Ellen White had many prophetic visions from God. In this video Pastor Mark Finley goes to the exact location of the vision and explains how an angel from Heaven came down to affect the outcome of the Manassas Battle during the Civil War.

<p>Ellen White had many prophetic visions from God. In this video Pastor Mark Finley goes to the exact location of the vision and explains how an angel from Heaven came down to affect the outcome of the Manassas Battle during the Civil War.</p>

<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>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Ellen White’s Amazing Vision of Civil War

I'm here at the Manassas Battlefield in Manassas, Virginia.

It was here 160 years ago that an angel came down from heaven and divided the North and Southern forces.

It is an absolute incredible story, the story of a divine miracle.

The purpose of prophecy is to help us to look back at the moving of the Spirit of God once that prophecy is fulfilled and know the truthfulness of the Bible.

In addition to that, prophecy helps us look forward to the future.

Fulfilled prophecy in the past gives us confidence in the prophetic word in the future.

On July 21, 1861, the first battle of the Civil War took place right here in Manassas.

The general for the Northern Army was General Irvin McDowell.

General McDowell assembled his forces in Washington, D.C.

Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, had sent out a message for northern men to enlist in the war.

Some 35, 000 northern troops gathered in Washington, D.C.

Most of them were young, about 18 years old.

They signed up for 90 days of enlistment to fight in the war.

They thought that this was going to be a very short war.

McDowell marched them out here along the what is now the Washington-Warrington Turnpike.

The first day they only went 5 miles because they stopped to drink water, they stopped to pick blackberries, they were kind of a lumbering group who had signed up for 90 days, thought this war was gonna be over very very quickly.

As they were coming here, they were going to face General Beauregard, the Confederate leader's troops.

He had about 22, 000 troops here, and those 22, 000 troops assembled here on the battlefield.

Beauregard recognized very quickly that he was outnumbered, so he sent a message down to the Shenandoah Valley to General Johnson of the Confederate forces that he better hurry up and get here quickly with his 10, 000 troops.

So Johnson's troops came by railway up to Manassas and they came here to the battlefield.

Because you have at Manassas Gap Junction the center of 3 major railways and the northern forces knew, and General McDonnell knew, that if he could possibly overtake the Manassas Railway, He could then get that railway down to Richmond, which was the capital of the Southern forces.

And so his forces came up, they attacked at a place called Stone Bridge, a mile and a half, 2 miles from here, as a diversionary attack.

But the Southern forces recognized it was a diversionary attack, hustled up here to Henry Hill and beyond Matthews Hill to try to stop them.

Now something quite significant happened right at this place.

You see the cannon that I'm standing by, these are Northern cannon.

Northern cannon had been brought down to this spot to guard the flank of the Northern forces.

Southern troops began to come out of the woods.

As they did, you would have expected the Northern cannon to fire.

Now in that time there was no consistent, no consistent uniforms.

And so the northern leader of this cannon brigade said, don't fire, don't fire, there are our own men approaching because they didn't recognize because there's so many different uniforms.

Even today, we wonder why did these cannon not fire at the Southern forces coming out of the woods.

The reason they didn't, of course, was because they thought they might be their own men, the Northern men.

Because they didn't fire, the riflemen got so close, they shot these northern cannon operators, took over these cannon, turned them in this direction to fire back at the northern forces.

That was the first little interesting thing.

As the northern forces continued their attack, They kept pushing back and pushing back the Southern forces.

During the time that they were doing that, pushing back the Southern forces, General Jackson came to the ridge and held his ground.

Let's go out to that ridge and let's go out to the very place where the angel came down.

See why this angel came down, see what he did, see how this relates to prophecy and how it relates to the history of the Civil War.

So come with me out to that very ridge where we can look at the spot where the angel came down.

Southern forces here came to the top of this hill.

Northern forces were there coming toward the southern forces.

Over 900 people were killed that day on this battlefield.

In addition to that, there were hundreds more, thousands more that were wounded.

Remember, Northern forces had about 35, 000 soldiers, Southern forces about 32, 000 forces.

And so as the battle waged, General Jackson rode his horse up onto this hill and here you see a statue commemorating the event that occurred here.

Jackson of course was the leader of the Virginians, the Virginian forces that were aligned with the South.

Virginia was divided between North and South, of course.

Jackson came up on the hill and the Southern forces were retreating at that time, but Jackson held firm.

1 of the leaders of the Confederate Army, a man by the name of Bee, said, there is Jackson.

So the Southern forces came up, rallied on this hill, stood here at this very place.

As the Northern forces came down through this very field, the Southern forces held very, very strong with Jackson here.

The battle waged, hundreds were shot dead, dying on this field.

Now, it was believed that there would be of this war would be very, very short.

Ellen White, in 1861, spoke in a little church in Parkville, Virginia, Parkville, Michigan.

And there she said, although it is believed that the war will be very, very short, in actual fact and reality, This war is going to be waged for a long period of time.

Now none of the soldiers in the Northern Army or the Confederate Army believed that this war would be a very long 1.

All of them believed it would be a very short war.

But the war dragged on for over 4 long years.

It is the bloodiest war in American history.

As the forces fought back and forth, the northern forces, for some strange reason, seemed to be confused on the battlefield and began to retreat.

Now there is an interesting historical narrative written by W.W.

Blackford, and I want to read to you from the historical background of Blackford.

Blackford was a lieutenant in the Southern Army.

He wrote a book called War Years with Jeb Stuart.

And so Blackford was here observing the Northern and Southern forces approaching.

And so this is an actual account from July 21, 1861 of Blackford.

And that's the lines of blue, of course, the Northern forces.

Their fire was vigorous as ever while they surged against the solid walls of gray, standing immovable in their front.

It was on the ridge earlier that day that Jackson won the name Stonewall.

So we find that here commemorated in this statue.

But now the most extraordinary spectacle I ever witnessed took place.

This is critical to understand the battle.

I had been gazing at the numerous well-formed lines as they moved forward to the attack, some 15 or 20, 000 strong in full view.

And for some reason, I turned my head in another direction for a moment.

When someone said, pointing to the battlefield, look, look, I looked at what a strange change had taken place.

In an instant, where those well-dressed, well-defined lines with clear spaces between had been steadily pressing forward the north on 1 side, the south on the other.

The whole field was a confused swarm of men like bees running away as fast as their legs would carry them.

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Ellen White’s Amazing Vision of Civil War

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