"Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9
I, along with a dear brother in Christ, Elder Andrew Tucker, recently visited a Civil War battlefield near Manassas, Virginia. The battle that took place in July of 1861 is known as “The Battle of Bull Run” or “The Battle of Manassas.” It was significant because it was the first major land battle fought in the American Civil War. We had a fantastic Park Ranger who took us on a tour of the battlefield explaining the events that led up to the battle as well as what happened during the actual fighting that lasted just one day.
Of the number of memorable stories told by the Park Ranger, which included how Thomas Jackson got his famous name “Stonewall,” was the story of how important a group of men known as the “fire-eaters” were in the years leading up to the start of the Civil War. The fire-eaters were men of some renown in the South who, by their “fiery” rhetoric, called for the succession of southern states from the Union. In their speeches, they sought not to convince people with moderate, logical arguments, but they spewed hot rhetoric calling for armed conflict. One of these fire-eaters was particularly of interest to me as he was from my hometown of Savannah, Georgia. His name was Francis Bartow. I was familiar with the name, not because of his being described as one of these “fire-eaters”, but more so because there was an elementary school named after him.
Now to be fair, there were equal calls for a fight by the supporters of the Union. Both sides fervently believed in their cause, and both had the belief they could be victorious without the fight being drawn out over a long period of time. Even as the battle of Bull Run was about to begin, the inexperienced soldiers on each side thought that they were invincible. In addition to their inexperience as soldiers, the years of pre-war rhetoric had further caused them to be blinded to the horrors of war. Such was the miscalculation of how bad the fighting could be, there were spectators from Washington D.C that had traveled the 25 miles to the battlefield to see the battle as if it were a game of baseball. It is recorded by eyewitnesses that the spectators had even brought a picnic lunch.
But what happened as the day progressed was that all the talk of the glamour of fighting ended with a solemn and grave comeuppance by these soldiers that war was horrible and that this Civil War was going to last for a long time. Just in that one-day battle, there were around 3,000 union casualties and around 1800 Confederate.
As the tour of the battlefield ended, you could not help but consider a “what if.” What if the vengeful loathing of the Union by the fire-eaters of the South, who were rabidly pro-slavery and pro-secessionist, and the gung-ho war mentality of those in the North were replaced by peacemakers on each side?
Well, or course, we will never know if the predominance of peacemakers on both sides would have made a difference in avoiding the war. But this sad period of our history can teach us valuable lessons so as to avoid a future time of great sorrow such as occurred in America’s Civil War when approximately 620,000 deaths occurred. That is not counting the wounded.
By the way, Francis Bartow, one of these fire-eaters of the South, would not live past that day in July of 1861. He died on the battlefield leading a company of soldiers from Georgia. His death reminded me of several passages of scripture, one being when Jesus spoke to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane. After Peter had taken his knife and cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest, Jesus said – “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
The other passage that came to mind, and that one that is the emphasis of this article, is found in Jesus’ sermon in Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Verse 9). As citizens of the United States, we want our country to flourish. Any threat to this desire of ours for our country to flourish can lead to impassioned expressions of speech, even fiery rhetoric. There are those who have said that this upcoming election is the most consequential in our history. That may be so. But with those thoughts of the election being “the most consequential in our history” there also comes the danger of the reemergence of the fire-eaters on both sides of the political divide. One can rightly contend that this is actually occurring now. And, if we are not careful, we can become one of them.
Do you know that there were a couple of fire-eaters in the New Testament? Apart from Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, there were two of Jesus’ disciples who were called “Boanerges.” Boanerges means “sons of thunder.” That is pretty close to the same as a fire-eater. James and John may have gotten that designation by what they said when a Samaritan village refused them (along with Jesus) to enter their village. In their anger (and natural bigoted hatred) for these Samaritans, they both called for fire to come down from heaven and consume the people of the village. Jesus responded to their “fire-eating rhetoric” by rebuking them saying, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them (Luke 9:54, 55). Have you ever had such thoughts? Have you ever spoken such words expressing similar sentiments? In the times we are living in, it is so easy to get caught up in such anger and resentment for others who do not share our same views.
As citizens of the United States it is appropriate to care about the things that we believe threaten our flourishing as a country. It is appropriate to be concerned about the gross immorality of the culture and the perceived disdain for the foundational principles laid down by the founding fathers that have given rise to our country’s flourishing. It is appropriate for us to consider that the greatest threat to the welfare of our country comes from God who must punish those who rebel against Him.
But, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, there are standards of behavior that we are expected to abide by. We find these standards in the opening verses of Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5. Among those standards of behavior is that of being peacemakers. It is those who are peacemakers who are called, “the sons of God.” So, let us be good citizens of our country and do what we can to help our country flourish. Let us vote to elect people to office which value biblical moral standards of conduct. But in doing this work, let us not repeat history by being accounted among the fire-eaters. But rather, let us be peacemakers. In being peacemakers, we seek to make changes, but we do so in a way that is honoring to our King, Jesus. And as the sons of God, being peacemakers will bring glory to our Father in Heaven.