You obviously never saw this fact-checked documentary:
Posted on 11/20/2012 1:47:47 PM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
It never ceases to amuse – if not infuriate – how often atheists claim as one of their own much-revered historic figures who happen to make the news for some reason or another.
So it was when Neil Armstrong went to be with the Lord this past August.
So it was when Albert Einstein’s so-called “God Letter” went on auction last month.
And so it is now with Abraham Lincoln.
The nation’s 16th president is the subject of a new motion picture, helmed by Stephen Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director, with the screenplay penned by Tony Kushner, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner.
The Great Emancipator also is the subject of a new book, “Lincoln’s Battle with God: A President’s Struggle with Faith and What it Meant for America,” authored by Stephen Mansfield, who has previously produced several New York Times best-sellers.
If you check out some of the atheist web sites, with names like Atheist Empire and Positive Atheists, they insist that Lincoln was a non-believer, a “freethinker.” And to support their contention, they trot out second-hand quotes attributed to the rail-splitter.
“The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession,” Joseph Lewis, claims Lincoln said.
“The unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them,” Lincoln reputedly wrote to Judge J.S. Wakefield.
Now I do not rule out entirely that Lincoln may have spoken or written those words at some point in his life, although there is no hard evidence to that effect. Nor do I rule out the possibility that Lincoln struggled with his faith at some point in his life, as many of us have.
But I am absolutely convinced the great president, who saved the Republic following the Civil War, died a true believer.
Otherwise, he couldn’t have written the spirit-filled words he spoke in his second inaugural address, which followed Civil War, and which Lincoln delivered one month before his assassination:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Mansfield, the author, writes, “The truth is that Lincoln was, in fact, a religious pilgrim.” I take that to mean that, as a young man, the future president was a religious skeptic, but grew strong over time in his walk with God.
He may even have been like Saul of Tarsus, who actually denounced Christians before being struck blind on the road to Damascus; who was transformed into the Apostle Paul, a servant of Christ.
Interestingly, Kushner, the scriptwriter, who actually describes himself as “an agnostic,” said that working on the Lincoln movie led him to believe that a higher power must have been involved in Lincoln’s life.
“Every once in a while,” said Kushner, “in politics and history, you get this sneaky feeling that somebody shows up at a historical moment when they’re really needed…
It’s eerie that they show up out of nowhere: They seem to be the perfect person for the task, like somebody must be designing this. And there’s no example like this in American history as great as Lincoln showing up when he did.”
Kushner is right. Abraham Lincoln was the perfect person for the task set before him. And I believe the scriptwriter’s suspicions also were right. That the nation’s 16th president did not show up on the scene by accident of history.
There was, indeed, somebody designing that. And that somebody was God Almighty.
Jefferson was not an atheist, but neither was he a Christian believer.
All one has to do is read the Second Inaugural Address........
First the fags and now this.
The letter that President Lincoln sent to a Mrs Bixby of Boston during the Civil war strongly suggests otherwise:
Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
That’s not true. The idea that he was a “deist” is incorrect. His now infamous “seperation of church and state” letter was written to someone of a certain denomination who was afraid that Jefferson was going to impose his own (Christian) denomination on the nation at the expense of others.
I love how the left uses Jefferson’s above mentioned letter against us while ignoring his 17,000 some odd other letters.
Washington wasn't exactly a Deist either, but he had leanings in that direction.
Lincoln had something of an Old Testament view of religion that deepened as he aged. He understood judgment, but had a hard time accepting redemption.
I always thought Lincoln was an agnostic. But since libs write all the books, perhaps I’m mistaken. And the idea that Washington was an athiest!!!
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
Yes there is no historical evidnece of him being an atheist at the later part of his life... it was only speculated at the begining
...good to know, guess I should bake a few and pray to them for the removal of an evil Marxist tyrant trying to divide our nation into warring factions as well...
Jefferson was not a Christian believer. In fact, he edited his own copy of the Gospels which removed all the references to miracles and the deity of Christ.
As for the “separation of church and state”, that’s another issue. But it’s really not relevant, as Jefferson wasn’t even in the country when the Constitution was drafted.
You obviously never saw this fact-checked documentary:
I understand what you’re saying x. But in his second inaugural address, Lincoln said, “Let us judge not, that we be not judged.” Those are the words of Christ, which are very New Testament.
I actually bought that book. Then I read a review that all of the vampires were Confederates and that turned me off!! And I speak as a Yankee who had ancestors who dodged the draft in NYC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.