I’ve been a re-enactor for a while, working with the museum and the Blue Grey Army. The Blue Grey Army is the organization who organizes the Olustee Festival ever year in Lake City, Florida. Olustee was the largest Civil War Battle fought in Florida. The Civil War is currently being emotionally refought through the politics and popular action groups of the current time. Viewing past life and culture creates skewed insights when viewed through modern eyes, even in the Bible. The truth in the Bible is spoken for all time, but the events were for the time and culture of the time they occurred. Culture and experience change, but the truth of God remains continuously faithful forever.

Looking at history requires finding the artifacts and interpreting them. Interpreting them through our current knowledge, vantage point, and priorities can cause us to misunderstand as much, if not more than we understand. I think it is important to look behind the scenes. By that, I mean to ask the questions about the spiritual influences behind the human manifestations. I use the Bible as the standard, and I use a short cut, Galatians 5:19-23. These verses provide two lists, one through which we can see the footprint or image of the enemy, “works of the flesh;” and the other, “the fruits of the spirit,” the footprint or image of God. These two lists help me quickly assess the artifacts or content I am evaluating.

Looking back at the Civil War, we can see the footprints of both throughout the North and the South. We can look and see the causes of cruelty from one person to another, the corruptions in authority and governments, the media and its role, and the bravery and love that occurs in the middle and around the cruelty. We can clearly see that this world has been and is a spiritual battleground in which all persons are given a choice of who they will serve, the enemy and their own selfish desires, or love and the purpose and plan of God. 

Sadly enough, it is easier to look back and prefer the color of the uniform, the region of the country, the popular feelings of the time, and the other convenient views than it is to seek to understand how people chose or were manipulated into moving in one spiritual direction or another. Naturally this oversimplifies things because I think very few, if any, are completely evil or completely good. Normal humans are a mixture of both, fighting internally the same battle which becomes external and manifests to everyone in their sphere of influence.

We can see the footprints in every generation. Every generation has their slaves, their wars, their champions and their heros.  The faces change. The cultures and technology change. The sorrows and joys change with the fluctuations in the countries and the circumstances. However, the sources remain the same. Man’s inhumanity to man continue through the selfish manifestations of pride and works of the flesh. Redemption, hope, healing, and all forms of rescue come through Jesus in the fruits of the spirit. The trail of evidence is clear in every generation. The question isn’t refighting or redefining the choices people in the past made, but what choices we make.

We can see what happened in the past because the events then are complete. We can even see or infer the spiritual realities that pushed people in the directions they traveled. All their choices are relevant today because we face the same true enemy to peace, hope, and harmony. We are at war today, the same spiritual war that has been fought since the beginning of man. It is not a political party. It is not a region or cultural preference. It is not art or music or clothing styles. All those things might reflect some images of the war, but they are not the war. The true war is against the “spiritual forces of evil.”

The people of our historical past, all of them, amaze me. The people of our current generation amaze me. Each person’s story is worth telling, as I say at the museum all the time. There is still much left to do. We’ve grown some, gone backward some, and left ourselves with many challenges left to overcome. Jesus lived and died and rose again to bring us into the freedom and joy He wants for us. The best way to fight and maintain joy, is to hold on to Him as we move forward and become history ourselves.