A parable: Why don’t Jews accept Abraham Lincoln as their Messiah and worship him?
Christians have wondered for the last two thousand years, often quite vocally and even violently, how is it possible that Jews still do not accept Jesus as their Messiah. Why do Jews refuse to honor him as the “Son of G-d”, as their “Lord and Savior”, and worship him as they did “G-d the Father” in the time of the prophets? Don’t they see all the wonderful changes brought about by Jesus to the human civilization? Is not Jesus’ story, as relayed in the gospels of the New Testament by those who believed in him, compelling? All those miracles! Why can’t Jews see Jesus as their promised messiah and as G-d in the flesh? Is Jesus not worthy of Israel’ adoration, praise and worship?
To help answer these questions, I decided to compose a parable. Parables are useful to relay ideas because they help us approach them from a fresh angle. This parable is not about Jesus. Rather, it’s about another great man of history – President Abraham Lincoln. Before and after his untimely and tragic death, Lincoln was viewed by many as a messianic figure, comparable to Jesus. But what if a new religious movement had sprung up around Abraham Lincoln’s legacy after his death as it did with Jesus? How would Jews respond? Let us explore this possibility…
A parable by Gene Shlomovich
200 years ago, in a tiny one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky, there was born a man, Abraham Lincoln. His father was a carpenter. He shared a name with a great biblical forefather and this was the foretaste of the greatness that awaited him. True, he started as an unassuming, humble man who kept to himself for the first part of his life, but then slowly rose to greatness and popularity. Although he was a product of his times, he saw the evils of his society and injustices all around him, he rose above all that and sought to end slavery. He had many supporters who shared his vision. They called him their “President”. And later, they called him a “Messiah” and a “Redeemer“. However, he also had opponents, people who opposed him and his vision. They didn’t like what he stood for, they wanted to keep things as they were. They certainly didn’t want him ruling over them as President and so they wanted Abraham Lincoln dead. One day, they sent a wicked man to shoot the great man. Mortally wounded, Abraham Lincoln suffered greatly, spending a day in agony, before succumbing to his injuries. He was a martyr. His followers were distraught and wondered if Lincoln’s vision would go forth. He was shot on Good Friday, and he died the day before on Easter Sunday.
Some of his supporters, few at first, however, didn’t believe that Lincoln really died and claimed visions of the resurrected Abraham. They began to claim that when Lincoln was still alive he told his followers that he was a son of G-d and that the Bible predicted everything about him. The followers also claimed that Abraham foreknew that he would be killed and predicted his own unjust death at the hands of those who didn’t want him to rule over them. The followers also believed that Lincoln had G-d living inside of him in a unique way, and some even thought that his mother was a virgin when she conceived him. The changes Lincoln initiated would last hundreds of years, creating a great society. Only a man of especial holiness, a unique man was capable of such a great feat, his followers thought.
Fifty years later, some of Lincoln’s followers built up a new, great religion, with Abraham Lincoln at its center. They had their opponents, but they would not be stopped. They saw Lincoln as the great liberator who will come again to liberate all oppressed people, not just the black slaves he freed during his first appearance, but everyone who was suffering injustices. They would come to claim that “Lincoln died for us”. They said that because of his divine origins Lincoln deserved their worship; they sang praises to him and prayed to him. They built great monuments to his name.
Lincolnites wondered aloud why did Jews not join them in their worship of Lincoln? Didn’t they also see him in their own scriptures like the Lincolnites did? Lincoln loved them so much, but they won’t return the favor and submit to him? Wasn’t Lincoln a great liberator of slaves, just like Moses? He reached out to those others rejected. Is this not the function of the Messiah that Jews themselves expected? Didn’t Lincoln stand for freedom and liberty, a man of G-d though whom G-d acted? And so what if Abraham’s genealogy wasn’t perfectly recorded and his claimed Jewish descent uncertain? Didn’t King David have a Moabitess for a grandmother? Worship him, Jews – embrace your own Savior and Lord!!! Surely the great G-d of the Jews was not so simple and had room for one more person within Himself. And who is more worthy than Abraham Lincoln?!
Those obstinate Jews, always stiff-necked, doing their own thing, refusing to come in. Didn’t their own scriptures predict that a great man like Lincoln would come one day and not just for Jews, but for everyone who was oppressed? If not Lincoln, then who? Do Jews actually expect someone even greater than him? Look at all the good things his coming has accomplished! And look at all those myriads of their fellow Jews who supported Lincoln as their President – they even saw him as the First Jewish President! Lincolnites grew quite resentful. Jews, however, would not change their ways and insisted to sticking only to the G-d they already knew, and they called the worship of Lincoln an idolatry. Abraham Lincoln was only a man, a mortal man who walked among us, and not G-d, Jews insisted. Jews also were adamant that Lincoln didn’t really fulfill any other messianic prophecies and the world was not really much better after his coming. That was their grave mistake, according to the Lincolnites, and the Jews would pay a price for their error.
Note: don’t forget to click on the linked words for some surprising facts about Abraham Lincoln related to the parable!
Daily Minyan 
nice parable. I will compose one of my own for you. :)
“nice parable.”
Thanks.
” I will compose one of my own for you. :)”
I am afraid you are too late – someone has already beat you to it, Concerned Reader. I believe it’s called the “New Testament”:)
Here it is man! ;)
There once was a book about a man, by the name of John that was in the possession of his family, and them alone. According to the record, John lived in the USA, surrounded by a pluralistic culture. John felt in his heart that the decadence, and relativism promoted by this society was too sad although it also had its few righteous people. However, because it let the many gain control over the less fortunate, and the downtrodden, to exploit them, there had to be a better way. John was a part of the classic patriotic American family. His Dad was the head of a major corporation, and so naturally though John loved his father, he could not get behind the worldview he represented.
