Anybody here, seen my old friend Abraham...

[turzovka]

As true now as it ever was then.

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LINCOLN WARNED OF CHASTISEMENT!

WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN WARNED OF DIVINE CHASTISEMENT

Fascinating it is how much folks inside and outside of the Faith deny that God chastises (despite many references to such throughout Scripture) and thus flex a skeptical eyebrow toward the concept that America will be chastised for its current state of debauchery.

Virtually no one seems to remember -- or simply did not know -- that Abraham Lincoln, recognized by secularists as one of the greatest leaders in the country's history (and one of four Americans Pope Francis singled out in his address to Congress last week; 9/24/15), not only resoundingly affirmed the role that God and Christianity play in the United States, but specifically signed a declaration that mentioned "chastisement" for national sins.

This came in a "Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting" upon which he affixed his signature on March 30, 1863. It was a resolution put forward by Senator James Harlan of Iowa.

A Congress and President calling for a fast as the king in Nineveh did, donning the sackcloth!

Here in large part is what the 16th president signed (and thus "said"):

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State

 

[turzovka]

Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci, and John Kennedy are having a sublime discussion on eternal matters in some stately room. Meanwhile, some cranky old chap named “The Old School” is serving them tea and cigars. As he walks back into the kitchen he can’t help but snicker to himself --- “what a bunch of idiots.”

 

[JakeStarkey]

Lincoln surely believed a Guiding Force behind the great movements of History, but to say that AL believed it to be Jesus, Jehovah, etc., is simply not supported by the evidence.

Billy Herndon asserted quite emphatically that AL was not a Christian. The latter wrote as a young man a terrible pamphlet disavowing Christianity in rough terms. His friend convinced him to tear it up since he wanted to be a politician.

No testament of faith, no statement of Christian conviction has ever been attributed to AL.

If he had lived long enough, he may have accepted Christianity before his death. The terrible suffering of the war made him search for meaning. At best he was deist, infused by the moral warmth of Jesus' teachings of love and love for humanity.

 

[Geaux4it]

As true now as it ever was then.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

LINCOLN WARNED OF CHASTISEMENT!

WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN WARNED OF DIVINE CHASTISEMENT

Fascinating it is how much folks inside and outside of the Faith deny that God chastises (despite many references to such throughout Scripture) and thus flex a skeptical eyebrow toward the concept that America will be chastised for its current state of debauchery.

Virtually no one seems to remember -- or simply did not know -- that Abraham Lincoln, recognized by secularists as one of the greatest leaders in the country's history (and one of four Americans Pope Francis singled out in his address to Congress last week; 9/24/15), not only resoundingly affirmed the role that God and Christianity play in the United States, but specifically signed a declaration that mentioned "chastisement" for national sins.

This came in a "Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting" upon which he affixed his signature on March 30, 1863. It was a resolution put forward by Senator James Harlan of Iowa.

A Congress and President calling for a fast as the king in Nineveh did, donning the sackcloth!

Here in large part is what the 16th president signed (and thus "said"):

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State

 

[tyroneweaver]

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.

 

[turzovka]

Lincoln surely believed a Guiding Force behind the great movements of History, but to say that AL believed it to be Jesus, Jehovah, etc., is simply not supported by the evidence.

Billy Herndon asserted quite emphatically that AL was not a Christian. The latter wrote as a young man a terrible pamphlet disavowing Christianity in rough terms. His friend convinced him to tear it up since he wanted to be a politician.

No testament of faith, no statement of Christian conviction has ever been attributed to AL.

If he had lived long enough, he may have accepted Christianity before his death. The terrible suffering of the war made him search for meaning. At best he was deist, infused by the moral warmth of Jesus' teachings of love and love for humanity.

Whether Lincoln was an orthodox Christian believer or not is of mostly unrelated importance to these words he signed on to. I am quite sure he believed in the words of wisdom and caution that he wrote or he never would have put his name to them. He surely believed in God and divine providence.

I dare say this article has some meaningful facts or opinions about Lincoln's faith. The Struggle for Lincoln's Soul

 

[JakeStarkey]

I agree with the end.

"That was the testimony of those who knew Lincoln best, including his wife, who said shortly after his death that he was 'a religious man always' but not 'a technical Christian.'"

I have no doubt that in the last twenty years of his life he had a growing sense of spirituality. What struck me most overall is that not once did I find in his writings and speeches a sense of an afterlife. If he thought it existed, he never expressed it.