Episode 216: With God on Our Side: The Dangers of Claiming Providence with Dr. Thomas Kidd

In the song “With God on Our Side,” Bob Dylan famously criticized the American predilection to confidently claim that our personal and political endeavors are touched by God, “Oh, my name, it ain't nothin', my age, it means less. The country I come from is called the Midwest. I's taught and brought up there, the laws to abide. And that the land that I live in has God on its side.”

Now Dylan is no theologian, but he does highlight an interesting dilemma, and he causes us to ask some serious questions. What do we make of claims in politics and culture, that God favors a particular side or position? What makes these claims credible and what makes them dangerous? How does a Christian truly discern if God has providentially aligned himself with a man, a movement, and institution or a cause?

Today on the Postscript we will be discussing this subject from the perspective of history. What can be learned from observing historic instances in which people, Christians in particular, have made the claim that God was on their side?

To have this discussion, we have invited Dr. Thomas Kidd, Research Professor of Church History at Midwestern and the John and Sharon Yeats Endowed Chair of Baptist Studies. He has written numerous books on church history and Baptist history. 

Read Dr. Kidd’s book God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution

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