One day, when John was out and about, he heard a voice. The voice said, John, I am the L-rd. I wish you to leave your family and home, and live according to the commands which I shall teach you, I will create a society from your descendants which shall be more than all the stars of heaven, and be my own people and nation, and will embody my will, to teach it to the USA.
I shall do and I shall listen, L-rd, and shall make many converts. In you John, shall the nations be blessed if they bless you, and cursed if they curse you. So John’s trust in the L-rd proceeded to be tested by the L-rd, including not trusting his word that he should bear children. He did indeed bear children, but as punishment for his doubts they were to be strangers in a land not their own. The whole history of the righteous descendants of this one man, are recounted, including the ups and downs of the family’s history.
The biggest down point, as well as the true birth of the nation from John came after the great enslavement by the USA. The descendants of John, had been subject to the chastisement which the L-rd foretold, they would be slaves 420 years. The nation was small and weak at this point, with all but one faction of the people backsliding into the American way. This faction were the keepers of John’s original message from the L-rd, and from their line would be born Jonas, the man to lead the descendants of John out of bondage in the USA.
Jonas had been hidden from an evil edict pronounced by the authorities. His family placed him in the last place they knew anybody would look. The White house! Now Jonas grew up in the decadence of the American way, but eventually learned of his true origins as a descendent of John. He later killed a guard who was harassing his newfound brothers, and fled. Eventually Jonas returned with his foreign wife, sister, and brother with a message from the L-rd that he had received from an icicle that was ablaze, but which did not melt. Great signs were shown and fulfilled to validate that Jonas’ message was from the L-rd, in addition to his name which meant that which is, was, and always shall be.
This was the true name of the L-rd, which not even John had been privy to, he knew him simply as the L-rd. Eventually, the evil president under pressure from his people, let the descendants of John leave, with Jonas and the eternal one at their head. They left with all the wealth of The USA, and all of a multitude 2,000,000 strong! The eternal one lead them all to a mountain, and delivered to ALL of them, while together at once, the full and final teaching which he had originally spoken to John, plus what had only been revealed to Jonas, but which had previously been unknown by John, the name. Thus was the nation of John born! John’s nation however, was always rising and falling, and even forgetting the message, though a RIGHTEOUS FEW had always kept it up, as in the case of the family of Jonas. Continually the message was upheld by a righteous few, but lost on the multitude of the nation. The scholars of the nation of John argue that the record states two million people received the message, and that it is thus hard to convince them to accept it if it were a lie. The problem is however, that there is no recoverable evidence of this massive conflagration of people left in the USA, or in the surrounding areas. Not only were there 2,000,000 who left the U.S who witnessed all this, but the place they planned to flee to was actually under American occupation during the period when the event supposedly occurred, according to the archaeological record. This calls some big details into question. There were also hundreds of thousands of American soldiers that followed the followers of Jonas to bring them back, but they were all killed in a display of the L-rd’s wrath! None of the millions of bodies however have been found, despite bones of a comparable date being preserved intact. In fact, a whole generation died en route to the new land, they have not been found, nor are the names or records of the millions preserved in the one family owned record of events. The community claims the absence of these facts as mystery, and concedes that faith is required of its adherents. A comparable splinter sect of the nation of John had split off, and the two argue that each have a lack of evidence, despite both admitting the centrality of faith when pressed. The interesting thing is, that in recent years, the two have started to talk, despite a history of bloodshed that has cost innumerable lives. The values of Charlie have however been embraced by the nations, despite crucial differences in interpretation, which they can talk about. The damage done to both communities by arguing bullet points is worse, then them learning of each other, and possibly switching teams. In fact, the central roadblock to the realization of John’s original message, is that each community believes it has to be 100% right and in control in terms of practice and belief, which was the heart of the problem with the corporations in the USA, that the L-rd through John sought so hard to overthrow. Decadence was the symptom, but power and control was the real problem.
“The values of Charlie have however been embraced by the nations”
Who is Charlie???
Oh sorry, lol I meant John. There was an article very similar to yours on Jews for judaism’s site. Their guy was called Charlie, same point though lol :)
Can you find a link to that Jews for Judaism article? I am curious. I don’t think anyone has until now done the Honest Abe one:) it’s funny but when I did the tour of Washington the guide said that the way Abe was glorified was almost on the level of Greek demigods. Look at the photo I included – his Memorial was modeled on a Greek temple and even called such. He was seated as Zeus. Other inscriptions on the building also reflect near deification. The ferver must have been running high at the time.
Well, being that many of our politicians and founders have been desists, masons, and spiritualists, including Abe and his wife, I’m not surprised at some serious Greek references. Jefferson’s Bible, etc. goes against the popular Christian nation notion everyone is always on about. :)
http://jewsforjudaism.org/knowledge/articles/blumenthal/the-charolite-trilogy/ There you are Gene. :)
That J4J “trilogy” is quite an effort. The main difference is that my own, based on Abe, is actually quite historical and far more plausible, as evidenced by links that I’ve included. It is almost a reality.
Most people in that era were disillusioned with mainstream religions, what with the war and all. A man as marked by fame and pain as Lincoln, it’s not hard to imagine people having a sense of messiah mystique around him. If I’m not mistaken, Alexander the Great even had some messiah mystique in Midrash and Talmud, off course not literal didn’t he? Cyrus too. Most of the founders of the US border on the mythical because people can’t read their writings in context, to spot the differences between their actual views and their rhetoric. Know what I mean?