several hundred miles eastward, and the crew of the Mayflower spotted Cape Cod the very next day. The Pilgrims made landfall in Massachusetts, establishing their colony there rather than at the originally planned Virginia location.
One year later, the Pilgrims invited their new neighbors to a grand feast of Thanksgiving to celebrate the anniversary of their new church.
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