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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Commemorating the covenant invoked by Rev. Robert Hunt when the first English settlers landed in Virginia in late April, 1607, hundreds of God-fearing patriots from across America and beyond gathered in Virginia Beach on April 26 to rededicate the embattled nation to God and beg for His forgiveness. Hundreds of thousands tuned in from all over the United States and across the globe as the event was livestreamed worldwide in 72 languages. But the primary intended audience was made up of just One: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth.
The historic day was filled with powerful speeches, songs, repentance, and prayers from Christian leaders who stirred those in attendance to their feet seemingly endless times. The day even included a proclamation issued by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recognizing First Landing Day, the organizers of the event, and the significance of the Christian faith in founding the American nation. Organizers with the “First Landing 1607 Project” vowed to do it again every year going forward.
Despite the growing chaos across the nation, a sense of optimism and the presence of God were described as pervasive by numerous attendees who spoke with The New American. With no central leadership aside from on High, organizers said from the stage that they felt it, too. A number of attendees even got baptized at the beach the next morning!
A few days after the event, a major tornado swept through the area, damaging and destroying more than 100 houses and canceling a major “music” festival called “Something in the Water” before heading out to sea at the very place where the first settlers landed more than four centuries ago. Nobody was hurt or killed. One of the main organizers, Donica Hudson, told The New American it made her think of the biblical account of Satan falling like lighting. “Let it be, Lord,” she said. “Our ‘Declaration of Covenant’ and prayers must’ve reverberated through the heavens.”
The next step, she added, is to fulfill the 1607 Covenant by reaching Americans and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “The event could not have been more perfect,” said Hudson, who authored the “Declaration of Covenant” used in the “re-covenanting” that took place at the event and was compared to “remarrying” God. “God’s presence was there. He spoke through amazing people of faith and authority to accomplish our mission.”
Radio titan Glenn Beck, the keynote speaker for the event, was clear in expressing his view that returning to God and the covenants formed with Him by America’s forefathers was the only way to rescue the nation from the abyss. “We are a covenant people,” Beck declared. “This is the only way we save America.” Other speakers and organizers agreed: If Americans do not return to God and the covenants made by their ancestors, there will not and cannot be any restoration of the nation.
Incredibly, not even one in 100 Americans said they were familiar with the history of the First Landing, organizers noted, citing a survey. Of course, the Pilgrims and their landing at Plymouth in Massachusetts are much better known, as is the “Mayflower Compact” in which they declared that their goal was “the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith.” The Pilgrims were indeed crucial seeds that eventually grew into what became the United States of America, as experts Leo and Nancy Martin with The Jenney Museum at Plymouth explained.
But the settlement in Virginia was critical, too, as was the covenant those settlers invoked. Virginia Christian Alliance founder Don Blake, one of the organizers, suggested the government was deliberately trying to conceal this history from Americans. He noted that the history is not even written on or near the cross on Cape Henry. “It’s not in our history books, it’s not in our schools, we don’t know it,” he said. “You’re part of the remnant!” In a follow-up interview with TNA, he urged everyone to learn the history and share it with their countrymen.
The Historic Day
To start off the day on April 26, the official date of what is known as the “First Landing,” a small delegation of participants, including numerous members of the clergy, went to the historic cross at the Cape Henry Memorial. At that site 416 years ago, the British settlers who would eventually create Jamestown erected a giant cross using a spare mast. While the original did not survive beyond the 1800s, a new cross was erected almost a century ago in its place. Those original settlers fasted, thanked God for His blessings and provision, and entered a covenant with Him dedicating the new land to Christ.
“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth,” declared Rev. Hunt in a foreshadowing of what was to come. “May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross, remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.”
That same prayer was read again by those assembled in 2023, both at the cross and later at the events not far from Cape Henry and the First Landing. Pastor Travis Witt, wearing his clergy garb, started his prayer by noting that the forefathers of the American nation were serious about God and their belief that this must be a godly land. “We believe, Father God, that this is a re-setting of the clock,” Witt thundered. “This is our time to be warriors … our time to be Gideon’s Army. You are the God of the impossible.”
