Mary Rowlandson And The Power Of God's Elect

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The Power of God’s Elect

Puritan beliefs are very numerous and strong. One of their biggest beliefs was that they were of “God’s elect.” The Puritans thought of themselves as God’s last test for the perfect secular group. This idea also ties in with what is called unconditional election or predestination. Predestination is the belief that God saves only a certain number of souls, which he chooses, regardless of the faithfulness of the person. A person’s salvation is determined before they are born and cannot be altered by human actions. Puritans believed that they were superior over every other social group in their time. Puritans used the Bible to relate everything that happens to them, good or bad, and used it to justify the current situation. In Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, she uses a plethora of Bible verses and scriptures to show that the Puritans were superior over the Native Americans as well as to show that she was one of God’s elect. Mary thinks of her capture and every detail about it as a trial from God.
King Phillip’s War (1675-1676) was brought about by Native Americans who were tired of the English settlers taking their land. The Wampanoag Indians invaded Mary Rowlandson’s hometown of Lancaster in February of 1675 taking twenty-four Puritans hostage. One of these hostages was Mary Rowlandson. Despite seeing most of her family brutally killed by savage Native Americans, Mary is able to find comfort in the Lord, Mary wrote:
We had six stout Dogs belonging to our Garrison, but none of them would stir though another time, if an Indian had come to the Door, they were ready to fly upon him, and tear him down. The Lord hereby would make us the more to acknowledge his Hand, and to see that our Help is always in him. (13)
When she sees her family, home, and town destroyed by Indians, she sees this as an act of God, not an act by the Indians, “O the doleful sight that now ...