 Man okay keep your place there in Exodus We're gonna be going back and forth there, but the sermon this morning was kind of it was a sermon It's a sermon that I've wanted to preach for years, but I never really felt like There was a there was a platform for me to do so and I got thinking about our trip that we're taking Up to these trees the trees are called the general grant tree and the general Sherman tree after two Union generals And there was this kind of expired this sermon this morning And I just wanted to preach this sermon because I think that there's a lot of I really want to dispel two myths this morning That hopefully aren't among Christians, but are amongst a lot of people in my generation and even younger than myself And I want to talk to you. I want to if I had a title for the sermon this morning It would be called the the truth about the Civil War and that's the sermon I want to preach this morning, and I want to give you I want to dispel some myths from the Bible this morning and talk about These myths what the Bible actually says and how people have twisted the Bible in in these areas and It's it's caused a lot of damage in our in our country, and it's not something that we should be involved in today, so we're gonna go through a lot of Bible this morning we're to go through a lot of history this morning and tie that in with the Bible and see how People have misused the Bible in in our country, and you know there's a reason that we had the verse of the week The what it was and the first Excuse me the first myth I wanted to spell for you this morning is that the Bible condones What we know today as slavery and you notice that you notice that the Bible Uses this word servant or men's servant and maid servant the King James Bible Calls it that modern Bible versions will actually just use the word slave and slavery Okay, and that according to you know most Americans thinking we equate that with you know the slavery of the 17 and 1800s in The United States so the first myth that I wanted to spell For you this morning is that the Bible condones the slavery as we know it today as Americans You know slavery of the 1700s and 1800s and the reason that this is important is because slavery in the United States in the 1700s and especially the 1800s in the South was Was justified by clergy Using the Bible and they justified it You know from taking Bible verses, you know out of context and twisting what the Bible actually said Let me give you a couple examples of some southern clergy Justifying slavery using the Bible One one quote says this a fellow Reverend from Virginia agreed that on no other subject are the Bible's instructions more explicit Or their salutary tendency and influence more thoroughly tested and corroborated by experience on the sub then on the subject of slavery a Methodist in the Methodist Episcopal Church This in the South it asserted that slavery quote has received the sanction of Jehovah a South Carolina Presbyterian concluded quote if the scriptures do not justify slavery I do not know what they do justify So you see that clergy in the South especially was using the Bible to justify What happened in America particularly in the late 1700s to Around 1860, okay, so let's take a look at the Bible. Let's look at what the Bible says about biblical servitude And let's compare that with The slavery in America, okay, so you're there in Exodus 21 look down at verse number two Let's just do a little bit of a Bible study here for a few minutes What the Bible says about servitude why did God Institute? This system all right and in Exodus chapter 21 and verse 2 the Bible says if thou by in Hebrew servant Six years he shall serve and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing If he came in by himself He shall go out by himself if he were married then his wife shall go out with him if his master have given him a wife And she have born him sons and daughters the wife and her children shall be her masters And she shall go out by himself. He shall go out by himself And if the servant shall plainly say I love my master my wife and my children. I will not go out free Then his master shall bring him into the judges He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an all And he shall serve him forever He'll give him a mark in his ear that says he will serve this master forever And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as the men servants do so here we see that there are several detailed rules on What a mass the relationship between a master and a servant and the first rule that sticks out is that? This servitude is to last for seven years Okay, so it's not that someone is to be a servant forever Unless he gets married and has children and he wants to you know continue to support that family and You know then that the Bible also gives him a way to stay keep that family together Okay, that's very important turn to Deuteronomy chapter 15 So we see that there are detailed rules and we see that this servitude is not supposed to be a lifelong Issue unless the servant actually decides that they want to serve in that capacity They want to keep that job they want to keep working for that man who is their master, okay? So he has that freedom to choose that Look at Deuteronomy 15, then we see some backup to what we saw at Exodus 22 And the Bible says this in verse number one it says at the end of seven years now shall make a release and This is the manner of the release every creditor that Lendith ought unto his neighbor shall release it And he shall not exact it of his neighbor or of his brother because it is called the Lord's release So here is the first time that we see that the seven years The seven-year period is also tied to creditors