Posted on 01/17/2004 7:46:58 PM PST by Federalist 78
Jefferson on Finding God
Liberty Letters, Jefferson, Letter 7
Was Thomas Jefferson an enemy of God?
Numerous anti-Christian cynics feel certain, despite ample evidence to the contrary, that the answer is "yes." After all, Jefferson once advised, "Question with boldness even the existence of a God." (1) An interesting challenge.
The quote, found in a personal letter to Peter Carr, has been combined, by these cynics, with several other Jefferson jabs at religion, to give the impression that Thomas Jefferson was more like a soul mate of Karl Marx than John Adam's, and more in favor of freedom from religion than freedom of religion.
But it's not true. The Jefferson quote is taken out of context, way out. So what else is new?
Place the quote in context, and well, take a look for yourself.
He begins:
"Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object [religion]. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may be too serious." (2)
This is anti-God? A mature, unbiased approach is more vital as regards this subject, than any other. Why? Because Jefferson believed that the two most important teachings of Christ, along with love of God and love of neighbor, were a belief in life after death, and final judgment. (3) Get the point?
He continues:
"… shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." (4)
There's the quote, and here's the honest interpretation, to this point: The Biblical record, as Jefferson understood it, testified that God is a God of love and liberty, not fear and tyranny. Therefore, if the record is true, God must be the author of free inquiry on the subject of his existence. This then, is not a rejection of God, but a rejection of the European church which Jefferson believed perverted the gospel.
It was also an endorsement of the democratic approach to faith that arose in America, where all men were free to study and discover God and the Bible on their own, rather than through an elite few.
So what's wrong with that?
Better yet, take a look at Jefferson's recommended course of study; it is certainly not for the weak hearted and weak minded, who might blindly discard God without an honest search.
"… naturally examine first, the religion of your own country. Read the Bible, then, as you would read Livy or Tacitus." (5)
What did he mean? When one reads all of the educational advice letters Jefferson sent to Carr, it is clear Jefferson meant, read the Bible in the original, cover to cover, which in this case meant, study it in Greek, and in Latin, and in Hebrew, and then compare the three. (6)
He was also saying, extend at least as much trust to the spiritual writer as to the secular writer. Specifically, he encouraged the lad to implicitly trust in "the authority" of the Biblical writer when the facts "are within the ordinary course of nature," and to only engage in a more aggressive and reflective probe when "those facts in the Bible … contradict the laws of nature". (7)
This makes sense. It is typical Jefferson.
"Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the case he relates." (8)
In other words, Jefferson believed God preferred something more than producing blind faith in men he endowed with reason.
Nevertheless, as he noted, there can be strong enough evidence, of a different sort, which may over-ride the laws of nature, or at least our meager understanding of those laws, and over-ride reason as well.
In this regard, earlier in the same letter, he noted: "He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science." (9)
Regarding Christ, his approach was equally demanding and equally open-minded. Christ ought to be studied from the perspective of believers and non-believers, and from Biblical, as well as extra-Biblical sources, before judgment is passed.
"[Y]ou should read all the histories of Christ [including Roman], as well of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be Pseudo-evangelists … Because these Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others, and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are some, however, still extant, collected by Fabricius, which I will endeavor to get and send you." (10) (Emphasis added)
This is no passing, no lazy, no antagonistic approach to finding God, Christ, and true religion; but a serious, vigorous, open-minded, open-ended labor-a labor Jefferson personally pursued throughout his life. (11)
And here's the crux of the matter; if, after all this effort, one decides to reject God and Christ as real or divine, Jefferson explained, he will nonetheless, "find incitements to virtue" and a "love of others," as a by-product of this labor. (12)
On the other hand, wrote Jefferson to Carr, "If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, [this] will be a vast additional incitement [to virtue];" while hope of "a future state, [and] a happy existence in that [state] increases the appetite to deserve it; [and] if that Jesus was also a God, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love." (13)
Just what is wrong with all of this? And how is it that this quote was an ode to Atheism, an ode to a liberty which bans God and Christ from America?
No, it is no such thing, but proof of the sort of dishonesty you and I are daily fed regarding the faith of our forefathers.
So here's the truth the prevaricators won't let out: Jefferson believed in God, believed in eternal life, believed in final judgment, and believed a proper education included a fair and vigorous, life long, personal quest to know God and His true religion.
