Abraham Lincoln’s Conversion to Christ

Istoria Ministries ^ | July 2022 | Dr. James Kennedy

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian?

Now I, in preaching this message, am not endeavoring to merely exhume the bones of Lincoln for some kind of belated autopsy. But rather, this is another way of proclaiming anew that Gospel message with which he struggled all of his life in the hope that as we emphasize and sympathize with his struggles with the great verities of life and death and eternity, that some of you will ask yourselves the deeper and more relevant question: Am I a Christian? Are you?

Consider well the sixteenth President of the United States. Like the nation he described in its conception, Lincoln was conceived in the midst of great religious fervor. There was a revival going on in Kentucky in 1809 of the type associated with the evangelist Peter Cartwright. (By the way, when Lincoln was grown, he entered into a political contest with Cartwright in running for the same office.) But in the midst of a prayer meeting, young Tom Lincoln leaped to his feet in the midst of this religious fervor and began to dance around and sing. A moment or two later, a young lady by the name of Nancy, did the same thing. They were soon introduced, engaged, and shortly thereafter married. In the midst of that religious fervor, Abraham Lincoln was born to Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. Certainly a spiritually, encouraging beginning.

Lincoln was never a member of any church…

He was married to a woman who certainly challenged his humility, Mary Todd…

The great tragedy of his life occurred when his little son, Willie, the apple of his eye, died. He was crushed…

---

TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: abrahamlincoln; conversion; faith; intercession; jesus; lincoln

[CondoleezzaProtege]

He was so overwhelmed with grief that he set aside every Thursday to mourn his death.

After some period of time, when he would see no one on that day, but wept and mourned and lamented the death of his son Willie, Dr. Francis Vinton, rector of Trinity Church, came down to Washington from New York. He was a friend of the family and was allowed in to see the President. Not wanting to beat around the bush, he told him it was not right to mourn thus over his son. He said, “Your son is alive in paradise with Christ, and you must not continue.”

Lincoln sat there as though he were in a stupor, and then his mind caught on to the words that Dr. Vinton had said, and he exclaimed, “Alive! Alive! Surely, sir, you mock me.”

“No, Mr. President, it is a great doctrine of the church. Jesus himself said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Lincoln leaped to his feet and threw his arms around this pastor. He wept openly and sobbed, saying, “Alive! Alive! My boy is alive!”

From that day there began a change in Lincoln that even his wife Mary noticed. His religious views began to dramatically change…

[gettinolder]

Wow!

That’s an awesome truth!

[Jim W N]

Wonderful article you posted.

Thank you. It helps to know that Lincoln confessed Christ and is in Heaven. Praise the Lord.

[chajin]

Wow. You have to read the whole thing to get its power.

[murron]

P

[imardmd1]

I'm afraid thar it must be said that the reasoning behind this article of the author, of D. James Kennedy, or of Kennedy's cited references is quite appealing to one easily convinced, but not thorough enough to satisfy a well-trained philosopher to arrive at a certainty to the question asked in the title.

To the point, was Lincoln's point of view toward the mystery of physical death based on the promises of The Heavenly Father God alone concerning His Son Jesus The Christ alone, and His Work alone, as found in the Word of God alone, and pointed to the Person and Works alone by a person having been (as was Abraham of the Old Testament abd Saul of the Mew) fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able also to perform? The promise of God, a promised result that Lincoln should have had in view, the same promise which was/is encapsulated in John 3:16. Was it not claimed that Abe Lincoln knew, memorized, and told of in his own speeches and wriyings?

Or was Lincoln's point of view altered only on the basis of a clergyman unsupported assurance that son Willie's mew life and residence was in God's Heavenly Paradise with the Savior. Was Willie, fully age- and experience-accountable for his own trust in Christ, of a saving convincement and commitment duly applied at his passing? And what was on his father's mind while mourning after?

When that becomes the hinge criterion of Lincoln's status at the time of his own death, that is the essential point of Lincoln's salvation, of spiritual birth as a new man. The details of the article leaves the viewer still uncertain (except to the Trinity and Lincoln himself, that is).

What can be said is that the observer will also have certainty when and if he/she gets to Heaven oneself. If not, it won't matter, ever.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Will the Second Inaugural Address be of any help?

…Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ~ that of neither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him.

Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’

“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.”

[GBA]

I wouldn’t call them “penpals”, but did you know that Lincoln and Karl Marx exchanged letters?

I think about the influence their faith in God had on each man’s life and writing and the influence they and their writing had and still has on the world.

By their fruits …