and debtors Okay, so this is a clue that it matches up perfectly with servitude to a master So after seven years Servants go free and after seven years Debt's are erased and the reason that it says that in Deuteronomy 15 I'm going to show that to you is because debt and servitude are the same thing The servitude of the Bible was because of debt It was because of a financial reason So you say well, you know turn to Leviticus 25 Leviticus 25 you say was that fair because isn't aren't the rich just going to get richer and Pretty soon the person that owns all the land He'll just have everybody working for him under servitude and pretty soon, you know, some people are just better at making money, right? I mean, that's true. Some people are really good at making money out in this world It's never it's no different back then some people are really good at it So aren't the poor people just going to have no land eventually and then the rich people are going to have all the resources and all the land and then all the poor people are just going to end up working being servants to the To the rich people and they may go out after seven years, but they'll just have to go back in again We'll look down at Leviticus chapter 25 look at verse number six And the Bible says this and the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you For thee and for thy servant for they made and for that hired servant And for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee and for thy cattle and for the beasts that are in the land Shall all the increase thereof be meat and now shall it number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee Seven times seven years and the space of seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee 40 and nine years so we see something special coming up now Not only was there this time of after seven years There was this debt release and the servants were to be released of their debt to their master But now that we see in after the 49th year seven times seven We see something extra happens here And then she'll tell cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the seventh month and in the day of atonement Which is their their yearly? yearly celebration or yearly Ceremony shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land and you shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim Liberty through all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof and it shall be a jubilee unto you And you shall return every man unto his possession and you shall return every man unto his family So the way that this worked was any land that you had sold Say you needed money and you sold your family's inherited land to someone else The value of that land and I'm not we're not gonna don't have time to get into all the detail But basically the value of that land would be based upon how many years left there was before the 50th year So if I if there was 49 years before the year of jubilee and I had a parcel of land to sell brother Trevor it would be worth a lot of money Because there's 49 years that they would get to keep that land, but after the 50th year it comes back to me See that's God's law Now if I sold brother Trevor that same parcel of land when there was one year left Then it's not going to be worth as much Because he only has one year to use that land and then it's going to go back to me after one year and the Bible actually Details out that actual value structure the the Bible is very detailed about this So, you know the 50th year not only not only is every seven years the servants to be released But every 50th year people that sold land get it back their family gets that land back Okay, that's the way God set up this land that he gave The children of Israel because God gave them the land All right now in in let me just speak to this real quick and Leviticus 25 It also talks about you know the heathen of the land, you know, she'll be your bond servants forever But I want to point this out real quick that first of all That does not apply today Because has God given us land and wrote it in the Bible how we are to you know treat the heathen That's next to us after he gave us the land This is very specific to this land that God gave them All right, so we cannot apply that to us God did not give us Specific land and say, you know for this family if this is your land in North Dakota for this, you know It's it only applies to them But let's look at oppression oppression of servants. How are they supposed to be treated? It still doesn't even matter because a servant or a maid servant is to be treated a very certain a specific way or They are to be basically let go or there's even punishment in in store for the master turn to Jeremiah 34 and let's look at a situation where people went against God's law against God's Command to let servants go when they were supposed to let them go and let's see what God does and what God says to those people Jeremiah 34 Jeremiah 34 we're going to start in verse number eight Jeremiah 34 I'll let you get some time to get there in verse number eight and the Bible reads This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord After that the kings that after that king the king's edukai had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem To proclaim liberty unto them this liberty is that is that seven-year release is their liberty It's the same wording. That's an exodus 21 that every man should let his maid man servant Then he even explains it that every man should let his man servant and every man is made certain Servant being a Hebrew or a Hebrewist go free that none should serve himself or them to wit of a Jew his brother Now when all the princes and all the people which