Tuesday's Answers

Year 3 Student

Why was Pocahontas friendly with the settlers?

Because Captain John Smith promised to take her to England, and because the white men needed food and help, and because she didn't want war between the Indians and the white men.

Tell about what life was like for a woodsman during the exile of Charles II.

They had to keep hidden because most of them were against the roundheads. They had to hunt, but hunting was forbidden, but they hunted deer. They couldn't hunt when roundheads were around.

Year 5 Student

Tell about one event in modern history (from the 20th Century book)

The Titanic: There was this one company that wanted to build a really big ship. I think it was 1903 or 1904 but it was built and the captain was trying to make a run from England to up past Greenland in record speed. There were thousands of passengers on board and they were going so fast that when they spotted the iceberg up ahead, they couldn't stop and they struck it. They closed the doors to the rooms that had been hit because the rooms were waterproof, but so many rooms had been opened that even with the doors closed the ship started sinking. They sent out a message to the nearby coast, but the guy who was at the lighthouse wasn't paying attention, or was sleeping or something. A nearby ship heard the signal and came to the rescue but, by the time they had gotten there, the ship was sunk and there weren't enough lifeboats for everybody. A little over half the people died.

Tell a little bit about the caste system of India's society OR child labor in Dickens' London

If their parents couldn't pay all their debts, then the children were forced to work at parish work houses sometimes all their lives and they also didn't get fed very well. They worked almost all day long every day.

Year 9 Student

Tell what you know about the doctrine of predestination.

Predestination is the belief that salvation is foreknown, predetermined, and unalterable. Looking at it timelessly, those who will be saved are saved already; those who will not be are not. The thought is that, if God knows all (which He does), then a person’s fate is already known, and therefore already determined.

This doctrine is in opposition to the idea of free will in that people cannot choose their own fate. It can also act against witnessing and spreading the Gospel, because if people’s fates are already determined, it will make no difference. If a person is destined to be saved, then nothing we can do will change that, and vice-versa.

What are some of the similarities and differences between the French and American revolutions?

Both happened in the 18th century; in both the people overthrew King and monarchy and instituted republics.

But the American revolution was about freedom from tyranny, in a way going back to the older and higher ideas of law. The French revolution was about freedom, not just from government but from law, doing away with the old thinking and basing itself on “enlightened” ideas. Because of this the French revolution followed no law, executing thousands of people, many of them guiltless, stealing lands from the Church, and leading to economic trouble and the country’s ruin and disrepair.

Both were about the people’s right to govern themselves. But the French led to a mob rule, a despotism of the people, whereas the American instituted a government that represented the people but also controlled it. The French revolution and republic were based on the idea of the inherent goodness of man, the American on his inherent evil.

The American revolution was carried out in the knowledge that their cause was right before God, fighting for the liberty of man under the law of God. The French revolution was based on human right and principles, fighting for “liberte et egalite” of men. The American revolution was essentially Christian; the French revolution essentially Humanist. The results are well known.