NewsMax pundit Steve Farrell is associate professor of political economy at George Wythe College, and the author of the highly praised, inspirational novel, "Dark Rose."
Contact Steve at stevenmfarrell@cox.net Footnotes
1. Bergh, Albert Ellery, editor. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume VI," p. 258.
2. Ibid., p. 258
3. Cousins, Norman, editor. "In God We Trust," New York, Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1958, p. 160. In Jefferson's Letter to Benjamin Waterhouse, June 26, 1822, Jefferson writes: "The Doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of men. 1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect. 2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments. 3. That to love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself is the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews." The man who followed this religion was "the true and charitable Christian."
4. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume VI, p. 258.
5. Ibid., p. 258-259
6. See, for instance, Jefferson's letter dated August 19, 1785, to his nephew, Peter Carr, wherein he notes, "I advise you to begin a course of ancient history, reading everything in the original and not in translations." Jefferson, personally, went verse by verse through the New Testament, in this fashion, compiling and analyzing comparisons in Greek, Latin, French, and English, for years. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume V," pg. 84.
7. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume VI," p. 259.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., p. 257.
10. Ibid., p. 261, see also, p. 260.
11. Jefferson pursued a study of religion from his early youth to the end of his life. He was the creator of the first "red letter" edition of the New Testament, a work he pursued even as President of the United States; and he had in mind to produce a similar work, highlighting all of the great moral teachings of the Old Testament, but never got around to it (he did, however, persistently encourage the project in others). He was in constant contact, particularly in his retirement, with ministers and thinkers on the subject of religion, from across the globe-sharing notes, books, opinions, and deep feelings on the subject. This was especially the case in his exchange of letters with John Adams. (See Norman Cousins, "In God We Trust: The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers," Chapters 4-6, especially chapter 5.
12. "The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Volume VI," p. 260.
13. Ibid., p. 260-261.
The very nature of a wall further reconceptualizes First Amendment principles. A wall is a bilateral barrier that inhibits the activities of both the civil state and religion; this is in contrast to the First Amendment, which imposes restrictions on the civil state only. In short, a wall not only prevents the civil state from intruding on the religious domain but also prohibits religion from inuencing the conduct of civil government. The various First Amendment guarantees, however, were entirely a check or restraint on civil government, specifically Congress. The free press guarantee, for example, was not written to protect the civil state from the press; rather, it was designed to protect a free and independent press from control by the federal government. Similarly, the religion provisions were added to the Constitution to protect religion and religious institutions from interference by the federal government-not to protect the civil state from the inuence of religion. Any construction of Jefferson's wall that imposes restraints on entities other than civil government exceeds the limitations imposed by the First Amendment.
WallBuilders | Resources | The Importance of Morality and Religion ...
Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for your to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. Encourage all you virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death. (Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1903), Vol. 5, pp. 82-83, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 19, 1785.)
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of mankind. (Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. XV, p. 383.)
I concur with the author in considering the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct, and sublime than those of ancient philosophers. (Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. X, pp. 376-377. In a letter to Edward Dowse on April 19, 1803.)
FBI Helps LC Restore Jefferson Draft Letter
Following is an article by the curator of a major exhibition at the Library that opens this month and runs through Aug. 22. A key document on view in "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic" (see LC Information Bulletin, May 1998), is the letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, which contains the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state." With the help of the FBI, the draft of the letter, including Jefferson's obliterated words, are now known.
FT April 2003: The Faith of the Founding
Thomas Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779), submitted but not passed by the legislature until 1785, likewise picks up an explicitly Christian motif:
Well aware that . . . Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested His supreme will that free it shall remain, by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint: That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone. . . .
We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.
Then, since no Assembly can pass an irrevocable act that another Assembly, of equal powers, cannot rescind, Jefferson’s bill adds a deeper understanding of the ground of this act:
We are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.
Thus, in the acts put forth by Mason and Jefferson, the concept of natural right is argued for in the language of Jewish and Christian belief about the Creator, who wishes to be worshiped in spirit and truth. For this God, the arena of conscience is sacred, in such a way that the duty, and therefore the natural right, of the individual who stands in that arena is also sacred. In that sacred space that stands between the individual and the Creator, no state, society, or other human person dares to intervene.
