Jefferson felt that one of his life’s greatest achievements was writing the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a type of forerunner to our First Amendment with its guarantee of religious freedom. What is interesting about this document is that he bases our freedom on a theological foundation. He writes: “Almighty …
John Locke was influential to Jefferson’s political thinking. Law professor Gary Amos notes, “One cannot understand John Locke without reading Paul.”[1] He adds, “Intuitive reason, according to Locke, is ‘a revelation from God to us by the voice of reason,’ which causes us to know a natural truth which we had not …
PHOTO OF Bill Federer, quoted in here, talking on the radio with Jerry Newcombe, co-author of “Doubting Thomas.” Jefferson drew from sources deeply rooted in centuries of political writings from mostly Christian sources. Even if many of these sources are sometimes are categorized as “Englightenment thinkers,” the fact of the …
Sometimes, some modern writers argue that Jefferson was speaking in a Deistic way when he used the phrase “the laws of nature and of nature’s God.” Is that true? Gary Amos provides a compelling critique to that canard. He points out that it was in common usage by Christian sources, …
Some secular-minded scholars like to imply that the Declaration of Independence was not only an assertion of independence from Great Britain, but also from God. But is that true? The great British historian, Paul Johnson, author of A History of the American People, penned this about the Declaration of Independence: …
Gary Amos says of the Declaration of Independence, “The ideas were not Jefferson’s, but the writing was. And it was magnificent.”[1] The important point, too, is that these were Christian ideas. In 1775, an assembly of Presbyterian elders from Mecklenburg, North Carolina, led by Elder Ephraim Brevard (a man who …
America is predicated on one thing: Our rights come from God. Again, that’s what the Declaration of Independence says. The Constitution is predicated on the Declaration. Our 1776 birth certificate explains why we exist. The Constitution then explains how our government is to work. The Constitution is signed in the …
When they were both older men, and no longer political rivals, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began to correspond. Benjamin Rush helped bring them back together. Some of their correspondence is very helpful to understand the men, at least in later life. One time, John Adams was ruminating on the …
Regardless of how heterodox Thomas Jefferson’s personal religious beliefs may have become at the end of his life, regardless of where he ultimately chose to spend eternity, regardless of whether or not he was a true Christian, Jefferson helped make a great contribution to humanity in paving the way for greater …
It would be safe to say that, by the end of his life, Jefferson did not appear to subscribe to all points of the historic Christian faith—although there is evidence he did so earlier in his life. Nonetheless, he had a great interest in the teaching of Christ. As …