had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his man servant And everyone has made servant go free see they weren't doing it and Jeremiah corrected them and then they started doing it That none should serve themselves of them anymore than they obeyed and they let them go but afterward they turned and Caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return And brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids Therefore the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah from the Lord saying thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt out of the house of Bond men saying he says I made a covenant with you when you were servants and when they were under Egyptian Servitude they were being ruled with rigor. They were being ruled with brutality. They were what we would call slaves today Under the Egyptian so God is saying to them Hey, I brought you out of servitude and you're going to mistreat your Servants and maid servants this way after I gave you specific rules on how you would you would enter into these agreements and Then the Bible says in verse 14 at the end of seven years let you go every man his brother in Hebrew Which had been sold unto thee and we have served these six years thou shalt let him go free from thee But your father's heart could not unto me neither incline their ear this implies that they weren't doing this for generations They were just keeping people they kept them Verse 15 and now and ye were now turned and had done right in my sight and proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor There's that word liberty again, and you had made a covenant before me in the house Which is called by my name But ye turned and polluted my name and Caused every man his servant and every man his handmade whom he had said at liberty at their pleasure to return and Brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for handmaids Therefore thus sayeth the Lord you have not harkened to me in proclaiming liberty this seven-year release Everyone do his brother and every man do his neighbor behold. I proclaim a liberty for you Sayeth the Lord to the sword to the pestilence and to the famine And I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth and what happened right at this time the Babylonian King came and Carried away the children of children of Judah He said I'll proclaim liberty for you to the sword and to the pestilence, and I want you to keep your place in Jeremiah 34 because when I start talking about the Civil War we're gonna go right back to this verse And we're gonna see how this is exactly what God did Look it's It gets even better look at Leviticus 25 verse 39 God gets so detailed with his rules you you almost can't mess it up In verse 39 of Leviticus 25 The Bible says if thy brother that dwelleth by thee wax and pour and be sold unto thee Thou shalt not compel him to be as a bond servant God is saying I would prefer That if somebody by you becomes poor and even owes you money I would prefer you not to take them as a bond servant I would prefer you not but as an hired servant and as a sojourner He shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee that seven year That's seventh year and then he shall depart from me both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own Family and unto the possession of his father's he shall return so babes basically the Bible is even discouraging people from this kind of action towards someone He's saying hey if somebody owes you money if your brother or neighbor comes to you and and even a stranger I'd prefer you just hire them and have them just work for you instead of going to this this bond service He's trying to discourage because he knows that no one wants to be in that type of situation No one would want to be a servant willingly. Let's take a poll the ladies You can even don't say anything, but you can participate in the poll if you like debt raise your hand No one wants to be a servant No one wants to be a servant debt is Servitude in the Old Testament debt became servitude and Brothers were never supposed to be bond servants to one another. They were encouraged to hire the poor and Not bring them into bond service. Okay now look at verse 47 Leviticus 25 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee and my brother that dwell with him wax so this is a stranger to the the children of Israel if he gets rich and some Hebrew gets poor and Ends up in this situation and look what the Bible says and sell him self Onto the stranger or sojourner by thee or to the stock of the stranger's family And he that is sold may be redeemed again one of his brethren may redeem him either his uncle His uncle son may redeem him look at verse 50 and he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was Sold unto the year of Jubilee that 50th year and the price of his sale should be according to the number of years according to The time of an hired servant shall it be with him. They're talking about those economic rules You know this by the way We're not going to go into usury but this goes you know perfectly hand-in-hand with with usury rules in the Bible On how they weren't supposed to charge usury to each other Right they weren't supposed to encourage this and take it financial advantage of their brothers that way So look folks What I'm trying to get you to understand is that in verse number 47 it literally says here that this guy sold himself to somebody but Servitude was financially driven in the Bible and the thing you have to understand about God's rules That is completely different from our culture today is that God's rules were based on personal responsibility They were based on personal responsibility You couldn't just go in God's law and borrow a