Whose side was God on?

Pvt.Shattuck

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During the Civil War, Americans were a religious people, and this was a question of great importance. On this Sunday morning 150 years later, here's what Lincoln thought:

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."
Abraham Lincoln Meditations on the Divine Will

" Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
 
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If, indeed, "the Will of God prevails," then the answer is obvious."
Personally, I think all war is an ungodly business, entirely a human responsibility. God deals with individual souls.

jno
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries? "
Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
 
When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries? "
Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
Sounds like a "Foreign Military Observer."
 
I have always wondered how the defeated, having been convinced in the righteousness of their cause, have managed to deal with the reality of things apparently not having been as they had imagined. I suppose they could rationalize a defeat by claiming that the Almighty was testing them, putting them through trials and tribulations to bring about his desired ends. Did any notable preachers or theologians of the day actually address this conundrum to their flocks after the war or just assign it to the unfathomable workings of an inscrutable Deity?
 
Spirituality was obviously a large part of life back then. Mostly from what I have read (or maybe just remembered) is that God was given thanks after a victory, but losses were blamed on generals.

But to the question, the only person to answer that is God. My opinion is God is for humanity, but not for war, hence freewill, and war is a manmade disaster.
 
Spirituality was obviously a large part of life back then. Mostly from what I have read (or maybe just remembered) is that God was given thanks after a victory, but losses were blamed on generals.

But to the question, the only person to answer that is God. My opinion is God is for humanity, but not for war, hence freewill, and war is a manmade disaster.

I don't want to turn this into a religious debate but did not war originate in Heaven and predate mankind?
 
My gg-grand uncle, Sylvanus Landrum, was the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Savannah. He preached at least two sermons on this subject which have survived. In the earlier one, given in September of 1862, he clearly feels that God is on the side of the South, and that early military successes represent God's favor.

How great the blessings which God has bestowed upon our young nation! We can not yet number years to our existence; we began with nothing; we have been shut out from intercourse with the world; unrecognized by any people, and yet we have been guided wisely, protected from subjugation, and secured against famine and pestilence … When a crisis has come, and our all seemed to hang upon the turn of affairs, God has stretched forth his power and given us the favorable change. Who will now be cast down in spirit when the past so eloquently rebukes every desponding thought?

The revivals which are now springing up over the land, dotting the desert of our distrust with cases, beautiful and glorious in hope, constitute another ground of encouragement for our country’s cause. These are the clearest proofs of God’s favor. Political deliverance is a great boon, but the eternal salvation of Christ Jesus to the souls of our people is infinitely greater. Not only is God graciously blessing the churches and families of the land, but I feel assured he is saving many of our soldiers. Amidst the great wickedness of the armies, there are many turning amidst their trials and sickness, imprisonments and wounds, to the great Shepherd of their souls. From my intercourse with soldiers in hospitals, I am satisfied that should the war close today, many soldiers would return prepared to unite with churches, and give their lives to the glory of the Captain of their salvation.

The prayers for soldiers are not in vain. In hours of affliction especially, they remember the religious influence of home; the family altar, the Sabbath school, the sanctuary. An allusion to these things will frequently bring the tear to cheeks unaccustomed to such bedewing. It has been observed, that when addressing soldiers upon the subject of prayer, and they assert they know not how to pray if the question is asked, “Do you remember the prayer your mother taught you?” their faces will brighten up, and their eyes turn upon you as though you were reading their hearts. Yes, they remember those prayers, and feel that they can pray them. Sometimes in the wildness of delirium, they will call for their mothers or their wives. Under such hallowed memories of the past, and in answer to the prayers of those who plead for their salvation, many are lead to the glorious hope of the Gospel.

Great are the encouragements to pray for our country. I must not detain you in the duty and privilege of this hour. Today our Congress assembles. May God hold them in all their counsels; deliver them from wrong and guide them by wisdom from above. May he hold our generals and soldiers, our President and Cabinet, our people, our cause! Our best army is the army of prayer. Our best artillery and defences, the earnest outgoings of devout hearts to God, that his glory may be brought forth from the wrath of man in this bloody and brutal war.

http://civilwarbaptists.com/thisdayinhistory/1862-september-05/

His later, and more famous sermon, "The Battle is God's," is referenced in a dozen different Civil War books, but I haven't found a version of it online, nor a library that has a copy - it seems to exist primarily on microfilm. It was given on the day of fasting and prayer decreed by Jefferson Davis after the devastating twin losses at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in 1863. According to what I've been able to piece together, Sylvanus reiterates that the South has the right to secede and that their Cause is a holy one. However, he emphasizes the impiety of the people of the nation themselves, particularly in the matter of cursing, which is particularly wicked since it doesn't even benefit the person who does it, but is pure rebellion against goodness. He concludes that only God grants victory.
 
Yes, I don't think it's a good question, ' Whose side was God on? '. He probably did what he could to prevent the whole thing, exasperated, had a scotch and settled down for a long war and probably had a re-think on the whole ' free will ' aspect He'd handed out with such abandon. The other thing He handed around was Faith. Good thing too- men on both sides of the carnage clung to this through scenes of death and despair none had foreseen, how could they? Whether it be to ' win ' or ' lose ' or each man's personal safety or his acceptance of death in that slow blink between this world and the next- Faith in God marched from battlefield to battlefield.
 
While searching for info on Sylvanus Landrum I found this book - there's a discussion of Southern Baptists during the war and their sermons on the will of God starting p. 24. One thing they specifically claimed was that God had put the Union army to flight at Manassas, just as God had put the Midians to flight in the Bible.

Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War
By Bruce Thomas Gourley

https://books.google.com/books?id=V...g&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Landrum&f=false
 
Yes, I don't think it's a good question,
Of course it's a bad question. It directly asks people to discuss their modern religious beliefs in violation of the rules by asking "What do you think?" rather than "What did they think?" or "What do you think that they thought?"
I have always wondered how the defeated, having been convinced in the righteousness of their cause, have managed to deal with the reality of things apparently not having been as they had imagined.
Here's how one man rationalized it, from John Townsend Trowbridge, The South: A Tour..., 1866. https://books.google.com/books?id=sB4SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA392

"Another Louisianian, agent of the Hope Estate, near Water-Proof, in Tensas Parish, said: 'I manage five thousand acres,.... I think God intended the ******s to be slaves; we have the Bible for that... Now since man has deranged God's plan, I think the best we can do is to keep 'em as near a state of bondage as possible.' "
 
I have always wondered how the defeated, having been convinced in the righteousness of their cause, have managed to deal with the reality of things apparently not having been as they had imagined. I suppose they could rationalize a defeat by claiming that the Almighty was testing them, putting them through trials and tribulations to bring about his desired ends. Did any notable preachers or theologians of the day actually address this conundrum to their flocks after the war or just assign it to the unfathomable workings of an inscrutable Deity?
Yes, they did. The usual claim was that the cause was just but that the people themselves had been impious. One of the specific things said by some Southern Baptists was that failing to reform the institution of slavery, in particular as it concerned white men and female slaves, had brought the disfavor of God.

The Bible has been interpreted in more than one way on the subject of whether God patronizes or punishes particular causes on Earth. On the one side there is God's patronage of Israel, and various psalms. On the other, Ecclesiastes, the book of Job's insistence that misfortune is not always a punishment for sin, and the New Testament statement that God sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust alike. The discrepancy between a perfectly just God and the apparent injustice of life is a theme throughout the Bible, reflected by different beliefs in different churches at the time of the Civil War.
 
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