Wretched Man That I Am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Apr

3

The North, the South, and God’s Will

Filed Under general christianity, history, reading

I’ve been plowing through Carl Sandberg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Today, I read this:

“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 the best adaptation to effect his purpose…

… God wills the contest, and wills that is shall not end yet. By his mere great power on the minds of the new 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.”

A friend was mentioning Sunday that God really doesn’t care a wit about things like government other than the point to which it serves His ultimate will. This quote was a fantastic reminder of that.

In college I remember using wars, and this one in particular because both sides were for the most part Christian, as a reason for the non-existence of God. My intelligent friends and I would cite examples where both sides said God was on their side, or they were fighting in the name of God, etc. Then we would ridicule them and ask which side God was cheering for…

Anyway, time goes by, and luckily it’s become clear that God’s will may involve something a little bigger and we are only little tiny instruments.

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