At the start of the formal event, Reverend Jack Stagman, a missionary pastor who came to America from South Africa and provided the “vision” for the day’s festivities, dubbed the attendees “the remnant.” He also described them as “Gideon’s 300,” a reference to the biblical account of the man God used along with 300 men, after whittling down the force from tens of thousands, to smash an enemy army that had come against God’s people.
“You’ve been called by God today, and you’re going to see the multiplication, of what he’s going to do with you guys,” added Rev. Stagman, who gave God credit for the ideas. Stagman, who is now based in Virginia, noted that for 400 years, Americans took the Gospel message to every corner of the world. Today, people like him from the “developing world” are coming to America with the Gospel message, hoping that God will continue to use the United States.
Over and over again, speakers and pastors pointed to the history of the nation and declared that America is, in fact, a Christian nation. In one of the early speeches, Rev. Craig Johnson explained how America for centuries was absolutely saturated in biblical morality, from the halls of government and education to entertainment and beyond. And yet, today, “demonic entities” and their human collaborators have turned that on its head, he said.
Historian William Federer offered incredible historical knowledge and context about the enormous significance of what the colonists did in 1607 and what happened in America more broadly. Among other points, he noted that pursuing God’s glory and spreading Christianity around the world was on the minds and hearts of everyone involved, including the king. Hugely significant but little known is how the Hebrew republics described in the Old Testament served as a model for Americans — and even the Constitution, as affirmed by Samuel Langdon of Harvard.
Also speaking was Father James Altman, the Catholic priest from Wisconsin whose bold stand against Covid tyranny imposed by governmental and ecclesiastical authorities reverberated around the world. Noting that many of the “feckless, false shepherds of the Catholic Church hate me,” Altman said everyone needed to take up their cross and carry it. He has not been defrocked, but found himself under fire from his superiors in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy for keeping his church open.
In his talk, Altman praised the first settlers in America, who he said understood the biblical admonition that unless God builds the house, they who build it do so in vain. That is why the first thing they did was plant a giant cross in this new land, believing that, through the sign of the cross, God would raise up another David to slay the Goliaths coming against Christians and righteousness. But he urged listeners to prepare themselves for trials in the meantime.
Speaking to The New American later, Altman blasted Christian leaders who went along with the government’s Covid narrative — and especially the idea that church was not essential. Using somewhat harsh language, he also blasted Pope Francis and the Vatican for defrocking priests such as Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life while not taking serious action against child rapists. But he sounded optimistic through it all.
Next up was Rev. Bill Cook, founder of America’s Black Robed Regiment, who called on pastors to prepare their congregations for the war that is already raging. Pointing to Rev. Jonas Clark and other ministers who laid the foundation for what the Founders eventually built in America through their biblical teaching, Cook said one historian recorded that Clark was more dangerous to the British than all the military officers. Today’s ministers, by contrast, are preparing their congregation as sheep for the slaughter.
A war began on January 6, 2020, Cook said. “Your government has been usurped by imposters, your churches were shut down by tyrants asserting authority they do not have, your people have been murdered in hospitals … and they are still being murdered with Covid shots and boosters, and you say, ‘well I can’t tell you what to do because I’m a pastor and not a doctor,’” he said, speaking to ministers. “God says, ‘my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.’ Aren’t you supposed to be informed as a pastor?”
Former Congressman Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) explained the Gospel. “The essence of Rev. Hunt’s prayer was to dedicate this land to God,” she said after describing how the event had been recreated that morning at the cross. “In that prayer, they prayed that the entire land would come to know Jesus Christ. And the second portion of the prayer was that from this land, that the Gospel would go out. And this land has sent missionaries around the world.” She noted that with the development of satellites, Christian broadcasting went from Virginia Beach to the world, just as those first settlers had prayed.
David Barton of Wallbuilders spoke about biblical covenants, offering historical and biblical context. To illustrate how far America had fallen, he explained that prior to no-fault divorce laws in the 1960s, legislatures actually had to pass a bill to enable a couple to divorce. “There are penalties for violating the contract,” he said, noting that there were only seven examples of covenants in the Bible. Barton also explained that the Pilgrims relied on the Bible to develop the free-market system and a justice system that protects rights, laying the foundation for the future United States.
