GYC SE 2016: Good News

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC Southeast

Title for Seminar 3

Jud Lake

Ellen White and the Civil War- Part 1

Ellen White and the Civil War- Part 2

We had talked about Ellen White's forecast.

I'll read it again from Testimonies, Volume 1, page 262.

Then it was explained, this is after she described the angel intervening in the battle.

Then it was explained that God had this nation in His own hand and would not suffer victories to be gained faster than He ordained and would permit no more losses to the northern men that in His wisdom He saw fit to punish them for their sins.

I spoke of the significance of the statement, God has this nation in his own hand.

And by the way, that's the thesis of my book.

The title of my book, at least the proposed title, the press may change it.

They said they wanna play with it a little bit.

But what I'm proposing is a nation in God's hands, the civil revisions of Ellen White.

Because that right there is a central theme throughout my book.

And I wanna tell you, isn't that encouraging for today?

If he had this nation in his hands then, he still has this nation in his hands.

As we face this crazy election and the future, you know, with 1 of these 2 candidates, Something like that I find to be very encouraging.

God still has this nation in His hands and even in spite of Trump and Hillary, He is in control and will preserve this nation or punish it as is necessary.

What she's saying here is that this victory would not come quickly and easily though.

God would not suffer victories to be gained faster than He ordained and would permit no more losses to the northern men than in his wisdom he saw fit.

The words suffer and permit indicate the divine displeasure with the north because of its compromises with the slave-holding south." as I spoke of earlier, summarized earlier.

At the beginning of this particular vision, White set forth her view very clearly.

God is punishing this nation for the high crime of slavery.

Her indictment included both sides in the war.

He will punish the south for the sin of slavery and the north for so long suffering its overreach and overbearing influence." She said that earlier in this chapter where she described the angel.

Yet, He has the destiny of this nation in His hands.

So the fact that He holds this nation in His hands means He will preserve it, but He will also punish it as well and He would do so through the battles.

Victory would come but it would be a long protracted victory.

But momentum would take place only as the Union began to be more in harmony with God's ways and dispense with slavery.

That happened through, I believe, God's key agent.

Accordingly, God would not let the North experience victory out of His blessing and pleasure, but out of His patience and tolerance.

He would permit battle losses out of His wisdom to humble and punish the North.

The victories would keep the South from crushing the North, and the losses would humble it to the point of repentance.

And there are some low points where the North was on its knees, literally, in the war.

Thus, ultimate victory would come slowly and painfully.

Now this statement should be coupled with another statement she made about a fast that God has chosen.

She talked about she was condemning the national fast and she said God's fast is to end slavery.

Lincoln had called for a national fast in September of 1861.

And Ellen White condemned that fast because he was asking the nation to pray and yet the war was not, the Union war effort was not to end slavery.

They wanted to bring the South, Southern States back into the Union and leave slavery alone.

That's what Lincoln had promised in his first inaugural address.

God will hear the nation's prayers when they begin to change the war effort and make it end slavery.

And that was not happening at that time but she promised that when that happens God will hear their prayers and God will give them victory so as a matter of time and events in the war And I have another lecture and Lincoln features prominently in my book, but what you see about Abraham Lincoln is a president who evolved through the trials of war.

And his whole perspective on how he viewed the black race and how he viewed slavery, he never liked slavery.

But he felt he didn't have a constitutional right to end it.

So he developed the brilliant strategy of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Some say the emancipation proclamation ended slavery.

It was the beginning of a long process that would culminate in the 13th Amendment, which when it was ratified, that ended slavery.

It's got a little bit of spin here and there, but basically it's historically accurate.

And it's all about the passing of the 13th Amendment, but I'm jumping ahead.

But this victory would evidently come, according to White, after the North experienced enough losses as God's wisdom saw fit and enough victories as He ordained them.

This terminology then indicated divine control and intervention in the pattern of battle victories and losses in the war.

So the angelic intervention she depicted in the battle of First Manassas would evidently be a pattern throughout the war but she never said anything more about it.

So it appears that there was more divine intervention in battles.

We can't pinpoint that because she had no more visions about that.

But I will conjecture where I think that happened here in a moment.

This is the distinguishing feature of White's contribution to the way the war played out.

Rather than the battle patterns or victories or losses being totally dependent upon the decisions of generals and commanders or the strengths or weaknesses of the armies, God had the final word in the battles of the Civil War.

These words then, first published approximately a month after the battle of First Bull Run, indicate a seesaw pattern of Union victories and losses in the forthcoming war.

That is, according to Ellen White's interpretation, there would be up periods in the battles and down periods for the Union throughout the war.

The implication in this forecast was that once God's purposes of punishment ran their course and the sin of slavery was dealt with, the Union would experience enough victories to win the war.

That was related to emancipation that I mentioned earlier, when they changed the purpose of the war.

Moreover, once emancipation became official and transformed the war into a crusade to end slavery, the patterns of battle would be decidedly in favor of the Union and that's precisely what happened.

Now what I'm about to share with you, this is an interpretation.

There are many interpretations by historians and enthusiasts of the Civil War.

This is a specifically religious or theological interpretation by Ellen White and she didn't talk about all the battles.

It's up to the interpreter to take that forecast and look at the battles.

You can see the big pictures, but never before has an analysis this in depth been done.

What you will read in my forthcoming book, analysis of the battles in relationship to this forecast by Ellen White.

But there's a subjective element that's unavoidable in this.

I've looked at the battles and I can see this pattern.

But when I say that now this clearly must have been God at work here, that of course is an interpretation.

But it fits with precision, that forecast at the outset.

So I want to make it clear, as I do in my book, that this is a personal interpretation of the battles.

The interpreter must look at the statement and then look at the battles and make their own determination.

So let's look at the pattern of battles in 1861.

Again, there are 3 chapters in my book on this, 3 big chapters.

So at the outset of the war, you had several skirmishes in the spring and summer, early summer of 1861, but the first bull run where she saw the angel come down, that was the first major battle.

Then Wilson's Creek later that fall and the Battle of Balls Bluff was also a major defeat.

The first senator was killed in Balls Bluff, a good friend of Lincoln.

Then Lincoln fired the general at first bull run, McDowell, because he had failed, and he hired or put into place George B.

McClellan, a brilliant general at the time, to build up a massive Union army during the fall season.

Back to Menu

Series

Title for Seminar 3

Ellen White and the Civil War- Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

The Hand of God

30m

Title for Seminar 3

Ellen White and the Civil War- Part 1

1h

Eugene Prewitt: Adventist Heritage

Organization, Babylon, and the Civil War

47m

Ellen White’s Amazing Vision of Civil War

26m

Revelation’s Victory Cry

1h 2m

Star Wars

1. The Birth of the Controversy

29m

Called to Victory

42m

Remodeling Your Life- God's Transforming Power

6- View From Above

28m

Sabbath School 2nd Quarter 2024: The Great Controversy

13 The Triumph of God’s Love

28m

Religious Liberty 2022

Religious Liberty: The Adventist Angle

49m

Sound Doctrine