abstract: there was enough Christianity exhibited in this film to lead any serious inquirer to examine what it was that made these men tick. These were godly Christian men committed to what soon proved to be a hopeless cause, all the while claiming God's promise to bless a righteous enterprise.

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by Raymond Joseph

Alice and I saw Gods and Generals on a recent Saturday afternoon--and emerged from the theater into a raging snowstorm that dumped eight inches of snow!

What was our opinion of the movie Gods and Generals? My review of this excellent film classic will differ from most, so please read on.

Let me "cut to the chase." As some of you know, for the past 15-20 years I have been maintaining that the "Civil War" ("War Between the States"--I call it the "Great Bloody Holocaust") was the judgment of Christ--the White Horse Rider of Revelation 19 upon both North and South for their seemingly casual Enlightenment-influenced failure to acknowledge Christ as King of our nation, along with His laws for civil government. Instead (either deliberately or accidentally), we elevated "We the People" to the illegitimate level of Supreme Lawgivers. Of this affront to the Son of God, King Jesus, appointed by God the Father as king of nations (Psalm 2), both North and South were guilty.

The next affront to King Jesus occurred 74 years later--as if to compound error with more error--when the Congress of the Confederate States of America, meeting in Richmond in 1861, passed what was basically a carbon copy of the national constitution written in Philadelphia in 1787. Thus the Confederacy repeated their failure of 74 years earlier when, as part of the Union, they had failed to ground the Constitution explicitly upon the laws of God.

Let us repeat: Backing off a couple of steps, and viewing our nation's history from the steps of the capitol in Richmond, the southern Confederate States of America failed to explicitly acknowledge King Jesus once when they--the southern states, then part of the Union--ratified the 1787 Federal Constitution along with the northern states. The south failed a second time in Richmond in 1861. Double trouble!

(I recall--with a bit of bemused humor--a southern preacher's protest in one of his sermons about 20 years ago. When commenting on the failure of the Confederate Congress to pass a "Christian Amendment" to the Confederate Constitution, thus explicitly failing to acknowledge Christ as King of the Confederacy, this leading pastor said, with a generous helping of the South-shall-rise-again spirit of bravado: "If we had passed that amendment, we'd have won that war!")

Back to the film Gods and Generals. Both Alice and I thought it was well done, all things considered. Robert Duvall, as Gen. Robert E. Lee, was a vast improvement over Martin Sheen, who tried real hard--but couldn't come close--to express Lee's authentically Christian character in the previous Civil War movie about Gettysburg. (One wonders how much the personal life of the actor leaches into the role he assumes when he attempts to portray a Christian character).

As for Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who knows what the actual conversations were between Jackson and his wife? (It is impossible to reproduce unrecorded words 140 years later.) Nevertheless, what we saw and heard on the screen was a believable conversation--perhaps a bit syrupy at points (as one critic maintains), but yet quite believable. When it comes to the attempt to reproduce historical conversations, should we not cut our script writers some slack? Whenever they attempt to put words into the mouths of historical giants like Stonewall Jackson, thus trying to recreate the life of an historical character, they strive to represent accurately what people likely said to one another--at least, the honest ones do.

But, was the Gospel presented? Alice and I found ourselves more than a bit amazed at such a Christian-oriented film being financed by the something-less-than-Christian Ted Turner. What could have gotten into Mr. Turner, anyway? Maybe it was an unexplainable urge to present fairly the real characters of such men as Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee--"warts" and all? Maybe he realized the film couldn't be honest if it failed to show their genuine Christianity? God knows Ted Turner's heart, we don't. We have to be content to leave it there.

Yet, there was enough Christianity exhibited in this film to lead any serious inquirer to examine what it was that made these men tick. These were godly Christian men committed to what soon proved to be a hopeless cause, all the while claiming God's promise to bless a righteous enterprise. You don't need the Four Spiritual Laws to present the Gospel. Genuine Christianity stood out in the characters of Lee and Jackson.

Which brings me full circle to my original thesis: I am more convinced than ever--as we viewed the Civil War battles realistically simulated by the enactors, and heard the remarks and felt the reproduced emotions--that this horrible war was the judgment of Almighty God upon a nation which had compromised with the Enlightenment and Scottish Rationalism when it came to crafting its Constitution. We were--and are still--a Christ-rejecting nation, yet at the time of the Articles of Confederation prior to 1787 we were a nation in the process of being born, which was inhabited by enough professing Christians to have insisted on acknowledging the King of kings. Yet we didn't, and still haven't.

