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Heretical Hymn
By Samuel Ashwood | December 14, 2007
For interested Christians, the study of hymns and hymn writers is often a rewarding and enriching experience. Great hymn writers throughout the centuries, such as Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Thomas Kelly, and Charlotte Elliott, among many others, often lived fascinating lives, and the hymns they have left us have been a blessing in the churches for many years.
Sad to say, the study of some hymns and their authors is not quite so rewarding. Among those who fall into this sad category is The Battle Hymn of the Republic, that famous Civil War-era hymn now sung in many churches as a song regarding the triumph of Christ’s church. The sad reality, were it known, would cause this song to be excised from the hymnbooks of every orthodox church in America.
First, a few words about the author are required. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was the author of Battle Hymn in 1861. She was born into the home of a popular Calvinist clergyman in New York City, but ultimately rejected her parents’ religion in favor of the Unitarian doctrine that was gaining significant ground in the North during that period. She ultimately married the Boston reformer Dr. Samuel G. Howe, and became active in the Abolitionist movement. She also became involved with the heretical Transcendentalist and Unitarian religious movements. This is not the place for a detailed explanation of those doctrines. Suffice it to say, Unitarian doctrine rejects the orthodox Christian position of Jesus Christ as God in human flesh, as well as the native sinfulness of man which places him in need of a Redeemer.
During her lifetime, Mrs. Howe would make a number of statements reflecting her acceptance of Unitarian doctrine. Regarding Jesus Christ, she once said, “Not until the Civil War did I officially join the Unitarian church and accept the fact that Christ was merely a great teacher with no higher claim to pre-eminence in wisdom, goodness, and power than any other man.” She scornfully rejected the biblical doctrine of hell, saying, “I threw away, once and forever, the thought of the terrible hell which appears to me impossible.” Completing her utter rejection of Scripture doctrine, she lambasted the exclusive claims of Christ, saying, “Having rejected the exclusive doctrine that made Christianity and special forms of it the only way of spiritual redemption, I now accept the belief that not only Christians but all human beings, no matter what their religion, are capable of redemption. Christianity was but one of God’s plans for bringing all of humanity to a state of ultimate perfection.” Such thoughts may ring pleasantly on modern liberal ears, but they cannot fit in with Scripture, which plainly presents Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation (John 14:6, John 3:18, 36, Acts 4:12).
It is in this light that Battle Hymn must be seen. Just having this knowledge of Mrs. Howe’s religious views should completely exclude any hymn she might write from our worship exercises. Just a word or two, however, is due about the meaning of her hymn.
Mrs. Howe determined to write the hymn in the fall of 1861, after watching alongside her husband a body of Union troops marching off to war, singing “John Brown’s Body.” She determined to write a more inspiring war song to what was already a good melody. The lyrics she would compose had nothing whatsoever to do with the triumphant church of Jesus Christ marching on to victory. Remember, Mrs. Howe was in the process of deciding that Jesus had no greater claim to pre-eminence in virtue than other men.
The true purpose of Mrs. Howe’s hymn was to encourage Union troops in their campaign of destruction again the South. Remember, she wrote these lyrics as a war song, not as a hymn. Therefore, the words “He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the
fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,” can only be applied to the vengeance that so many radical Abolitionists urged against the South. Hardly a Christian spirit! The language indicates that Mrs. Howe applied the apocalyptic language of the Revelation to the destruction inflicted by invading Northern armies upon the Southern Confederacy.The second verse follows a similar line of thought:
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
His day is marching on.
Clearly, in view of what we have already discovered, the language here applies to the Union army. The idea of God Himself being seen in the campfires of an army which was more or less religiously neutral (being composed of thousands of individuals), is ludicrous, and borders on blasphemy.
If this can be said of the second verse, it certainly should be said of the third:
I have read the fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel. As ye deal
with My contempters, so with you My grace shall deal; Let the hero born of
woman crush the serpent with his heel. Since God is marching on.
Taken in its historical context, Mrs. Howe’s message is clear. The Gospel she speaks of is not one of redemption from sin, but from the evils of the Southern aristocracy. The South is the serpent. The Union army is, to all intents and purposes, God. The Bible reader should be appalled that the beautiful promise of Genesis 3:15 is applied by Mrs. Howe to the advance of a conquering army, rather than to the redemptive work of Christ. Her “Gospel” certainly seems different from that proclaimed by the apostles. Would she not then fall under the condemnation of Galatians 1:8: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
The fourth verse speaks of God sifting men’s hearts, the only conclusion being that only those who met the call to wage warfare against the South would measure up. The fifth verse concludes thusly:
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.
The thought of sinful men dying in battle to achieve a purpose equal to Christ’s death on the cross is heinous in the extreme. Though we do not question the occasional need for war, genuine Christian hymns should never encourage believers to exertions of destruction against their fellow men. Souls are not redeemed by warfare. Warfare, of all human activities, is more likely to contaminate than purify the soul.
This article is not meant to take a dogmatic position on the war itself. Regardless of one’s historical perspective, any work of Julia Ward Howe has no place in a Christian congregation, based upon her heretical views regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Those views are reflected vividly in her hymn which encourages not a triumphant church, but an advancing army to deeds of greater carnage and bloodshed.
David O. Jones, author of the article The Battle Hymn of the Republic (Refuted), is correct in his summation: “The ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ is apostasy. It promotes hatred and vengeful destruction. It has no place in a worship service.”
Sources:
1.About.com: Women’s History
2.Unitarian Universalist Historical Society
3.FreeTennessee.org
Topics: History, Volume 2, Issue 17 |
December 16th, 2007 at 2:49 am
ALthough I agree with you on the premise that she probably meant the tune as you mention above, I doubt it has never been sung by a christian and that CHristian been thinking the same, but rather with the true christian meaning it can be seen to also put forth. Thus, I beleive that God again has taken the Devil’s work of this woman, and through the hearts of his Christian followers, turned it around to work for his good. No one remembers Mrs. Howe’s name or calling (except for you who would pull it from the grave of the forgotten and place it before us), but when I (for one) have heard it sung by a choir, I think of God and his majesty trampling Saten and his followers; I believe the last portion wherein it is stated “He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free” does not represent a thought (to a Christian) that we are on par with what Jesus did on the cross, but rather is a call that we need to be willing to sacrifice our lives (earthly), so as to work for God’s will an seek to set men free - by helping bring them out of the shackels of darkness of faith, to the true light of freedom all could realize by faith in Christ.
SO whereas again, I am a fan of history, and am thankful to you for your work in digging up the truth and you were able to provide this information of her, it does not make me wish to remove the song or its music from our church. If the Devil makes a tool available, we can choose to use it for good or evil; the tool itself is not evil, but rather what our hearts feeel and do with it that determines it position on the scale of good or bad.
Orm
December 16th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I can agree that churches could sing this song with reverential sentiment. However, I cannot see how, knowing what this woman was, and the intent in which she meant it, how we could permit it into our churches. Mrs. Howe was an enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should we sing a song written by a devil, putting our own meaning into it, when we have plenty of good hymns written by godly men and women available? The feeling of our hearts does not determine the scale of what is good. God’s Word determines what is good and bad, and God’s Word declares that anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is an anti-christ. Unitarians deny this. I don’t recommend any true believer singing a song written by an anti-christ.