FOOTPRINTS OF PATRIOTS

Fayette's Beginning

When America achieved its independence from Britain, soldiers were released from their Continental Army and militia duties, freed at last to exercise their newly-won liberty in such promising lands as the Province of Maine. These patriot veterans of the American Revolution contributed most significantly to the early settlement of Starling Plantation, present day Fayette; and, as a group, their footprints leave behind clear evidence of the nature of the town's beginnings. Tracks reveal they believed a healthy church body essential to the preservation of freedom's path. Fayette Baptist Church is one such imprint that survives eroding rains of time.

Lessons To Be Learned

Reliable advice from our Father in Heaven, the Author of liberty, tells us everything that has happened in the past teaches us important lessons to heed in our present and future course: (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The history of Fayette Baptist Church only takes on useful meaning for this and future generations through knowledge of the people and circumstances contributing to its very existence. Superficial examination might lead one to conclude democracy is the key to America's material and spiritual blessing, our new nation having severed itself from a monarchy through revolution (1776-1783) in favor of a democratic republic. But France, thinking to model its revolution (1789-1799) after America's success, likewise overthrew its monarch for democracy and experienced disastrous results that haunt it still today. A people's nature doesn't depend upon a political system; rather, the nature of a political system depends upon its people. No government can ever save a nation. The success or failure of a nation is dependent upon the spirit and will of its people: (1 Samuel 12: 13-25). In France, the guiding spirit of its people chose as its leaders anti-church revolutionaries who sought to topple the church as well as their king, and they came up with a bloodbath that emptied churches as well as the throne ... a spiritual disaster for France that lingers to this very day.

America placed its trust in God and prospered materially and spiritually; France placed its trust in man, and the guillotine and a bloody reign of terror ensued with tragic, lasting results.

The lesson Fayette Baptist Church should learn from this bit of truth-filled history: "It's better to trust in the Lord than to place confidence in man." (Psalm 118:8)

The Patriot's Choice of 'Father': Person Over Place

The term "patriot" once had a meaning that sadly escapes modernN understanding and usage of the term. Today, a patriot is thought to be one loyal and devoted to his or her nation, or fatherland; (in contrast, one whose love and devotion is toward 'mother Earth,' rather than a nation, is now called a "matriot" ... a new word coined by the politically correct). In colonial America, at the time of Lexington and Concord, "patriot" did not mean love of nation at all; after all, both sides of the war were citizens of Great Britain. Those loyal to their native Britain were called "loyalists;" those revolting against their king were called "patriots" ... and by today's lexicon, such rebels against authority are deemed traitors, not patriots!

Loyalists stood ready to fight for Britain, pledging their allegiance to an earthly monarch, King George III. In sharp contrast, patriots, while no less subjects of King George III, considered themselves 'strangers' in a foreign land and declared their love and devotion to a higher power ... to their Heavenly "Father" (root Latin meaning of the word Patriot) ... the polar opposite of today's definition that a patriot is one devoted to his earthly fatherland. The love and devotion of America's victorious patriots was toward a person not a place. Lifeless, unloving land can never save us, but a living, loving Father can.

When the American patriot considered all options, devotion and loyalty were directed toward God, not King George III. Nations and rulers come and go in this world; wise patriots choose allegiance to one the Scriptures name "The Everlasting Father" ... (Isaiah 9:6) ... whose kingdom is eternal.

The American Expression of Loyalty and Devotion

Patriots of America's Revolution considered their earthly king in violation of a higher power, the Lord their God. They appealed to their "Creator" and "Righteous Judge" for assistance in achieving liberty from earth's tyrants, declaring independence from the tyrant's rule. They expressed that appeal in a founding document we call the Declaration of Independence. Actually, you won't find the word "independence" in the title of that original document, which is, in fact, a declaration of total dependence upon God. Our nation's earliest military banners clearly identified the one to whom Patriots directed their appeal:

"An Appeal to Heaven," on America's first naval flag approved by Washington; "An Appeal to God," on the naval flag of Massachusetts.

Patriots chose Maine's Pine Tree as a Symbol

A pine tree became a symbol of the tyranny of Britain's monarchs, and it also appears on both of the illustrated early flags. Called the "Liberty Tree," it was even imprinted on an early colonial coin (the "pine tree shilling") as a sign of protest against the Crown. To patriots, the tree was a daily reminder of their abuse under tyrants ... England having confiscated the best of New England's pines, denying their use by colonists. The Crown branded tallest and straightest pines as...