So, the bottom line is: Who was responsible? Where do we lay the blame for our compromised civil government? My answer: We lay the responsibility ultimately at the door of the Christian churches--specifically, the Christians in the churches! They are the ones in the various colonies who approved of their diverse legislatures ratifying an Enlightenment-influenced Constitution. Taking a backward glance, it is clear that Greek and Roman philosophy was swallowed whole in the context of Christianity, influencing it to its detriment. (Check the Federalist Papers to see the thinking of the Framers; no biblical references there!) There is no recognition of the King of kings as the One appointed by the Father as King of nations (Ps. 2). But when we compare Hamilton and Madison's seeming adulation of the Greeks and Romans in the Federalist Papers--we see fulsome flattery! The pagan republics are considered to be praise-worthy! Hamilton and Madison give abundant credit to man--which is abundant revelation of the thinking of the framers of our Federal Constitution!

So today, let us review our stated commitments. Does Christ Jesus rule history, or not ? Is Christ the Judge of nations, or not ? Was the Son appointed King of nations by the Father (Ps 2; Matt. 28:18-20), or not? If so, then, does King Jesus approve of a purportedly Christian document which de facto gives bottom line authority to "We the People," elevating them to the illegitimate level of Supreme Lawgivers, all the while spurning Him personally? Rather, is He not personally offended, and His wrath aroused? ("Our God is a consuming fire," Heb. 12:29.)

Yes, the Civil War freed the slaves, but through blood and fire and the hellish destruction of men and property and the slaughter of 630,000 men, North and South, who were fighting one another. Unbelievable! Relative against relative, fathers and sons on opposite sides, close friends locked in mortal combat. We are gripped for life by the fascination of the spectacle. Oh, the horror of it all! Yet, like Tar Baby in the story of Uncle Remus, we are stuck in it. Meanwhile, Great Britain accomplished the same objective of freeing their slaves by debating the issue in Parliament, finally settling the issue by signing a piece of paper. Same objective; different methodology. (Yes, preserving the Union was the basic motivation of the North, and freeing the slaves was an "add-on." But both things happened: the preserving of the Union and the freeing of the slaves--both things, through blood and fire and vapor of smoke.)

Unbelievable blunders were committed on both sides--the one which sealed the doom of the Confederacy being ordered by Gen. Lee himself in 1863 when he dictated that infamous frontal assault at Gettysburg, overriding the strong protest of Gen. James Longstreet (Gods and Generals was a prequel to the movie Gettysburg). Longstreet was right; Lee was wrong; and Gen. Pickett never forgave the old man for ordering "Pickett's Charge," resulting in Pickett's whole regiment being wiped out.

The South suffered devastating destruction in addition to losing several hundred thousand of their best and brightest. The blessing of God? Some blessing! May God spare us all from such "blessings."

Yet, none of that fratricide was necessary. If only our Founding Framers had studied their history of the Scottish Covenanters, who had died by the thousands 100 years before to preserve the covenants with King Jesus.

By 1864, if they had only listened to the Reformed Presbyterians who founded the National Reform Association--right in the middle of the bloody carnage--and had been repentant enough to acknowledge that the King of kings and His laws, as the foundation for our laws, had been left out of our founding document, this pastor is convinced that none of this would have happened. We would have settled the slavery issue in the halls of Congress, and that would have been that.

So, what of today? There is yet one more Civil War portrayal to be produced as part of the Civil War Trilogy, and when that third movie comes out, I suppose we will all flock to it, marvel at it, and move on. What I hope we may all pray for is that the Holy Spirit will send conviction of sin to America's churches for the "original sin" of rejecting Christ in our Constitution. To remedy that is the declared objective of the National Reform Association, founded in 1864 during that bloody war. One Christian movie critic was right about the failure of "Gods and Generals" to portray any genuine repentance in America's churches.

Today, following 9/11, we see precious little repentance for sin. How many more 9/11's will it take for us to cry out to Almighty God for mercy upon our sinful land? The Civil War didn't bring lasting repentance, though it did free the slaves. Regrettably, it also brought more federal bureaucracy, which has since then persisted and multiplied.

As Christians, we must intercede for America (Ps. 106:23). Pray for our president. Especially pray for the rebuilding of Christendom, since only then will we see truly lasting freedom!

Raymond P. Joseph is Pastor Emeritus of Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church. He is a member of the National Reform Association Board of Directors and a former editor of The Christian Statesman.

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