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Lincoln, Trump, and commonality … Abraham Lincoln 2nd inaugural March 4 1865 –  [link to larger pic down below]

The body of the following content was sent to me by two very special gentlemen who both (as with yours truly) inhabit the vast regions of Social Media. And that would be Paul Oyen, one of my “go-to” FB comrades, and his long time (even school) friend Joel Bratkovich, who passed this content on to Paul. The added “decorations” are placed there by yours truly; an exercise in which the full bore implications about to descend on Washington DC in a matter of days are allowed to manifest themselves into the stark reality of the topic at hand … We begin with the first of the Bible verses used by President Lincoln:

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ~ Genesis 3:19

As we embark on a new year amidst the turmoil that churns like a tornado in our nation, I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln and his second inaugural address from March 4, 1865. Victory over secessionists and the institution of slavery was imminent. His address was as brief as it was solemn. In it he referred to both Old and New Testament passages of the Bible no less than eight times. He referenced his first inaugural address in which “all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war.” He stated that “All dreaded it, all sought to avert it.”, and that, “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”

Lincoln, Trump, and commonality…

The deeply striking difference between that time in American history and today was his statement:

“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.”

Though both forward strides and sins have been made from then to now, this is clearly no longer the same nation. What does exist today is a divided people.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. ~ Matthew 7:1

On one hand are those with interests that are self-serving and wrapped in the idea of hegemony and the elimination of anything which has to do with God or religion, and on the other, those still clinging to the Constitutional Republic, not based in ethnicity, but in acceptance of the ideas stated in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Where is this equality evident? Outside of Christianity, neither you nor I have intrinsic value. Practically speaking, the only thing “self-evident” about us is our inequality – physical, social, financial, and intellectual. The only way we can be found equal is in the context of the intrinsic worth conveyed by an almighty Creator.

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! ~ Matthew 18:7 

It was Nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who said, “Equality is a lie concocted by inferior people who arrange themselves in herds to overpower those who are naturally superior to them.” One need look no further than John Lennon’s song, “Imagine” – surely the theme song of today’s globalists. Go back and read those lyrics. As Larry Taunton points out, Russian Socialists did more than “Imagine” the godless world that John Lennon sang about … they built it.

As in these two clips …

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ~ Psalm 19:9

For more than seventy-five years the world’s atheistic elites had their way with foreign and domestic policy, the military, and secret police, the economy, and the lives of millions of people. The result? Seven decades of unremitting turmoil, bloodshed, famine, theft, backwardness, incompetence and promises of a coming utopia. Or consider Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China, whose godless society qualifies him as the greatest mass murderer in world history. In just four short years, between 1958 and 1962, while enforcing the “Great Leap Forward”, between 40 and 80 million were murdered by being worked to death, starved, tortured, or beaten.

Margaret Thatcher said, “Europe was created by history, America was created by philosophy.” Sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset stated, “Being an American is an ideological commitment. It is not a matter of birth. Those who reject American values are un-American.”

The Declaration proclaims the clear and concise principles and more importantly our identity in the God-given freedom which explains and defines the foundation of our country. While the Declaration of Independence is not a legally binding document, it is perhaps one of the most powerful statements ever made outside of Scripture. Lincoln referred to it as “a rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression.”

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. ~ Psalm 147:3

I believe the crescendo in the Lincoln address was reached when he said:

“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.”

What now looms ever larger is a war of ideologies. Those who side with the secular elites have rejected nearly every key Christian cultural issue from abortion to marriage. Tolerance is now the tolerance of everything, which leads to moral ambiguity, and freedom (except religious freedom) becomes autonomy, which leads to anarchy. As this new year begins, it is clear that the battle lines are drawn as clearly as they have ever been. To which Lincoln concluded “with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.”

The question that remains is, on which side will you stand?

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. ~ James 1:27

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Kudos to Paul Oyen and Joel Bratkovich check them both on Facebook

See also Earick Ward, American Thinker: January 6 and The Right to Protest

Plus Wikipedia containing the short, powerful speech: Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Don’t miss this beautiful enlarged pic: Lincoln Stands in the Center, Papers in His Hand

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Face of Jesus by Richard Hook

Soli Deo Gloria!

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