Jefferson's Problem

Jefferson’s problem

By Richard P. Joseph

I just finished reading The Jefferson Lies by David Barton.  It was a great and necessary read.  I highly recommend it, not only to older readers, but to young college aged readers.  It spells out how liberal bias has overtaken our education system and has led many people away from our Christian foundation.  Having said that, it doesn’t let Jefferson off the hook for his awkward view of the bible either.

It appears that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong student of the bible and especially the gospels.  He, however,  distrusted the epistles and could not understand the book of Revelation.  He seems to have been an intellectual to a fault.  He never denied Christ necessarily,  but he had trouble reconciling the epistles and the book of Revelation with the gospels and especially the moral teachings of Jesus.  There remain people today with similar views of the bible.  Barton makes it clear that Jefferson was definitely not an atheist as the liberals try so hard to make him out to be in order to lambast our founding fathers.  However, Abigail Adams, who actually had long and intimate conversations with Jefferson, actually did refer to Jefferson as an atheist and an infidel (John Adams, Page Smith pages 1055, 1062).  These statements, on the other hand, makes it difficult to nail down whether or not he was an unbeliever or just an unorthodox believer.   So, why would someone have trouble reconciling the gospels with the epistles and with the book of Revelation?  

One thing that I would like to clear up first is that Christianity is not a religion or a moral philosophy.  Jefferson looked at Christianity as the best moral code ever given to mankind.  Jefferson said of the moral teachings of Jesus that they were “the most sublime edifice of morality which had ever been exhibited to man” (page 114).   No one can ever argue against that statement but unfortunately it is a huge mistake to boil down the mission of Jesus Christ as just a “giver of a moral code”.  This would falsely put Jesus Christ in the same category as other famous philosophers such as Plato, Buddha, Confucius etc, which would be a mistake of magnanimous proportions.  This is one reason that Jefferson may have had trouble when Paul gave his explanations in the epistles and when John wrote the Apocalypse.  Peter, Paul, Jude and  James not only gave moral direction but they were pressed by the overarching doctrine of the impending second coming of Christ and his judgment upon his unfaithful city and the idea that Jesus is God incarnate.  This goes way beyond mere moral teachings.  Moral teachings are only a result of our faith in the creator of the universe and the messiah who paid the price for our sin.  So when Jefferson called the book of Revelation “the ravings of a maniac” (page 228), and accusing the Old Testament writers of teaching that God was “Cruel, vindictive,capricious, and unjust” (page 229), I believe it wasn’t because he didn’t believe in God but that he didn’t understand the real purpose of scripture or the true nature of God.  He obviously did not understand that the Parousia (visitation of Christ) was to occur in the first century, not in some distant future.  This makes all the difference in the world when trying to interpret scripture.  

I have gone to great lengths in my other posts to help people understand that Christianity is not a religion but is rather the fundamental truth of the universe.  That is why people often have trouble with scripture; they attempt to fit biblical writings into the same box that man made religion is in.  The two have nothing to do with each other.  One is man’s attempt to create a god and one is God’s attempt to describe himself to man.  (See my other post “And the Word became Flesh” for a more lengthy discussion on this.)    If Jefferson, and most others today, misunderstand that Revelation was written as an announcement that the Parousia was about to occur, then no matter what you come up with, it will be wrong.  That is why it sounded like the ravings of a maniac to the very intellectual Thomas Jefferson.  Instead of it sounding crazy to modern preachers it sounds more like a busy cash register to them.  Charlatan preachers today are making millions selling the idea that they can interpret Revelation for them almost like a palm reader entertains the curious crowd at a carnival.  That is why they are so afraid of the preterist view of end times events.  It is akin to politicians voting in a rabid liar just so that the gravy train of cash doesn’t stop flowing into their pockets.   This gravy train idea was one of the reasons that the first century priesthood simply could not accept that some poor carpenter was the long awaited messiah; it would put an abrupt halt to their power and wealth.   

Summing this up I would say that the true rapture preterist view can cure a multitude of illnesses as far as scripture interpretation is concerned.  Also, understanding that the mission of Jesus Christ was not to bring us a “moral code” but was to pay the price for our sins, reconcile us to God, to punish unfaithful Israel and to usher in the everlasting kingdom.  Now that I understand the outline, I no longer have confusion over scripture and I don’t ever have to explain why the bible doesn’t make historical sense to anyone.