Monday, May 1

Thomas Jefferson's wisdom

If you want to understand the nature of American government, Thomas Jefferson is an essential resource. The primary author of the Declaration of Independence and one of America's Founding Fathers, he is uniquely qualified as an expert on the nature of human governments in general, and ours in particular.

Sadly, Jefferson's theology was not quite as sound [if the charges of Deism are true; I've read of one explanation that ameliorates his abridged Bible]. It seems reasonable Jefferson may have fallen victim to Man's natural infatuation with his own Reason, and that is a factor in his rejection of the supernatural.

It seems much more likely that Jefferson's hostility to the God of the Bible was due to his exposure to Calvin's very distorted view of Christ and His religion. By this I do not mean that Calvin's doctrines were misrepresented; rather, his teachings are sinister perversions of the Gospel of Christ. Jefferson is credited with the following in a letter to John Adams:
I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his religion was Daemonism. If ever man worshipped a false god, he did.
The concepts of Double Predestination and Limited Atonement are contrary to Scripture and the nature of its Author. To teach as Truth the idea that God capriciously predestines some to Eternal Life and some to eternal destruction (Double Predestination) is completely antithetical to what the God of the Bible has revealed of Himself. To limit the Sacrifice of the Son of God to only some people when He clearly stated that He loves, lived, died, and rose from the dead for all is blasphemy.

If these are of what Jefferson was thinking, he was correct in characterizing such beliefs as doctrines from hell.