The year 2020 marked the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim Fathers on The Mayflower. Those pioneers were Puritans.
It fascinated me that the Puritans used the Jewish model for family life at a time when Jewish people were not allowed to live in England. This connection came from both the Hebrew scholars and from the Bible becoming accessible to the common man. As people began to see the sweep of Scripture and read the prophecies, they began to understand God’s purposes for Israel, the people and the nation.
They saw prophecies yet to be fulfilled and began to realise that before Jesus returns the gospel must go out into every ethnic group and the Jewish people must return to their land.
This paper endeavours to show the connection between the Puritans and CMJ’s Biblical understanding of God’s purposes for His ancient people.
A CMJ tour of the UK to mark the anniversary was planned for 2020 but due to the pandemic restrictions, this was postponed to September 2021. During the tour we saw for ourselves many of the places mentioned in this booklet and also look at the beginnings of CMJ. We followed the five leaders of the Pilgrim Fathers who all came from an area of just seven miles by four miles, known as the Pilgrim Quadrilateral, largely in North Nottinghamshire (see the map in the middle pages). This core group comprised the Revd Richard Clyfton of Babworth, William Bradford of Austerfield, William Brewster of Scrooby, the Revd John Robinson of Sturtonle-Steeple and John Smyth of Gainsborough.