Hmmm . . . . . I dont think it was a task from God! It has been a common thread among histories great powers of the last 1500 odd years to claim that their foreign policy and wars are ordained of God. This type of claim is nothing more than a “White Horse” deception.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it “God’s will.”
Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.
“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”
A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God’s Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.
Palin told graduating students of the church’s School of Ministry, “What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys.” As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she’d work to implement God’s will from the governor’s office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.
“God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said.
“I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded,” she added. “But really all of that stuff doesn’t do any good if the people of Alaska’s heart isn’t right with God.”
Palin attended the evangelical church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site. She has continued to attend special conferences and meetings there. Religious conservatives have welcomed her selection as John McCain’s running mate.
The Assemblies of God, which claims nearly 3 million members, is one of the biggest Pentecostal groups in the U.S. Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophesy and faith healing. The Assemblies of God teaches that spirit baptism must be accompanied by speaking in tongues. Still, some churchgoers never have the experience.
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, lamented Palin’s comments.
“I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches,” he said. “The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God.”
The section of the church’s Web site where videos of past sermons were posted was shut down Wednesday, and a message was posted saying that the site “was never intended to handle the traffic it has received in the last few days.”
True Discernment 
I’m afraid I will have to agree with Gov. Palin on this topic. One could assign most everything to an act of or task of God even if the consequences are different than what you planned. There have been many armies mustered to battle in the history of man and I’m betting that the one God wanted to win, did. This fact has nothing to do with the righteousness of the Leaders on either side.
I enjoy your topics,
Boyd
I am not saying that things happen that are not ordained by God. All things that happen are ultimately ordained by God.
However what Mrs. Palin said is a misunderstanding of that.
She uses it in the context as all great powers and Kings have used it, as a justification that all of their actions are GOOD and RIGHT! This is Christian Dominionism and is not Biblically supportable.
Its called a “White Horse” deception
Hi John
I would have to disagree with you on this as I believe that the American involvement in Iraq was a task from God, just as Gov. Palin has stated. I also believe that America’s presence in Iraq is number 1 to deter Iran and other islamic nations from starting a war against His beloved Israel until the proper time, and number 2 I believe that the first seal in revelation 6:2 may have been opened beginning 911, and “he that sat on the white horse with a bow and a crown who went forth conquering, and to conquer” is the commander-in-chief of America, President George W. Bush.
I don’t see where you think Gov. Palin is misunderstanding anything here, and what you have said is not in the article??
Anyway, that’s my thoughts on this and thank you for the opportunity to express them. Blessings to you.
Toni
toni,
Again you are confusing two mutually exclusive concepts as one and the same.
Again ultimately all things are ordained of God but that is not the same as what Gov. Palin said and what you are saying.
Gov. Palin is equating the war in Iraq as a Holy Crusade. And again that is not Biblically Supportable.
What she is speaking of is Dominionism and that is a White Horse Deception.
Also I did not say what I had said in my first coment was in the article, it was in my comments above the article.
Also you believe that George Bush is: “he that sat on the white horse with a bow and a crown who went forth conquering, and to conquer”
But then you do not believe that the war in Iraq was a “White horse” deception.
While it is true God ordains all and he has his reasons for things such as the Iraq War. Man’s (George Bush’s reasons) were completely different. And that is the point I am making.
Goerge Bush did not go into Iraq to protect Israel. George Bush went into Iraq to continue a long standing U.S. geopolticical ideology of having a presence in Eurasia to prevent any other major world power from gaining control of an area that contains 75% of the worlds Natural resources.
Central Asia is known in Geopolitical circles as a “geopoltical pivot point. And the power that controls this pivot point controls the countries located there.
And again even though God has his plans, man has his own which are carnal and intent on conquerig. It does not makes mans plans holy just because they further God’s plans.
And this is the mistake that Gov. Palin makes by attempting to make Mans’s carnal actions holy.
God Bless,
John