A common theme throughout the day was that Americans had turned their back on God. In fact, a whole portion of the event was devoted to begging God for His forgiveness. In the segment of the day’s activities devoted to repentance, Rev. Cook repented on behalf of the church for refusing to perform the duties assigned to it by God. He vowed to “preach the whole counsel of God,” to weigh in on matters of importance — including politics — and called on other pastors to partner with him in restoring God’s proper place in America.
Also speaking was TNA show host and missionary Zoe Warren. “God, we deserve your judgment. We deserve to be destroyed. We deserve for our children to be taken captive. We deserve for our lands to be snatched from us,” he declared. “Forgive us Lord, forgive us Lord, for we have sinned. We fall down before you now in repentance, we ask you to forgive us…. Do not let the heathen rule over us … raise up mighty warriors in America to rule and reign in righteousness like your son Jesus. We pray this in Jesus’ name.”
Ashley Shuell, a writer and mother, echoed a common theme of many of the speakers by repenting on behalf of Americans over the sin of abortion. “The only sacrifice is a broken and contrite spirit for our national sin of abortion. In the name of Jesus and by His blood, please forgive our nation for the terrible sin of abortion,” she declared, crying, “Have mercy on our nation.”
“We repent for the more than 64 million babies murdered by the legalization of abortion. We acknowledge and repent of the horrific sin of abortion,” she said. “We repent of the babies who were brutally murdered after surviving an abortion. We repent of the silence and apathy of the church regarding abortion. Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to the United States of America. Deliver us from this evil, in Jesus’ name.”
Repenting for America’s “education” system was Dr. Kathryn Camp with Living Into the Truth Ministries. “Hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. We repent for handing our children over to a faceless government education system,” she said. “We sat back as government took prayer out of the schools.… We remained silent when the government banned any mention of Jesus while actively funding Muslim prayer rooms in some states. Evolution was taught as fact. All the while our children drifted further from the truth.”
“We were too busy as parents to check the curriculum, and the school system knew that,” continued Dr. Camp, who serves as a professor of apologetics and biblical studies. “We did not see that the literature was increasingly becoming perverse. We did not notice that the science textbooks were completely materialist or that the history books had completely revised the story of our country…. Even in Christian schools the Bible was being taught as myth. We sat silent as Christianity was taught as just another religion.”
The entire crowd prayed for the children of America. Little cards on tables included a prayer for the audience to recite asking God to protect the nation’s youth from the evil sweeping across the land. God was also asked to protect the children from the ubiquitous sexualization bombarding the nation from the schools, the culture, the entertainment, and more. Those praying asked God to raise up parents who would teach their children properly.
Debbie Gates repented for human trafficking, sexual sin, abuse of women and children, and more. “Satan cannot have America, Satan cannot have our families, Satan cannot have our children,” she said. After the series of speakers repenting, Hudson prayed and asked God to send angels to every corner of America and to the White House as the crowd prayed with her.
Asking for God’s Blessings and Calls to Action
Most of the speakers asked for divine intervention while vowing to fight. Nancy Schulze, founder of the Republican Congressional Wives Prayer Breakfast, offered an emotional speech on the subject. “My heart is broken with what has happened to our country, and I will spend the rest of my days trying to fix this,” she said. “When those first settlers prayed that prayer, they set a standard.”
Schulze highlighted some of the many ways in which God has used America to bless the world, noting that even today, with less than two percent of the land and less than five percent of the world population, America produces a quarter of all the goods and services in the world. Still today, despite the negative turn, “Americans are by far the most giving people on earth, giving more than all other nations combined,” she said.
And yet, it is all at risk. “We are this close to losing a war we didn’t even know we were in,” she said, calling it a war of ideas. “It was the people of God who built this country, and it will be the people of God who rebuild it…. We need to stop letting government and this culture drive us. It is time to go on offense.… We may be hard pressed on every side but we have a great God who with the snap of His finger can turn this around if we do our part.”
