How God Used Dreams to Protect Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement: 'We Had to Rely on The Spirit'

As the nation paused to remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Monday, Dr. Matthew Daniels of the non-profit group Good of All, which advances universal human rights around the world, is highlighting how deeply the Gospel message was connected to the Civil Rights Movement. 

"It's one of the greatest examples in history of the Gospel having a positive impact on society," Daniels said during an interview with CBN's The Prayerlink. "The American South should have turned out like Rwanda. For the courage and faith of a handful of leaders like Dr. King and others, history was different and that's because they used the principles of the Gospel to heal our nation." 

Daniels also recalled the time when he met former US Ambassador to the UN and Civil Rights Pioneer Andrew Young who revealed even more insight into the spiritual connection to the movement.

He said Young told him, "'We had to rely on the Spirit,' and he said, 'Well, we'd be planning to have a rally at Place A. The night before someone would have a dream telling us to go to Place B. So, the next day in obedience to the dream we'd go to Place B and there'd be a bomb at Place A which would have taken out the whole leadership of the Civil Rights Movement in its infancy.' When that happens to you, you learn to be led by the Spirit," said Daniels. 

He added, "I realized that is really the secret behind how they changed the world. Because if you think about it, what they did was humanly impossible. What they did was only possible by the power of God."

Meanwhile, Daniels said those same Biblical principles are needed in today's increasingly dark and violent world.

"I see the same dark logic to evil," he explained. "It's very simple. Every movement that uses violence has a simple structure. First you demonize. Then you dehumanize. Then you destroy. White supremacists do this. Marxist movements do this. Islamist movements do this. And there's one cure. That cure is to recognize and honor the dignity of all people made in the image of God. And the way to administer the cure is like a vaccine."

"You need to inoculate people before they are reached by violent extremist ideologies, whatever the ideology is, so that their hearts cannot be infected. So, we try to go on offense for the good and to shine a light for that transcendent truth that everyone has fundamental human dignity and rights and that's what powered Dr. King's entire movement. That's what powered the success of the Civil Rights Movement," said Daniels.