bunch of money from somebody and then just not pay it back Because these these bums out on the on the street out here holding the sign You say they have nothing No in our society they have nothing but according to the Bible they still have their labor and They can use that labor To pay off their debt to pay out. So they weren't just released I can't just borrow a thousand dollars from somebody and then just say sorry I Have to pay it back and if I have nothing Except the clothes on my back and they're not even worth anything. I still have my labor And I can use it's fair It's fair It fits perfectly It doesn't make sense to people today because we live in a society that just doesn't have any personal responsibility attached to it Turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 22 Exodus Chapter 22 let's look at another way that the Bible says that you could fall into Servitude Exodus chapter 22 just one chapter over from where you're at Exodus chapter 22 let's start reading in verse number one and the Bible reads if a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or Sell it he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die There shall be no blood be shed for him if the sun be risen up on him And there should be then there shall be blood shed for him for he should make full Restitution if he have nothing then he shall be sold for his theft If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive whether it be ox or ass or sheep he shall restore Double so here we see that if someone steals if I steal a cow from brother Trevor Then that means that when I'm caught if I'm caught stealing a cow from brother Trevor. I have to pay him two cows So I could end up in debt to brother Trevor and look back at verse number three What the Bible says in verse number three the Bible says if the sun be risen upon him There shall be blood shed for him for he should make full restitution if he have nothing Then he shall be sold for his theft So if I can't pay brother Trevor Then I am to be sold I could even be become a servant to brother Trevor for stealing his cow and pay that debt off or I am to be sold and that money is to be given to brother Trevor My labor is to be used to pay back that debt that I owe of two cows Because if I steal a cow from brother Trevor, I give him back his cow. I still owe him one cow, right? I mean, it's amazing how detailed the Bible is. I mean you could actually rule a nation by this book think of that Now I mean it makes perfect sense, right? I mean think of someone stole something from me I mean it seems odd to us today, but think how much sense this makes if somebody stole a car from me And they took my car and they they went on a joy ride and they drove it off a cliff and lit it on fire And I didn't have insurance on my car and then the United States government takes that person and throws him in prison You know, it's kind of like, you know, thanks a lot. You know, I'm still out of car Whereas the Bible would teach that that person actually owes me that car And if they have nothing they need to work that off It makes perfect sense It makes perfect sense Now so we see that you could also get into debt or find yourself in servitude because of a crime that you've committed because of the crime of theft or stealing as the Bible calls it and let's remember that word stealing because that'll come into a play in a couple minutes here Turn turn back to Exodus chapter 21 Exodus chapter 21 and look it down at verse number 26 The Bible is also very detailed on how servants are to be treated How servants are to be treated in the Bible says in Exodus 21 in verse number 26 If a man shall smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish He shall let him go free for his eye's sake and if he smite out his man servants tooth Or his maid servant's tooth he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake So the Bible here is clearly teaching that if you raise a hand and you smack or you hit a Servant then you are to let that servant go free now turn to Job 31 look at another example of how serious God takes treating your servants in the Bible servitude as the body in the in the Bible and how you're supposed to treat someone who is in Servitude to you now if I owed someone money It wouldn't make sense for me to raise my hand to them and they just have to lose all that money So that also makes a lot of sense in the Bible why God put this rules rule in place plus You know God, you know loves everyone even if you're in servitude or you are a master or a servant the Bible says so in Job 31 the Bible reads look down at let's start reading in verse number five and the Bible says If I have walked with vanity or if my foot hath hasted to deceit Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my iniquity Job here is saying hey if I've done any of these things Let me face judgment for these things so he's going through all these different things that he has not done verse number seven if my if my step had turned out of the way and my heart walked after my eyes and If any if any blot have cleaved to my hands then let me so and let another eat Yay, let my offspring be rooted out remember Job said I made a covenant with my eyes That I would shall not look upon a maid here. He's saying that he has not walked after his eyes Okay, verse number nine if my heart had been deceived by a woman or if I laid weight at my neighbor's door Then let my wife grind unto another and let others bow down upon her for this is in heinous crime Yeah, it is in iniquity to be punished by the judges So he's going through all these bad terrible things that you know He hasn't done then verse number 12 he continues for it is fire that consumeth to destruction and