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Posted: 29 Nov 2013 08:21 AM PST
[T]he law is ignored and justice is never
upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out
perverted. (Habakkuk 1:4)
November 19, 2013, was the 150th anniversary
of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The speech is iconic, but
is it Biblical?
That the Nation Might Live
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can
long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
Let’s not overlook that President Lincoln had
no thought for Gettysburg’s Confederate dead, who were not at all interested
in giving their lives so the corporate United States of America might endure.
Moreover, a nation exists not so much by the lives of those lost in her
battles, but as a result of Yahweh’s1 predetermined design for His
ultimate purpose. This is true even for nations whose leaders (such as
Lincoln2) are in rebellion to Yahweh:
[T]he most High ruleth in the kingdom of men,
and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of
men. (Daniel 4:17)
Consecration
But, in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor
power to add or detract.
Webster’s 2000 College Dictionary defines
“consecrate” as “to make or declare sacred; dedicate to the service of a
deity.”3 The blood of soldiers can no more consecrate the killing
fields of Gettysburg than the lives lost in New York’s Twin Towers can hallow
Ground Zero.
Numbers 35:33 tells us that “blood it defileth
the land.” After Cain killed Abel, in Genesis 4:9-10, Yahweh informed Cain
that “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” One
can only imagine the deafening uproar created by the blood shed just at
Gettysburg alone.
An Ungodly Battle in an Ungodly War
The world will little note, nor long
remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
If we’re smart, we will never forget
what was done at Gettysburg and vow never to repeat it. (Thus far, Americans
have not proven themselves very smart.) It was an ungodly battle in an
ungodly war.4
The power to declare war is a serious
responsibility. Why were the framers so vague in defining the parameters of
war and the conditions under which it could be declared? Article 1, Section
8, Clause 115 is the only place of significance where warfare is
mentioned in the Constitution. Little wonder this power has been abused.
Luther Martin (one of Maryland’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention)
protested:
…the congress have also a power given them to
raise and support armies, without any limitation as to numbers, and without
any restriction in time of peace. Thus, sir, this plan of government, instead
of guarding against a standing army, that engine of arbitrary power, which
has so often and so successfully been used for the subversion of freedom, has
in its formation given it an express and constitutional sanction….6
John Quincy Adams predicted the consequences
of America’s imperialistic military entanglements:
America … has abstained from interference in
the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to
which she clings…. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been
or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers
be. But she goes not abroad [How much more so within her own borders?]in
search of monsters to destroy.… She well knows that by once enlisting under
other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign
independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in
all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and
ambition, which assume the colors, and usurp the standard of freedom. The
fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty
to force; the frontlet on her brow would no longer beam with the
ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon
be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished luster,
the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become [and has] the
dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.7
Because the framers provided no Biblical
parameters, unbiblical warfare (including the War of Northern Aggression) has
been the rule ever since. Yahweh prescribes strict rules of warfare for His
people.8 These Biblical parameters determine the righteousness of
a war.
Untold numbers of people have been killed in
wars fought in the name of Christianity, but few of these wars were
Christian. If a military conflict waged in the name of Christianity is not
Biblical, it is not Christian. More often than not, the departure from
the Biblical rules of warfare is what is responsible for the unjustified
deaths in these “holy” wars.
Only conflicts waged in legitimate defense of
one’s homeland are justified and godly. The South had no intentions of
attacking their Northern brethren. Consequently, President Lincoln had no
Biblical authority to declare war against the Southern states. On the other
hand, the Southerners were justified in defending themselves against
their invaders.
Abraham Lincoln was wrong. The fields of
Gettysburg were not consecrated by the blood shed there. Rather, they were defiled.
Stay tuned for Part 3.
Related posts:
1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the
Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew
name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in
the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In
obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to
proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast
to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and
in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons
for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”
3. Random House Webster’s College
Dictionary, s.v. “consecrate” (New York, NY: Random House, 2000) p. 284.
4. In the beginning, Lincoln’s War had nothing
to do with abolishing slavery. That slavery became an issue is merely
an instance of political opportunism on Lincoln’s part.
5. “[Congress shall have power] To declare
war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures
on land and water.” (United States Constitution: Article 1, Section 8, Clause
11)
6. Luther Martin, Jonathan Elliott, ed., The
Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the
Federal Constitution, 4 vols. (Washington, DC: Jonathan Elliott, 1836)
vol. 1, p. 59.
7. John Quincy Adams, quoted in William H.
Seward, Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams (New York, NY:
C.M. Saxton, Barker & Co., 1860) p. 132.
8. Deuteronomy 20, etc.
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