BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“Lee did much to promote revival in his army and saw every soldier as a soul to be saved. So concerned was Lee for the spiritual welfare of his soldiers that one of his biographers says, ‘One almost feels as if he cared more for winning souls than battles, and for supplying his army with Bibles than with bullets and powder.’ …General Lee often issued orders for his troops to observe days of fasting and prayer and attend services.”1 General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was also known for his faith in God. “The confederate troops under his command (for the first few years of the war) obtained victory after victory over the Union Army. In a majority of these battles, the Union forces greatly outnumbered Jackson’s men. Jackson’s fearlessness in battle earned him the name “Stonewall.” “He displayed extraordinary calm under fire, a calm too deep and masterful to be mere pretence. His apparent obliviousness to danger attracted notice, and after First Manassas someone asked him how he managed it. “‘Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed,’ Jackson explained. “During military operations he prayed frequently, lived simply, and in his reports habitually gave God all the credit for the slightest success. ‘Without God’s blessing,’ Jackson declared, ‘I took no success, and for every success my prayer is, that all the glory may be given to Him to whom it is properly due.’ “Jackson considered his army to be, among other things, an enormous opportunity to further the gospel. In prayer he pleaded with God to ‘baptize the whole army with His Holy Spirit.’ In practice he worked ceaselessly to sharpen the spiritual devotion of his men. Orders that religious services be conducted frequently found their way into his military correspondence…. “While the Confederate Army was enjoying revival (up to 150,000 Southern troops were saved during the war), it also enjoyed phenomenal success in almost every major battle. This induced Abraham Lincoln to seek God for the reasons why. He concluded that the nation’s chief sins were slavery and pride. On September 22, 1862, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and declared all slaves free in states that were still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863. Then he called for a national Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer throughout the North on April 30th of 1863…. “God had removed the stigma of slavery from this nation and gave Lincoln and others in the North a measure of repentance. Providence now turned to a new objective: preserve the Union of the United States as one whole people.”2 Within two days of the Day of Prayer, General Stonewall Jackson, who had never lost a battle, was accidentally shot by his own men and taken out of the picture. Without his leadership, the Confederate Army faced defeat at Gettysburg, the turning point of the war. Psalm 91 to the Rescue! In all our wars there have been military people in this nation who have looked to God for help. One of my father’s close friends was a fighter pilot who was shot down during World War II. He was captured and incarcerated in a prison camp for almost 22 months. 24 : BVOV

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