Preface....the following post is a few weeks old....I have one of Civil War artist Mort Kunstler's prints hanging in our hallway. It's probably been there for twenty years and is a snowy scene with Stonewall Jackson saying goodbye to his wife. In that painting there is the flag of the Army Of Northern Virginia. If it were the more familiar Confederate battle flag....I would not have chosen that particular painting....because that flag....in northern states like Pennsylvania anyway.....has taken on a different meaning. It's conceivable that I might purchase something with the battle flag associated with it....but I wouldn't just display it without describing it to visitors who would see it. I own one genuine Civil War artifact. It was picked up from Pickett's Charge....probably a hundred years ago....and is a 1" cross that may have been worn around the neck. I feel sorry for those young people today who never received a genuine education on American history....for they can glean nothing from what happened in our Civil War....nothing that hasn't been distorted anyway.
Someone today has probably uttered the phrase....'George Washington is rolling over in his grave.' This of course over what is happening in America today....but I can tell you this as a certainty.....George Washington is not rolling over in his grave....for he as every other person to live on this earth and then die....either went on to await eternal punishment....or they are awaiting the return of Jesus Christ to be with Him forever. I've studied Washington's religious life over the years as many have....and I only have an opinion....I know that many believe Washington to have been a deist....I do not agree with that....but either way....he is not now concerned about the United States of America. That type of sentiment....patriotism....honorable as it surely is....is for this life....not the next. It would behoove us therefore....logically....should this be the case....decide for yourself on this....even as important as freedom and liberty and our constitution is....to pay more attention to the words and the commands of the One who created every atom in the entire universe....upon which every nation exists....and thus every ruler....and every idea that man has had....whether they be noble or ignoble....or wise or foolish.
I'm one of those Civil War buffs that visit battlefields. The Christian....Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson....is one of my heroes in life. Previous to reading seventy books on Donald Trump....who is not a hero of mine....it was probably Jackson who I had read the most books on. I have some different views on the demand to remove the memory of great men like Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee. Is anybody surprised? It does upset me....but my first thought is that Americans today do not deserve the memory of these men....or Abraham Lincoln. This is not the America in which I grew up. I'm thankful that in our son's formative years....America was still America.
There's another thing that comes to my mind as I read about what is going on today. I wrote a post about this a few years back. I visit Washington D. C. when I get the chance. I walk the memorials as everyone else does....my father is buried in Arlington National Cemetery....but every time I do this I try to make sure that I keep in mind the Apostle Paul's walk around the temples in Athens....for if we are not careful we can let our monuments become nothing more than pagan idols.
Stonewall Jackson would be one to say....'Never worship at a statue of me.....but only before the cross of Christ.' An anecdote just came to mind....as best I remember it....Jackson had visited the battlefield of Waterloo on a trip to Europe in 1856....with a friend as I remember....he saw as he gazed over the battlefield that Napoleon had a distinct advantage....his friend asked how Napoleon could have been beaten....whereas Jackson slammed his hand on the table and answered....(once again to the best of my memory)....."Only God could have caused Napoleon to lose."
Our military is one of the few areas where America still rings true....as this battle for the soul of America still rages....but it won't be won on battlefields or politics....but it is spiritual in nature....and the goal is not in making America great again....but that God's hand might once again be upon us in this current storm....that is just a portent of what is to come....of what God's Word has warned us of over many decades from men like Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul....both who have gone on to be with Him....their task of warning complete....as angels soberly watch and wait.
Update after the Mt. Rushmore rally....The camerawork was impressive....but I muted Steven Miller's speech....given by the President....as I was finishing up John Bolton's The Room Where It Happened....preferring non-fiction. So I was quickly going over the transcript this morning and although a few things could be critiqued.....I'll pick just this one....the President said that Mount Rushmore will...."stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers." Ronald Reagan might have used the caveat....."Lord willing".....for he had used it before....Jimmy Carter probably would have....he surely at least would have believed such as the case....and I doubt if he would have used the word eternal....and Abraham Lincoln might have said...."if God wills it"....for he used that phrase in his second inaugural address. Mount Rushmore will stand....every mountain will stay in place.....and every person will live on this earth....only so far as God wills it...."A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8)
Someone today has probably uttered the phrase....'George Washington is rolling over in his grave.' This of course over what is happening in America today....but I can tell you this as a certainty.....George Washington is not rolling over in his grave....for he as every other person to live on this earth and then die....either went on to await eternal punishment....or they are awaiting the return of Jesus Christ to be with Him forever. I've studied Washington's religious life over the years as many have....and I only have an opinion....I know that many believe Washington to have been a deist....I do not agree with that....but either way....he is not now concerned about the United States of America. That type of sentiment....patriotism....honorable as it surely is....is for this life....not the next. It would behoove us therefore....logically....should this be the case....decide for yourself on this....even as important as freedom and liberty and our constitution is....to pay more attention to the words and the commands of the One who created every atom in the entire universe....upon which every nation exists....and thus every ruler....and every idea that man has had....whether they be noble or ignoble....or wise or foolish.
I'm one of those Civil War buffs that visit battlefields. The Christian....Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson....is one of my heroes in life. Previous to reading seventy books on Donald Trump....who is not a hero of mine....it was probably Jackson who I had read the most books on. I have some different views on the demand to remove the memory of great men like Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee. Is anybody surprised? It does upset me....but my first thought is that Americans today do not deserve the memory of these men....or Abraham Lincoln. This is not the America in which I grew up. I'm thankful that in our son's formative years....America was still America.
There's another thing that comes to my mind as I read about what is going on today. I wrote a post about this a few years back. I visit Washington D. C. when I get the chance. I walk the memorials as everyone else does....my father is buried in Arlington National Cemetery....but every time I do this I try to make sure that I keep in mind the Apostle Paul's walk around the temples in Athens....for if we are not careful we can let our monuments become nothing more than pagan idols.
Stonewall Jackson would be one to say....'Never worship at a statue of me.....but only before the cross of Christ.' An anecdote just came to mind....as best I remember it....Jackson had visited the battlefield of Waterloo on a trip to Europe in 1856....with a friend as I remember....he saw as he gazed over the battlefield that Napoleon had a distinct advantage....his friend asked how Napoleon could have been beaten....whereas Jackson slammed his hand on the table and answered....(once again to the best of my memory)....."Only God could have caused Napoleon to lose."
Our military is one of the few areas where America still rings true....as this battle for the soul of America still rages....but it won't be won on battlefields or politics....but it is spiritual in nature....and the goal is not in making America great again....but that God's hand might once again be upon us in this current storm....that is just a portent of what is to come....of what God's Word has warned us of over many decades from men like Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul....both who have gone on to be with Him....their task of warning complete....as angels soberly watch and wait.
Update after the Mt. Rushmore rally....The camerawork was impressive....but I muted Steven Miller's speech....given by the President....as I was finishing up John Bolton's The Room Where It Happened....preferring non-fiction. So I was quickly going over the transcript this morning and although a few things could be critiqued.....I'll pick just this one....the President said that Mount Rushmore will...."stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers." Ronald Reagan might have used the caveat....."Lord willing".....for he had used it before....Jimmy Carter probably would have....he surely at least would have believed such as the case....and I doubt if he would have used the word eternal....and Abraham Lincoln might have said...."if God wills it"....for he used that phrase in his second inaugural address. Mount Rushmore will stand....every mountain will stay in place.....and every person will live on this earth....only so far as God wills it...."A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8)