Only Judaism and Christianity have a doctrine of God as Spirit and Truth, Who created the world in order to invite these creatures endowed with intelligence and conscience to enter into friendship with Him. Only the Jewish and Christian God made human beings free, halts the power of Caesar at the boundaries of the human soul, and has commissioned human beings to build civilizations worthy of the liberty He has endowed in them. So high is this God’s valuation of human liberty of conscience that, even though He has launched a divinely commissioned religion in history (in two Covenants, Jewish and Christian), He would not have either of these religions imposed by force on anyone. So devoted were the American founders to this understanding of religious liberty that, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography (1821), the authors of the Virginia Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom refrained from mentioning the exact name of the "holy author of our religion." Here is Jefferson’s explanation for the omission:
Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the words "Jesus Christ," so that it should read, "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion"; the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.
Madison gives powerful Christian reasons for such forbearance. Alone among the religions of the world, Judaism and Christianity place so high a valuation upon religious liberty because of their own doctrine that the relation God seeks with humans is friendship.
WorldNetDaily: Thomas Jefferson: Deist or Christian?
...While Jefferson has been lionized by those who seek to drive religion from public life, the true Thomas Jefferson is anything but their friend. He was anything but irreligious, anything but an enemy to Christian faith. Our nation's third president was, in fact, a student of Scripture who attended church regularly, and was an active member of the Anglican Church, where he served on his local vestry. He was married in church, sent his children and a nephew to a Christian school, and gave his money to support many different congregations and Christian causes.
Moreover, his "Notes on Religion," nine documents Jefferson wrote in 1776, are "very orthodox statements about the inspiration of Scripture and Jesus as the Christ," according to Mark Beliles, a Providence Foundation scholar and author of an enlightening essay on Jefferson's religious life.
Jefferson, who gave his money to assist missionary work among the Indians, believed his "abridgement of the New Testament for the use of the Indians" would help civilize and educate America's aboriginal inhabitants. Nor did Jefferson cut all miracles from his work, as Beliles points out. While the original manuscript no longer exists, the Table of Texts that survives includes several accounts of Christ's healings.
Jefferson was a true friend of the Christian faith. But was he a true Christian? A nominal Christian – as demonstrated by his lifelong practice of attending worship services, reading the Bible, and following the moral principles of Christ – Jefferson was not, in my opinion, a genuine Christian.
Nonetheless, Jefferson's presidential acts would, if done today, send the ACLU marching into court. He signed legislation that gave land to Indian missionaries, put chaplains on the government payroll, and provided for the punishment of irreverent soldiers. He also sent Congress an Indian treaty that set aside money for a priest's salary and for the construction of a church.
Most intriguing is the manner in which Jefferson dated an official document. Instead of "in the year of our Lord," Jefferson used the phrase "in the year of our Lord Christ." Christian historian David Barton has the proof – the original document signed by Jefferson on the "eighteenth day of October in the year of our Lord Christ, 1804."
The Supreme Court ruled in 1947 that Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state "must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach." Judging from the record, it looks like the wall some say Tom built is, in fact, the wall Tom breached.
The real Thomas Jefferson, it turns out, is the ACLU's worst nightmare.
Only to the chronically stupid and illiterate.
Why do you ask?
If so, he certainly was no ally of God.
One who simply acknowledges the existence of a creator, or of a deity, is not reconciled to God. What is worse, to the extent that his or her heresy would draw others away from an acceptance of Christ as God and Savior then it would be better for them "if a mill stone were tied around their neck, and they were thrown into the sea". Matthew 18:4-7
For Christ says: "Whoever then will acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge him; and whoever disowns me before men, I will disown before my Father in heaven." Matthew 10: 32-33
Jefferson definitely had some holes in his thinking, fervently backing France during the French Revolution, a view he later in life repented from.
He was somewhat unsteady in his character, spending way beyond his means and dying in debt.
He did much good during America's founding; however, I don't respect him to the degree I used to. I prefer the other Founding Fathers over him.
Modern ACLU types and other assorted leftist/atheists don't know whether to embrace Jefferson or not. After all, this was the same Jefferson who made the Bible and Watts Hymnal the ONLY required texts for Washington, D.C. schools. His proposed penal code for the state of Virginia called for execution of sodomists.
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