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Verse:“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” —John 16:12, 13
One of the most remarkable voyages of the seventeenth century was that of the Pilgrim Fathers, who traveled from England to Holland and then from Holland to the New World. After more than two months spent crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Mayflower finally dropped anchor on November 21, 1620, on the tip of Cape Cod, which is now Provincetown, Massachusetts.
These hearty voyagers arrived in the New World seeking religious freedom for themselves and hoping to establish a nation according to the will of God.
While still in Leiden, Holland, the Pilgrims’ beloved pastor, John Robinson, had planned to join them on their voyage. But he had to stay behind.
Nevertheless, he delivered a meaningful farewell address.
He began, “We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces again. But whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he charges us before God and his blessed angels, to follow him no further than he have followed Christ; and if God should reveal any thing to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive any truth by his ministry; for he was very confident that the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word.” Robinson then called the attention of the Pilgrims to the stagnant condition of the Reformed Churches. While the Lutherans “could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw,” the Calvinists “stick where he [Calvin] left them.” In contrast, the Pilgrim Fathers were encouraged to remain open to new understandings of biblical truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is evident from his speech that Robinson was closely in tune with the famous motto, “The reformed church, always being reformed according to the Word of God.” A never-ending passion for a deeper understanding of biblical truth also inspired the founders of Seventh-day Adventism. A good example is J. N. Andrews, who said in 1849, “I would exchange a thousand errors for one truth.” May the Lord give us the same passion as we search the exhaustless mine of truth.