Whose side was God on?

[Malingerer]

I can't think of any nation that went to war without thinking "God's on our side", with the possible exception of the Nazi's.

German soldiers marched off to battle wearing belt buckles that read "Got mit uns" - god is with us.

 

[7thWisconsin]

It's safe to say that both sides thought God was on their side. Late in the war, there was a regimental commander who chewed out his chaplain for asking the evangelistic question "if you are killed in battle, where will you go?" He felt that was bad for morale. "You tell them every man who dies in the service of his country goes straight to heaven!" (I deliberately left which side out, but the story is in Bruce Catton's Army of the Potomac series...)

 

[James B White]

I can't think of any nation that went to war without thinking "God's on our side", with the possible exception of the Nazi's.

Just saw that Malingerer covered that one. Hitler referenced his belief that God was on Germany's side in his speeches.

If that were strictly true, then Moses would not have been able to lead his people out of Egypt.

There is no corroborating evidence outside the story in the Bible that it ever happened. So without further evidence, I think it shows that people wish the underdog would win with God's help, not that the underdog actually did in that case. And that wish is still true today, and is part of what gave the South hope.

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

Where did he say that? I am suddenly seized by the desire to read the source.

In a letter to his family. "God's Almost Chosen Peoples" by University of Alabama history professor George Rable.