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.
As a matter of fact, Lincoln's family were Primitive Baptists, and his own early flirtation with secular determinism may have actually been influenced by that background.
“Thomas Jefferson was a deist (as was Madison, and perhaps Washington and Franklin as well). Had he lived after Darwin he would probably have been an atheist.”
In what way is Darwin’s theory contrary to Deism?
Ok, I can’t stand Lincoln, and even I’m not so blinded by that to think thT he was an athiest. He was close friends with Chiniquy and wrote to him on religous subject matter a couple of times, especially about the Jesuits.
>> “Thomas Jefferson was a deist (as was Madison, and perhaps Washington and Franklin as well).” <<
.
An oft repeated lie.
None of the founders were deists; all believed in a God that was active in his creation. Jefferson in particular even “translated” his own Bible to agree with his beliefs on Christ.
Deism was an option prior to Darwin because there was no rational way to explain how everything got here. After Darwin supplied that, the people who would have been deists became atheists instead. As Richard Dawkins says, "Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist."
>> “Thomas Jefferson was a deist (as was Madison, and perhaps Washington and Franklin as well).” <<
An oft repeated lie.
It is not a lie.
None of the founders were deists; all believed in a God that was active in his creation. Jefferson in particular even “translated” his own Bible to agree with his beliefs on Christ.
Jefferson lacerated the "new testament" in order to remove all the supernaturalism from it. He did this because he rejected the supernatural and merely regarded J*sus as a great moral philosopher--and no more than that.
Why don't you look up Jefferson's lacerated "bible" or get yourself a copy?
“I cannot perceive how man can look into the heavens and say there is no God.”
Abe Lincoln
“Deism was an option prior to Darwin because there was no rational way to explain how everything got here. After Darwin supplied that, the people who would have been deists became atheists instead. As Richard Dawkins says, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.””
Maybe it made it possible to be an atheist, but as a Deist myself I see no conflict with between what Deists believe and Darwin’s theory.
He felt bad for initiating a war of northern aggression, therefore, he turned to the word of God for salvation from his sin and guilt.
That same daughter said Washington attended church with his wife but left without taking communion. She further said that in later life he stopped going to church altogether.
My take is that he thought religious belief was a desirable good to insure a moral nation, but was personally tepid. I think he would never publicly renounce belief because he did not want to set an example of unbelief to the vast majority of his countrymen who took great solace and found their moral grounding in Christian religion.
That article has no footnotes.
” In Volume XII of these writings, Jared Sparks delved into the religious character of George Washington, and included numerous letters written by the friends, associates, and family of Washington which testified of his religious character. Based on that extensive evidence, Sparks concluded:
To say that he [George Washington] was not a Christian would be to impeach his sincerity and honesty. Of all men in the world, Washington was certainly the last whom any one would charge with dissimulation or indirectness [hypocrisies and evasiveness]; and if he was so scrupulous in avoiding even a shadow of these faults in every known act of his life, [regardless of] however unimportant, is it likely, is it credible, that in a matter of the highest and most serious importance [his religious faith, that] he should practice through a long series of years a deliberate deception upon his friends and the public? It is neither credible nor possible.”
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=127
When Jesus first started his ministry he did not declare himself to be the son of God. What he said was, “follow me.” In that sense Jefferson was a follower of Jesus moral teachings. But he thought all reference to supernatural events and Jesus divinity were added by later writers and he rejected them. He even wrote that to speak of spirits was to speak of “nothings.”
A few short speeches of Lincoln's have more truth and humanity in them than Davis's massive volumes of self-satisfied self-justification.
Church membership was different then as well. A lot of Americans didn’t join a church but still considered themselves vaguely Christian. This was true on the frontier, where churches might be far away. It was true in the colonies which had an established church — where religion was an arm of government. It was also true after the Revolution when many couldn’t afford the price of a pew. Periodic revivals would draw hundreds or thousands into camp meetings, but not everyone felt comfortable with such religious enthusiasm. Add to this all manner of freethinkers.
As in all these things, I’ll not even consider anything they say unless and until they claim Saladin was a non-believer, or Yasser Arafat, or Ayatollah Kohmeni. Until then, for all their claims of impartiality, I considert them nothing more than anti-christian bigots.
I have to look at some more speeches then. That war was unjustified, and was only about consolidating power in D.C. They wanted a centrally run government and they got it. The wrong side won in my opinion.
“A few short speeches of Lincoln’s have more truth and humanity in them than Davis’s massive volumes of self-satisfied self-justification.
Says you, a ‘non sequitur’ retread. Nothing but a yankee bigot.
“None of the founders were deists; all believed in a God that was active in his creation. “
Well, only most of the founders themselves knew for sure, but there is no doubt that Thomas Paine was a Deist and he is considered to be a founder. BTW Deists believe in a Creator, just not the one depicted in the Bible.
Somewhere in my collection I have a book of the notes for the sermons that Jefferson preached in the House chamber every sunday.
None of them show the slightest doubt that God was our creator, and that he worked in the lives of men.
You’re too gulible.
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