would root out All mine increase if I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maid servant when they contended with me What then shall I do when God riseth up and when he visited it visit it sit visit tiff What shall I answer him? So he's saying if I despised the cause of My manservant or my maid servant. He's not even saying if I abused them he's saying just if I despised their cause meaning they had a complaint against me, you know think of a Union or someone bringing grievances to their employer He's saying even if a servant brought grievances unto me and I did not listen to their cause God would judge me for that. That's what he's saying. He understood how Servants were to be treated and Job was a very rich man. He had many things. He had lots of flocks You know, I'm sure he had servants as well So the Bible says that Job even knew how God Insisted that servants are treated in Colossians 4. I'll just read it for you The Bible says masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that you also have a master in Heaven so what have we learned about biblical servitude so far First we see that it's financially driven You know, it's financially driven. It's driven by debt We also see that it's not to be forever It's not to be something that people are just born into and live their life in We see that there's a redemption period of seven years. By the way, this is where bankruptcy laws in the United States come from You know, if you go bankrupt in the United States, you know, your credit will be ruined for, you know, seven years You know, you won't be able to get a loan and your credit, you know Because that's the punishment of the United States for debtors is just this credit score that we have But that's where that came from. It's biblical the seven-year period anyway And then we see that there are strict rules on how bond servants are to be treated You know with with as far as how they are to be treated physically Okay Now turn to Exodus 21 and let me leave you with one point as we shift gears here but You see that servitude in the Bible is debt-driven. I'll just think about how much sense this makes If someone owes me money Say someone owes me a thousand dollars and they don't pay me. What would you call that? What would you call that theft? Of course Now say that someone didn't owe me any money and I just took them into servitude You could then accuse me of the theft or the stealing of that man So just like someone who didn't pay me a thousand dollars. They might as well have stolen that from me That's why the Bible's rules are similar to the thief that stole a thousand dollars from me or the thief They just didn't pay a thousand dollars back to me He has to work that money off to me because it's the same thing now If I took a man and made him forced him to be my servant I could be accused of stealing that man That's the difference. Look down at Exodus 21 in verse number 16 as we change gears and the Bible says in Exodus 21 16 and he that stealeth a man and Selleth him or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death This is talking about someone who has forced someone into servitude or into what the modern Bible versions would call slavery When there was no debt involved there was no There was no financial Owing of money to anyone in the equation They were just stolen and they were forced into servitude now This is the slavery that most Americans know where men were literally stolen from another Continent men and women and brought here and forced into servitude So let me now change gears and I want to now address the second Myth that I want to dispel This morning and that is this We've already looked at how you know the myth of how the slavery Of early America and the 17 and 1800s is not the slavery of the Bible We've already proven that the Bible says he that stealeth a man and selleth him You know he shall surely be put to death The second myth I wanted to dispel this morning is this is that it's this myth that the civil war was not about slavery I'm going to prove that to you that that is a myth Beyond a reasonable doubt this morning and using the Bible to do so You know we saw an exodus 21 with the Bible had to say so first of all I'm not to give you a little bit of history on where the country was. I'm going to start out in the late 1700s many people don't know but during the Revolutionary War, you know in the 1770s 1776 was the Declaration of Independence during the Revolutionary War Abolition was well underway in the northern states Let me just give you a little bit of history about the things that were going on in the late 1700s in 1778 General George Washington approves of mustering a Rhode Island regiment of free blacks The Continental Congress authorizes the action Eventually more than 5,000 black men would serve in the continental forces in 1785 the Rhode Island Society for abolishing the slave trade is founded 1799 George Washington dies His will declares it is my will and desire that all slaves which I hold in my right shall receive their freedom Slaves are freed from his estate. Now you see even wealthy men letting go of this idea of slavery the 1850s We have you know in the 1800s. We start this whole thing. We're basically Slavery lasted in the south until 1865 until the 13th amendment was ratified But by 1804 the international slave trade was declared illegal by the federal government and At that time all northern states had abolished slavery So now we have this period of time between 1804 and the 1860s where there's this huge rift in the country And it's it's a huge. It's it's the rift in the country and not only we'll talk about the south But not only is there economic implications to the south But there's Western