The Lincoln Hypothesis

The Lincoln Hypothesis: A Modern-day Abolitionist Investigates the Possible Connection Between Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Abraham Lincoln by Timothy Ballard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The hypothesis, simply stated, is that Abraham Lincoln read the Book of Mormon at a crucial time in the Civil War and was greatly influenced by it. It gave him, along with prayer, guidance to lead our nation out of its darkest time.
Some of the evidence the author presents:
1. The book has pictures of Abraham Lincoln’s signature when he checked the Book of Mormon out from the Library of Congress and when he returned it. He kept it a long time.
2. The copy of the Book that Lincoln checked out has many page corners turned down that seemed to contain especially meaningful and influential stories or scriptures. We know that Lincoln frequently dog -eared pages.
3. We know that he basically quoted from the book in his second Inaugural address.
4. We know that Lincoln turned to God for direction and strength.
I appreciated the author’s enthusiasm and research. His writing lacked focus and included a lot of details that didn’t need to be there. I didn’t care for the format of the book. It included a lot of boxes that were grey. Inside those boxes were other facts and stories that didn’t relate directly to the hypothesis and, I felt, distracted from the book and interrupted the flow.
Do I believe the hypothesis? Yes. I do. We all know Lincoln was fine man who trusted in and turned to God to lead this nation out of what was probably our nation’s darkest time. Why wouldn’t God lead him to the truest book on earth for help and answers? How I long for a Lincoln now to lead us out of this dark time in our nation.
Reading this book gave me a greater appreciation for Lincoln and for the Book of Mormon and for our country: God’s promised land.




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