Ominously, Patrick Henry predicted the American Civil War, in what is remembered as “The Patrick Henry Prophecy.” “This government cannot last,” he thundered, “it will not last a century. We can only get rid of its oppression by a very violent and bloody struggle.” And sure enough, 87 years later, the American Civil War consolidated power under a divine central government.

At the conclusion, the voice of Reverend Edward Fontaine echoed through the corridors of time. Patrick Henry’s great-grandson wrote: “There has been a violent and bloody struggle, and it is not yet over…The government has been overthrown and the century is not yet over.”

This was the first installment in Divine’s pay-per-use concept plan to break the national pact “four twenty-seven years” earlier. The entire country was on trial for the consolidation of power, although the South bore the brunt of losing the American Civil War.

“Preserve the Union” was Lincoln’s euphemism for wresting power from the states. Slavery was a convenient spark plug to justify the holocaust. The emotional theme of slavery was exploited for Lincoln’s purposes. The abuse of slaves was greatly exaggerated, for the subtle agenda of consolidating power. As we are told today, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

What is the evidence? During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal government employed journalists to interview former slaves. They collected more than 10,000 pages in the 40 volumes of “Slave Narratives”. Only 4% of slaves reported having “cruel masters,” according to Steve Wilkins in “America: The First 350 Years.” Ten percent said they had “tough teachers,” and the vast majority, 86%, said they had “good teachers.”

Although southern slavery was generally familiar and mild, it violated biblical laws governing slavery. Therefore, abuse was possible under the law on rare occasions, provoking God’s judgment.

But there was no excuse for the slanderous hypocrisy of the northern abolitionists and their call for violent revolution. Abolitionist hatred and mischaracterization polarized the sides and made the American Civil War inevitable.

Ignoring the British example of gradual abolition, they rejected a peaceful solution. Incendiary abolitionist rhetoric invited federal involvement and the centralization of supreme and unquestioned political authority in Washington DC This has accelerated to the present day.

God condemns the slave trade as a capital offense, but allows slave ownership in certain situations. Otherwise, why would he give standards for the kind treatment of slaves (Eph 6:5; Col 3:22-4:1)? By condemning slavery, without exception as a “great moral evil,” we are condemning God and his Word spoken of him through the Apostle Paul (Philemon 11).

So why did the South lose the American Civil War, especially after such a remarkable start? As we have pointed out before, the South was not doing well. Biblical slave laws were not instituted and the Confederate Constitution repeated almost word for word the blasphemous exclusion of the religious trial oath for public officials.

For more information