expansion going on so there's all these new states popping up and there's this huge fight Over if this state like Kansas was probably the biggest one because it's right in the middle on This new state is there are these new states going to be free states or slave states? Because the south the slave states know that Eventually if all these slave these free states get put into the union they're going to be they're going to be outnumbered in Congress and they're done So they're fighting tooth and nail to keep this thing going So let's talk about this idea of states rights because I've heard this more times than I can remember as well It was about states rights. It wasn't about slavery It's a bunch of garbage. I'm going to tell you why because between 1804 and 1860 the southern states were lobbying the federal government on A regular basis to have the northern states return escaped slaves So a slave that escaped from the south into a free northern state the south was trying to use the power of the federal government to Strong arm that state into returning these freed slaves and the northern states didn't want to do it and they were screaming states rights and They were they were passing all these citizens rights laws to try to keep be able to keep these these people that escaped there But the southern states were trying to you they were trying to use the power of the federal government To strong arm the northern states don't give me the states rights garbage That's exactly what it is a bunch of garbage Here's what was really going on folks in the 1790s this guy that you probably learned about in public school Eli Whitney invented this thing called the cotton gin And what that did was it made production of cotton? faster easier by By the time we entered into the 1800s Cotton cotton production was going like this. It was all based on free labor They could make more cotton and here's the thing There's stories. There's stories of Imagine having a business where the market is unlimited because that's what was going on The more product that you could I mean If you can produce more you can sell more the price was was good always and the market was just unlimited The South produced 80% of the world's cotton By 1850 and the cotton production from 1800 to 1850 increased by 10 times 80% But it was an unlimited market. There's this huge Western expansion fight. That's what was going on folks You say this is your opinion. Okay. Let's get into some actual facts in November 6th 1860 it all begins Abraham Lincoln is elected president and Literally weeks after this states start Succeeding from the Union in the South and I'm going to read for you now quotes from the letters that those states Used to secede from the Union and we'll see states rights, right? We'll see I'm going to read nothing to do with slavery Just about states rights I'm going to read you the first six Just a couple a couple of lines But if you read all of them it gets you it gets way worse than this But I mean we only have so much time here December 24th 1860 the first state to secede from the Union South Carolina quote out of the reason increasing hostility Towards on the part of the non-slave holding states to the institution of slavery states rights Mississippi the second state January 9th 1861 our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery Their words not mine Florida one day later January 10th 1861 all hope of Preservation of the Federal Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the slave holding states has finally dissipated by recent indications of the strength of the anti-slavery sentiment of the free states Alabama one day later January 11th 1861 Whereas the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of president and vice president United States of America By a sectional party avowed hostile to the domestic institutions of slavery and to the peace and security of the state of Alabama Few days later January 29th 1861 Georgia by their declared principle and policy have outlawed The the federal government they're talking about by their declared principle and possible and policy of outlawed three billion dollars of Our property in the common territories of the Union their slaves February 22nd a few days later Texas based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these southern states and their Beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery Proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men. Did you hear that? The federal government is proclaiming this debasing doctrine to us Irrespective of race or color a doctrine at war with nature In opposition to the experience of mankind turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6 I'll tell you what the Civil War was about right here in 1860 80% of the world's cotton was produced by the American South The secession of the Confederate States. It was very much about slavery And you say why the South? Why did the North get a conscience and why the South I'm going to show you Turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6 The Bible explains it clears day Why did the North get a conscience 60 70 80 years earlier? 