When the English colonists began to settle in the eastern coast of North America, there were many indigenous tribes inhabiting the region, of varying attitudes and influence. The major difference between the colonists and the Indians was one of religion. Most of the colonists aspired to bring the good news of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ to people who had never learned it before. This included the American Indians, who were enslaved to the deceptions and burdens of pagan, polytheistic, nature-worship. In spite of the professed purposes of many of the English colonists, they largely failed to bring the gospel to their new native neighbors in the New World. This was especially grievous for the Puritans of New England, who were some of the most pious and evangelistic of the English colonists. For decades, since their first settlement in 1620 at Plymouth Plantation, they mostly neglected their obligation to preach the gospel to the perishing Indians around them. There are many reasons for this, including an prideful notion that the Indians were beyond hope.

After being so apathetic for decades, finally in the 1640s, the Puritans began to endeavor to reach the natives with the gospel. One of the first of these pioneering missionaries was John Eliot, a Cambridge-educated Bible teacher and linguist, who spent two years learning the Indian language of Algonquian. Finally, the day came when he preached the gospel in their own tongue, and many were converted. From this point forward, the New England Indians began to turn to the Lord Jesus for salvation, and several Christian Indian towns were established.

In spite of these efforts, only few Christians dared to go to the Indians to preach to them, and win them to Jesus. Among those few were the Moravians of Germany, and individuals such as David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards. It’s these rare and courageous brothers and sisters that Chris and Casey discuss in this episode.

This is a brief overview of Christian missions to the Indians from the mid-1600s to the mid- 1700s, focusing on John Eliot, King Philip’s War, the Moravians, and David Brainerd. Learn how the Christian colonists of the American colonies preached the gospel to Indians, and how this played a part in the forming and establishment of the Revolutionary American States.

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Sources used in this episode:

https://www.evangelical-times.org/john-eliot-puritan-missionary-to-the-indians/

http://bdhp.moravian.edu/community_records/christianindians/narrative.html

https://shamokindiary.blogs.bucknell.edu/contextual-materials/moravians-and-native-americans-at-the-confluence/