Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!

One of the most unfortunate misconceptions to have ever struck this country, besides the idea that a Republican can fix this country, is that the "Battle Hymn" is a great patriotic song. Nothing could be farther from the truth: not only is the song rife with doctrinal heresy, its author was a God-rejecting Unitarian, and the whole concept behind the song was inaccurate! But sadly, as is our nation's typical modus operandi, we're stuck with this song in our hymnals, on the 4th of July, and other patriotic occurrences.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Right from the first we see that the woman, Julia Ward Howe, who is accredited with writing this song, has absolutely no clue as to what "the coming of the Lord" actually entails: she's of the opinion that Jesus is going to come back to free all the slaves (she was a notorious abolitionist), even though Christ clearly commanded servants to subject themselves to their masters (Colossians 3:22: Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:)! Note: I am not condoning the practice of slavery as it existed then or at any other time: God allows what He wills, and there's nothing that I can do to change the past.

Obviously, Ms. Howe was so caught up in her unbiblical activities and was so self-serving that she thought that the Lord would empower the Union armies with "his terrible, swift sword." No matter that the South was simply repeating what Thomas Jefferson penned in the Declaration of Independence, attempting to secure liberty for their posterity (crushed mercilessly by the Constitution-defying Lincoln): she decided that the war being fought was simply to free slaves! Again, ignoring that after Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation (freeing slaves ONLY in the South!), desertion rates in BOTH ARMIES skyrocketed! One Confederate soldier was recorded as saying that he was disgusted at the idea of fighting for Negroes. The common soldiers on either side of the conflict cared little about the institution of slavery: there were at least two states in the Union that still allowed slaves!! The misconception about slavery's importance in the Civil War is one of the greatest coups of leftist propaganda in the history of the world!

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on."

So, the gospel has to do with guns and bayonets, does it now? This sounds more like a Dark Ages dirge than an American hymn! And the salvation of the Union soldiers rested on how many Southerners they hacked, shot, stabbed and slashed on the battle field?? On top of that, the Union army is a picture of Jesus Christ crushing the Southern SERPENT?? ARE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE SLOP THIS WOMAN IS SPEWING???

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Well, she obviously wasn't paying much attention to the majority of the battles that took place in the first THREE YEARS of the war: the South was kicking butt!! I suppose that's what happens when your homeland is being invaded! Again, she assumes that God's most pressing duty is judging the Southern soldiers before His Judgment Seat, not knowing, of course, that it is only the saved that are at the Judgment Seat of Christ (who she did not believe was God).

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Look out, your ignorance is showing!!

Of course, anyone who knows ANYTHING about the Bible knows that Jesus was NOT born among beautiful lilies, and He did NOT die to make men holy: He died to save their wretched souls!!

So, not only was her history wrong, her doctrine and basic intelligence was way off course, too! I think there are far, far better songs that are truly patriotic that we can sing without stooping to using smut like this.