After the recovenanting ceremony in which the whole crowd read the “Declaration of Covenant” and pledged allegiance to the “Appeal to Heaven” flag from the Founding era, Dr. John Diamond explained the significance. First, he explained how America’s Founders did, in fact, appeal to heaven. And today, it is time to do that again, Diamond said, even urging civil disobedience in cases where human law conflicts with God’s law. Before leaving the stage he read an imprecatory prayer from Psalms in which David asked God to come against His enemies.
After dinner, some of the organizers discussed next steps, including the Gideon plan to raise up a godly army of believers to take on the wickedness that is running wild across America. Rev. Stagman offered some ideas, and said Christians in South Africa were working on plans to restore Christianity to its rightful place, as well. The parallels between America and South Africa were also a topic of discussion.
“Going forward, besides being an annual event from now on, we will call for a public recognition of First Landing as a public holiday, and secondly, that the First Landing lost history be taught in public schools,” Stagman told The New American after the event, adding that he and others would be working to get America back on track in the days ahead. “America is at the crossroads in history and it’s now all hands on deck. Join us in Taking America Back.”
In a talk before Glenn Beck’s keynote address, this writer explained that the reason America was no longer producing “godly generations after us,” as the settlers pledged to God they would do, was that they had trusted a godless, anti-Christ government with the education and discipling of their children. There will be no restoration of America as long as Christians continue allowing their progeny to be indoctrinated against God and His Word, along with their families and their country.
Radio host Beck, in his keynote address, explained that this was not “right versus left” or Republicans versus Democrats, but rather “elites” versus the people. “We all know what the problems are. It wouldn’t take us very long to fix them,” he said. “Everything is being changed. Satan thinks he’s going to win. He is in for a real surprise.… God only has to say to Satan, ‘you’re dismissed.’ Because we’re not God, we have to say, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ, get out.’”
All over the world people are seeking answers. America, he said, is the last stand, as it is the only place left in the world “that has enough God in us, that has a remnant that remembers.” Beck called on everyone to be attuned to the Holy Spirit as the battle rages.
Pointing to this writer’s talk, Beck urged parents to stop sending their children to public schools and to instead provide them with a godly education. He also expressed shock about the widespread idolization of smart phones, saying many people were now literally worshipping their devices with their heads bowed. And as an illustration of the evil that is overtaking the nation, he noted that Minnesota Democrats were removing language from state laws stating that pedophiles are not a protected class.
It is essential for Americans to fix these issues. “This country is the greatest tool for good or evil in the history of the world,” he explained. “I said in 2008, if we don’t reconnect with what is good, we are going to make the Nazis look like rookies. We are fighting madness and evil.” However, God will use the foolish to confound the wise, he explained. “We’re watching it in real time,” he said. “Evil does not understand. Evil is arrogant.”
On a personal note, Beck spoke about his experience with alcoholism and arrogance, saying that by the time he was 30, he had lost everything. But that horrific experience caused him to turn to God and beg, in desperation. “I was so desperate that I challenged God just as my head was about to go under the water,” Beck explained, getting emotional while urging attendees and listeners never to challenge God themselves. And yet, God was faithful, and got him back on the right path, he said.
As the evening wound down, organizers Robert and Aimee Agee discussed next steps, including their upcoming Remnant Revolution Tour across America. “We’re going to take this message of what we did here today, and we’re going to take it to the whole United States,” Robert said, asking attendees and viewers on the livestream to participate. “Everybody needs to know what happened today. This is an historic moment. And I believe it’s going to send ripples throughout our nation and the Earth.”
Billy Ford, president of Restoring the Republic, spoke about the critical role of Texas in restoring the American Republic. And Lieutenant Colonel Pete Chambers, a Green Beret who retired last year, wrapped up the night with words of encouragement and praise for God. Speaking of the “Fifth Generation Warfare” being waged against America, he said the spiritual battle outlined in Ephesians 6 was far more significant.
As he was winding down his own speech, Beck said that for years, God had been telling him to sound the alarm and warn Americans. But in recent times, he said, he has felt God urging him to provide hope to Americans instead. Despite the seemingly overwhelming power of the enemies of faith, family, and freedom, there was a ubiquitous sense among attendees that God was doing something major, and that the tide may be turning as more and more Americans turn to God amid the carnage.
The main takeaway: Be faithful to God, do what you are called to do, and trust Him with the results.
