I finished this book on my Florida second honeymoon. It is fabulous! If you’ve ever wanted to dive deeper into the Christian heritage of the United States of America, this is the book for you. Rather, the whole series of “hypothesis” books by Timothy Ballard.

Chapter 1 is all about Columbus. That’s a bit of a surprise since the title says it’s about Pilgrims. But I guess the author wanted to give the context of the Pilgrims belief in covenants tied back to another person in American history who believed in covenants. So many myths and truths surround this man. Is it true that he brought illness to the natives of Hispainola? Did he treat his men badly? Did he only want to go west to find new trade routes for Europe, or did he have a deeper purpose? Was he a Christian? How much did he know about Israel? Read this chapter to find the answers to all these questions and more.Other chapters talk about the Pilgrims coming to America, why they did it, John Howland, William Bradford, George Washington, John Adams, and the Louisiana Purchase. Mr. Ballard tells of the miracles involves with those people and events.

Here’s the summary from amazon.com:

“America is a country with deep-seated roots of faith planted by pilgrims seeking religious independence. It was these men and women who paved the way for a free nation under God in this promised land but what if those early voyagers were brought here for a much greater purpose? What if their arrival in this new land heralded the fulfillment of ancient prophecy: laying the foundation of a country that would allow for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the gathering of scattered Israel? In The Pilgrim Hypothesis readers are presented with a gripping new investigation by best-selling author and historian Timothy Ballard as he uncovers what the early colonists a people who believed themselves to be the ‘New Israel’ may have known about their role in the restoration of the gospel. Delve into a complex history bridging the centuries and spanning the globe, as each clue leads to one compelling conclusion: history and scripture may be far more intertwined than you’ve ever realized.”

If you believe in the Judeo-Christian roots of the USA, you will probably find this book fascinating! It has lots of QR codes so you can watch videos of the author at the places he writes about. I give it 5 out of 5 stars! If you go to the book’s website here, and sign up for the author’s newsletter, you can watch the videos, what he calls webisodes. This is a great book for teens and parents to read together to give more meaning of the upcoming fall holidays of Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. You can also find it in Audible, so hooray for that! The video below is a summary of the book.