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 9 the Bible reads but they that will be rich Fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition For the love of money is the root of all evil Which while some coveted aster they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows those that piercing is coming They were blinded by greed Period and you say all you know, but the all these different arguments like the most Confederate soldiers Didn't own slaves. Yeah. Well, that's a you know what in in the first two states is seceded 46 and 49% of the families were slave-holding families If I owned a slave you could say that four people in my family didn't own a slave. It's a dumb statistic It was it was the basis of their economy That's why they fought for it. There's stories about farmers and if you're a farmer you understand this You can only farm the land so much and then you have to let it rest for a year There was so much land in the south and they were pushing into the deep south So fast that what they could do was they could farm land for five six years Abandon that land and farm the next whole set, you know more land They didn't have to have anything rest. They just moved on to more land. That's how much land there was Unlimited market unlimited Unlimited land unlimited free labor That's what was going on folks Now look the atrocities of slavery in the United States. I Mean, I'm not even going to read it to you. I Mean I we had some books on it and Look, there's a I mean what happened though is in the 1800 slaves started escaping and books started getting written Things got published in papers and people started figuring out what was going on and how this was, you know, the public Started getting these, you know There's there's a book that my wife had called incidents in the life of a slave girl written by Harriet and Jacobs I have read dozens and dozens and dozens of books on every war for the past thousand years And I could only read one chapter in this book And I'm just like I'm done. I get it. I Don't need to read anymore Because I get it. I mean it wasn't just physical torture. It was I mean you can about imagine with the women It was families being split up. It was people being tortured all the time Is the worst thing ever I asked my wife for this book. She said I got rid of it. I didn't want in the house Because it's it was that bad And it wasn't bad because of this woman. It was bad because of what humans will do to each other When they're blinded by greed and you say what about the clergy? Well, guess what I could make a an argument today because the clergy when they're sitting in a church of 500 people that are all rich cotton farmers You think they're gonna preach against slavery? You think they're gonna preach it. I mean the same things happening today. I Mean with this war on on homosexuality and open sodomy in this country We could have a big church here We'd be knocking down walls and putting up chairs if we just say bring everybody in and the Bible We just know the Bible doesn't say all this and you know, Jesus is just this long-haired guy Carries a sheep around. I mean we don't have a big church Same thing how it's easy to see for me what happened there They just first of all most pastors in this country today aren't even saved those guys weren't even saved and The ones that were just they were cowards just like they are today It's the same thing Same thing playing over and over what folks that this this slavery Situation our country is it is a terrible stain on this country. It's a terrible stain You can make look you can make the intellectual argument That the north and the federal government should have just let the southern states secede you can make that intellectual argument because we basically you know It's it's no longer a voluntary union after 1865. I don't have a problem with that intellectual argument You can make the intellectual argument that not every southern soldier was fighting for slavery. Okay. I Mean you I don't really believe that because he was fighting for the economy and then what was going on in his in his region of the country, maybe not directly. Let's put it that way But you know would this really be the first time in history that a good man has been convinced to fight for a wicked cause Would it it's laughable, right? That's what happens every time You think these guys are like hey we need your sons to go fight so I can expand my cotton empire And make more money. You think that's ever what said ever for any war? Never It's never that's never the reason You saw the percentage of families that own slaves it was it was it was the heart of their economy And you can even make the argument that every northern soldier wasn't fighting to free slaves. What's your point? Who cares? You know, but you cannot make the argument that the South did not secede over slavery You can't you're an uneducated fool if you say that Because it's not only their succession letters, but there's plenty of documented letters of the politicians in those states going to town halls and County commissions and all these different meetings trying to get the population to agree. It didn't just happen overnight and You know what they were doing? They were just pushing this racism on the people Do you want these people marrying your daughters? And it's just a racist attitude of you know, and that's what it was all about slavery If you read those letters John Brown was an abolitionist Let's talk about the Civil War and what came in 1861 Shortly after all these states acceded John Brown was an abolitionist and he was a he was a militant abolitionist John Brown wanted to have a small group of people invade the South and Give weapons to slaves as they they escaped and he thought that that would just end everything and he was caught after his his Incident at Harper's Ferry in his last written words or this I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away, but with blood I Had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done So he was thinking you know without much bloodshed. We might be able to change this But before he died he died before the Civil War started. That's a pretty good predictor the Civil War 620,000 Americans were killed Go back to go back to Jeremiah 34 620,000 Americans were killed