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Divine Intervention in America
By Daniel McGavin Hansen, Sovereign
Scriptural attestations and other historical accounts of Divine intervention lend volumes of evidence to substantiate Benjamin Franklin’s assertion that “God governs in the affairs of man.”
Sovereigns seeking to enhance their capacity to serve their fellowman by building up the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven need to reflect upon the hand of God which superintends our feeble efforts to overcome the forces of evil. We need to consider the actuality of our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation UNDER GOD, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Faith is the incentive of ambition, the key to success. Our human limitations of reason and vision often encumber our greater capacity to achieve, because we do not believe. Knowledge of God enhances our will to fight on against seemingly impossible odds.
When we truly believe that we are a nation Under God, miracles will mark our march to victory.
Let us therefore consider, briefly, historical documentation of Divine Intervention to give light to our vision, facts to our reason, and faith to our will.
Probably, the most dramatic and well known acts of Divine Intervention are associated with the life of Moses as he led his people Israel out of the security and slavery of Egypt into the wilderness of challenges and freedom. Israel crossed the Red Sea by Divine Intervention and the glory was the Lord’s.
Gideon, (the name means, “hewer down or slayer of men, warrior”) is memorialized in the Bible (Judges 6:l l- 8:35) as a hero.
And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried to the Lord.
The Lord heard their prayers and inspired Gideon to lead them. Gideon started by casting down the alter of Baal. He then gathered an army of over 30,000 solders.
And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me.
God reduced Gideon’s forces to 300, then armed them with lamps of oil and trumpets which symbolize the light of Christ and trumpets of truth. The Midianites were numerous as hordes of grasshoppers. The Gideonite soldiers circled their camps, positioning themselves on the hillsides. They then illuminated their lamps and blew their trumpets. In shock and confusion the sleeping Midianites came out of their tents and slew each other.
Israel, shortly thereafter returned like dogs to their own vomit, reveling in idolatry and priestcraft in their descent back to bondage and slavery. Israel lost their God, their nationhood, and their identity as they were dispersed. Ephraim, though lost, became a fruitful bow whose branches ran over the wall.
Columbus, like Moses, crossed over the sea to discover a wilderness and open the door for a nation of liberty. Toward the end of his life he compiled a Book of Prophecies, mostly from the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, that he thought predicted his discovery of new lands ushering in the final ages of the world. In that book Columbus explains, “I believe that the Holy Spirit works among Christians, Jews, and Moslems, and all men of every faith, not merely among the learned, but also among the uneducated.”
In the book Columbus on Trial: 1492 vs. 1992 author Robert Royal writes, “There is no question that the actions of Columbus were undertaken in part out of personal ambition, but more strongly in service of a global religious vision.”
Columbus testifies:
I prayed to the most merciful Lord about my heart’s great desire, and He gave me the spirit and intelligence for the task... It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me.
Other inspired men followed in the faith of Columbus. Patrick Henry boldly declared in his famous speech, “The War Inevitable,” March 1775:
They tell us, Sir, that we are weak... we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power... Besides, Sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us...Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of’ chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
That was the fate, the vision and the battle cry of the revolution! Men, like John Paul Jones, inspired by Patrick Henry’s vision and spirit abandoned the confines of reason. John Paul Jones refused the demands of surrender from the British but, instead, commanded a sinking ship to attack as he declared:
I have not yet begun to fight!
George Washington was well acquainted with Divine Intervention. On the back cover of David Barton’s book THE BULLET PROOF GEORGE WASHINGTON is this summary:
George Washington’s part in the July 9th, 1755 battle during the French and Indian War in undisputedly one of the most significant events of his early years: his life literally hung in the balance for over two hours. This dramatic event helped shape his character and confirm God’s call on him.
During the two-hour battle the twenty-three year Colonel Washington had ridden to and fro on the battlefield delivering the General’s orders to other officers and troops. The officers had been a special target of the Indians. Of the eighty-six British and American officers sixty-three were casualties. Washington was the only officer on horseback not shot down.
Following the battle Washington wrote a letter to his brother in which he readily and openly acknowledge:
“By the all powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet I escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”
Fifteen years later, an old, respected Indian Chief sought out Washington. The Chief, explaining that he had led the Indians against them in the battle fifteen years earlier, revealed to Washington what had occurred behind the scenes:
“I called to my young men, mark yon tall and daring warrior (Washington?)... Himself is alone exposed. Quick let your aim be certain, and he dies. Our rifles were leveled, rifles but for you, knew not how to miss-twas all in vain, a power mightier far than we shielded you. Seeing you were under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit we immediately ceased to fire at you... I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle.”
This account of God’s miraculous care of Washington and of Washington’s open gratitude for God’s Divine Intervention could be found in virtually all student textbooks until 1934; today, few have ever heard of it.
The British were also acquainted with Divine Intervention. On February 13, 1781, American Troops escaped across the Dan River into Virginia. British Commander-in-Chief Henry Clinton reported:
Here the royal army was again stopped by a sudden rise of the waters, which had only fallen (almost miraculously) to let the enemy over, who could not else have eluded Lord Cornwallis’ grasp, so close was he upon their rear.
George Washington proclaimed in his Inaugural Speech, April 30, 1789:
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.
Regarding the War or 1812 and the victorious battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson wrote to Secretary of War James Monroe:
Heaven, to be sure, has interposed most wonderfully in our behalf, and I am filled with gratitude, when I look back to what we have escaped.
On January 8, 1815 Jackson wrote to Robert Hays concerning the same battle:
It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death...
A more recent testimonial of faith is recorded by national columnist Cal Thomas, in April 1996, when Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia shook the foundations of the secular establishment when he dared to pronounce the name of God without embarrassment.
At a prayer breakfast in Jackson, Miss., Scalia spoke not only of his personal faith, but of reaction by the press and the rest of the secular establishment to people who believe in an Authority higher than themselves. He even talked about his belief in miracles, which caused some commentators to place him in the category of those who phone psychic hot lines, Cartoonist Herblock drew Scalia reading a Bible while his fellow justices read the Constitution. Would Herblock have thought ill of Abraham Lincoln, who said, “But for this Book, we would not know right from wrong”?
In his most powerful statement, Scalia urged the 650 present to ignore the scorn of the “worldly wise” and merely stand up for their beliefs.
Such is the testimony, faith and heritage of Sovereignty. May we as a people not forsake our God Given mandate to perpetuate the gospel of liberty as foundation stones for the Kingdom of God. Let us not be found to be wantonly guilty of the blood and sins of this generation as ignoble sons and daughters of noble sires. But rather let us heed the counsel of Paul:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Tim. 1:7)
Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (II Tim. 2:1-4)
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Eph. 6:11)
Finally, dear reader, let us always remember the words of wisdom recorded in Proverbs 3:1, 5-6
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: ...Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Such is the promise of Divine Intervention which blessings we Sovereigns humbly seek after in the name of Jesus Christ, our King, Amen.
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