Although shaped by evangelical culture, Lincoln never joined a church and found himself at home with no particular creed. His language and thought, however, were formed by the Bible, and from it he learned that no one could interpret precisely what the will of God was for the nation.
"In great contests," he once said, "each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong." Another time — in his second inaugural Address — he observed: "Both (Union and Confederacy) read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. … The prayers of both could not be answered. … The Almighty has his own purposes." Lincoln knew that men should try to do God’s will as well as they could determine what it as for them, but the Almighty has his purposes that go beyond the plans of men.
[tags]Abraham-Lincoln, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]