Where was God in 1776?

1776 by David McCullough reads like a novel, but is in fact a historical account of that year in the Revolutionary War. Of course, I’m years late in saying so. The book was published in 2005 and McCullough is already well established as an excellent writer and historian (and from what I hear third-hand a very decent man in person).

The book is written in the classic historical style, with military battles as the main drama and generals as the chief characters. This might be a knock against it in a college history department, but I was snowed. I am convinced that George Washington and Nathanael Greene are men of great courage and integrity, and yet still human. Plus, some of my ignorance about the basic events of the war – the siege of Boston, crossing of the Delaware – was remedied. (Germans fought on both sides!)

My one reflection comes from having just read City of God. 1776 narrates an undeniably pivotal moment for the city of earth. 1776, the year, is when the mantle of world’s-most-powerful-empire began to pass from Great Britain to the then-emerging thirteen united colonies in America. My question is, what was going on in the city of God?

The primary answer 1776 gives is that white Christians were killing each other on the continent where they had recently killed off most of the Indians on the east coast. Exceptionally in 1776 , there was the pastor in New York who condemned the torture of a soldier, but most all other references to God and Christians are in the sense of imploring the creator of the principle of liberty to give victory to the colonists (or in the case of the British, that the God who created order would give victory to the king’s army).

So, I guess I’m now making a personal statement: I’m interested in church history. I also hope there's also a universal statement here, something like God is the ultimate arbiter of history.