that is the sword of Jeremiah 34 Nearly as many people died in captivity in the Civil War that died in the entire Vietnam War Like 60 some thousand people they died of pestilence and famine This is the Bible coming true that two percent of the population of the United States died in the Civil War I Mean that was God's hammer coming down And it came down hard And I don't know how many times we have to learn that You know in this world, you know God just must be up there just going I got to do it again I got to do it again The Civil War proves two biblical truths folks number one nations will be judged you're there in Isaiah 34 No, you're there in Jeremiah go to Isaiah 34. Let's read Isaiah 34 verse number one Nations will be judged. That's the first biblical truth that the Civil War proves for us And the Bible says in Isaiah 34 verse number one come year you nations to hear and hearken you people let the earth here let the earth here and All that is there in the world and all the things that come forth of it for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and His fury upon all their armies. He had utterly Destroyed them. He had delivered them to the slaughter God's judgment will be on nations in this World it will happen in the time of this world nations are judged on earth And the Civil War proves that and the second thing that the Civil War proves turned to Hebrews chapter 12 is that Individual Christians will be held accountable They will be held accountable You had Christians killing Christians in the Civil War It's a sad state of affairs, but Christians will be held accountable for what they do in Hebrews 12 look at verse number six For whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth and scourges every son whom he receive it if he endure chasing in God deal With with you as sons for what son is he whom the father chasing if not That if he be without chase chastisement where for all our partakers then you are bastards and not sons Look If you you're gonna receive chastisement if you're involved in this type of thing the people that went and fought for if you fight For a wicked cause it doesn't matter if you think you're not fighting for a wicked cause You will be chastised for it This whole country was judged For this situation and it was judged in a terrible way The slavery of early America is nowhere near the bondage described in the Bible It was men stealing Is what it was and the Bible calls for people to be put to death Who kidnap and steal men? It's really that simple Look the bondage of the Bible was a way for people to pay off debt Turn to Acts 17 You know what's funny about the Texas statement by the way of It goes against natural law. You know who else came on the scene in the 1800s. Oh From about 1800 to about 1883 This man called Charles Darwin who taught that The black African Was not human But he was he was the missing link or Whatever in his evolutionary theory you think that these things don't matter. This is still being taught in public school Look this this subhuman mindset is completely unbiblical. There is one race Look at Acts 17 verse 26 And he has made of one blood All nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and at the term in the times before appointed and the bounds of their Habitation he have made all nations of one blood There's many nations But there's one blood Look that doesn't mean all cultures or all nations are equal look Mark 16 15 says this it says and he said to them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature That's what we were supposed to be doing with these other cultures and other nations This is our culture This is our nature. This is our nation This is what we're supposed to be we're supposed to go to them We should have been loading up ships of missionaries and sending them to Africa Instead of stealing men and bringing them here And putting them through generations of torture and the worst treatment that you could ever even think of in history It's crazy So, you know the reason that I'm so irritated about this subject is because of this this cult following of the Confederacy's cool And oh they had the better generals and it was about states rights. It wasn't about slavery. You know what you better be Look, I support whatever flag. I support your right to fly whatever flag that you want. Don't misunderstand me But as a Christian, you should have nothing to do with any of this stuff You need to understand, you know that above the Constitution is what the Bible says And the Constitution's been wrong and this is a big one so the Bible is my guide The Bible should be your guide and as a Christian, we shouldn't have anything to do with these stupid uneducated views That and it doesn't matter if you don't know the truth and you're you're You're accidentally supporting what was happening in the 1800s You're still gonna be held accountable for it Because it was seriously evil. It was literally good fighting wickedness literally The civil war was about slavery Period That was the root of everything And it took God's judgment and the bloodiest war in the United States history to date to fix it Now we're gonna take our hymn books And we're gonna end the sermon a little bit different today turn to 437 We're gonna sing this song Hymn number 437 what I want you to do Is I want you to listen to the words of this song this song was written by an abolitionist in 1861 before The civil war was finished We're gonna sing this song and I want you to listen to the words of the song and you think that a union soldier Singing the words to this song you tell me he didn't know what he was fighting for So let's let's go ahead and let's sing it out battle him of the Republic. Let's sing it on the first