Posted on 01/22/2023 3:57:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Jefferson was a very rational man. Whatever he may have believed in the privacy of his own heart, he probably knew that lots of people of his ‘age of enlightenment’ would reject the miraculous aspects.
But he knew that the philosophy alone would make the world an immensely better and more Godly place.
Tom fought the full Bible to the same degree Biden fought inflation.
Some dark souls claim it happened, but the truth is opposite and obvious.
RE: Tom fought the full Bible to the same degree Biden fought inflation.
Jefferson was very supportive of the Bible, its teachings and even its use in educating children. But he is not a believer in its full inspiration from God, that much we know from his writings and letters.
Jefferson was not a Christian. Jefferson did not believe in the deity of Christ, that Christ died for our sins and rose again. He just didn’t. Any reliable work on Jefferson will tell you that, it’s not revisionist history.
On the other hand, having been raised a Christian, he was familiar with it and probably felt that it was good that most people in the society were Christians.
As a Christian, my faith doesn’t depend on Jefferson’s religious beliefs. As an American, I don’t have to agree 100% with anybody, including Jefferson, who was a great American but not a spiritual example.
RE: Allegations by whom, exactly.
Read the article and the quotes from various writers.
completely agree.
an experienced missionary once said (paraphrase), any denier of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, cannot rest until organized actively against both Him and his followers.
and thus you have all these cults and subsequent religions like Islam organized specifically against Jesus, His teaching and his Deity.
Jesus doesn’t have a philosophy. If Jesus had been a philosopher, he would have been a fraud, and his crucifixion an act of justice.
bttt
Jefferson wasn’t just rational. Saints are rational. What Jefferson was was rationalist. Also, see #27.
In what source does Jefferson declare himself a non Christian? Everything I’ve researched about Jefferson shows just the opposite.
One of the definitions of ‘philosophy’ is ‘the pursuit of wisdom’.
Jesus dispensed a LOT of wisdom. You don’t have to believe the miracles to value that.
I don’t believe much in ‘saints’.
We’re all here to do the best we can for a very short time. Some do better than others; but I don’t think any of us is ever ‘finished’.
Read his writings, he doesn’t believe in the key doctrines of Christianity. He redefines Christianity to be the philosophy of Jesus, while removing from it the supernatural or Jesus’ claims to deity. Probably, Jefferson would be aptly categorized as a “theistic rationalist”, a sort of philosophy which was trendy among certain elite Anglo-American types of the era. As for the “Jefferson Bible”, or whatever you call it, I have a copy of it. It ends with the burial of Jesus.
None of quotes you mention acuse Jefferson of having any kind of hated towards Christianity or Jesus. All the quotes do is note that he made a Bible by cutting out the miracle passages. Which he did do. There’s no hoax demonstrated anywhere.
Please show us any proof Jefferson called his book he authored a “Bible”?
Whatever people judge his personal beliefs to be, my point was that his actions were obviously the opposite of what the hoax suggests.
Jefferson, himself, said he was a Christian.
Re: Please show us any proof Jefferson called his book he authored a “Bible”
He DID NOT, and that was the point of the author.
Jefferson’s desire was to assemble some kind of digested philosophy of the moral teachings of Jesus. He called it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a compilation of fifty moral teachings of Jesus and it was bound in leather and made in such a size that it could be carried around in a pocket.
Later, someone called it the “Jefferson Bible” and the name seems to have stuck.
RE: Jefferson, himself, said he was a Christian.
Yes, but based on his letters and writings, not in the traditional sense of the word.
Yes, but what did he mean by it?
The quote: “I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; & believing he never claimed any other.” So Jefferson denied the deity of Christ and redefined the meaning of Christian.
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