"Perhaps no better example of the process by which a specific doctrine is offered to the Identity community by a particular leader, considered through the diverse world of the Identity faithful, and then either rejected or forgotten or accepted as dogma can be given than the strange case of George Washington's prophetic vision for America. Washington's vision came to be widely accepted, an unquestioned tenet of belief among Identity adherents, only after a complex process of selection, hermeneutics, and dissemination. The actual origin of the story is impossible to reconstruct. According to the tale itself, the vision was related by one Anthony Sherman to Wesley Bradshaw on 4 July 1859. Mr. Sherman was at the time 99 years old—the precice age of Abraham when God bestowed upon him the Covenant in Gen. 17--and in 1777 was with George Washington at Valley Forge. The vision itself took the form of a dream, which Washington described to Sherman. In highly allusive language, Washington recounted that a singularly beautiful female came to him in his sleep, and addressing him as 'Son of the Republic,' guided him through a
series of apocalyptic visions whose central motif involved the American republic engulfed in the tribulations of war and famine. The cause of these fearful scenes was suggested by 'a shadowy angel,' who placed a trumpet to his mouth and blew three distinct blasts; and taking water form the ocean, he sprinkled it upon Europe, Asia and Africa.' From these continents arose a black and terrible cloud, which settled to earth and resolved into armed men 'who moving with the cloud, marched by land and sailed by sea to America, which...was enveloped by the volume of the cloud.' America is fated to survive this tribulation, according to the vision, only so long as the Republic keeps faith in God, the land, and the union." (p. 52-3)
Saturday, August 20, 2005
What Other People Take for a Given (sort of my daily post about religion)
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