In light of the events sweeping our country, the latest prairie fire having been sparked in Charlottesville, Virginia last week, it only seems appropriate to pull an old paper I wrote back in 2002 out of the dusty file bin and make it available online. Christians in America today need to take a long look in the mirror before they join the chorus of demonization against those from another era who faced terrible and complex problems that none of us could possibly understand.

The words of the Apostle Peter in II Peter 2:12 are very sobering: "But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption." Evil people, not Bible-believing Christians, scream and holler about things they do not understand. And the Lord says that such people are made to be taken and destroyed.

As for the clamor to tear down monuments in my country, a warning is in order. To erase monuments is to erase history, and to erase history is to erase the lessons that history teaches to those living in the present, those who possess the same wicked human heart that has stained human history since the Garden of Eden. History is a far better teacher than any college professor. When you tear down monuments, you murder the best teacher you have left. Many of you have already stopped your ears to the best and most tenured teacher of all, the Holy Bible, will you now murder that teacher's assistant who has only ever confirmed the truths of that Book? Go ahead, march forward without the Great Teacher, without the history that confirms His message! The blind will then lead the blind, and both will fall into a ditch. You will become the very Nazis you claim to hate, and the testimonies of men like Robert E. Lee will rise up and condemn you on the Day of Judgment (as will Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom against the Jews of Jesus' day). May those testimonies wake you out of your slumber even now:

"In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength" (Robert E. Lee in a personal letter to a friend).

"We poor sinners need to come back from our wanderings seek pardon through the all-sufficient merits of our Redeemer. And we need to pray earnestly for the power of the Holy Spirit to give us a precious revival in our hearts and among the unconverted" (Robert E. Lee in 1869 as President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia).

I urge you to read this treastise I penned more than fifteen years ago. The history recapped here is virtually unknown to most American Christians, and it has much to teach us about what we see transpiring today. A man should never apologize for things over which he has no control (e.g. his skin color, his ancestry, the actions and events of bygone eras). To do so is cowardice of the highest order. Rather, he should seek to learn everything history has to teach, and in doing so, he will come to understand that nothing happens by accident under the watchful eye of a Benevolent Creator. Moreover, every word spoken by that Creator in His Holy Bible is true and comes to pass exactly as He said it would. As for the American Civil War, the Divine Providences in that terrible period of time were so numerous and profound, and the great revivals that broke out in both Confederate and Union camps so amazing that to erase testimonies to this not only erases the lessons we can and should learn from them but disdains the witness therein of a Sovereign God who judges in the affairs of men and the great power of the Gospel even in the darkest of times. Christian, please read this:

HERITAGE OF HONOR: AN ANALYSIS OF BAPTIST ALLEGIANCE TO THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

I also encourage you to read this pdf excerpt from Christ in the Camp, a first-hand account by John Willam Jones, a Baptist Chaplain on General Stonewall Jackson's staff during the Civil War. It concerns the amazing colportage work of    Christian missionaries in the Confederate camps during a very dark and troubling time in America's history. We can and should learn and follow this example. 

BIBLE & COLPORTAGE WORK

Deo Vindice,
Jesse Boyd, President