On December 13 Thomson, sent Jefferson a copy of his translation of the Old Testament from the Greek—providing evidence once again that our third president was a serious student of the Bible. Jefferson replied on Christmas day saying: “I have dipped into it at the few moments of leisure which my vocations permit, and …
Contrary to the modern notion of Thomas Jefferson, a key founding father, as a lifelong skeptic, the fact is that he attended churches (orthodox ones) regularly, when available to him. Furthermore, he was an avid Bible reader. All that said, near the end of his life, he did harbor (privately) …
Contrary to the myth of Jefferson the lifelong skeptic was the real Thomas Jefferson. He was a professing Christian who later in life came to doubt key Christian doctrines. Nonetheless, he was friendly to many Christians throughout his life. As president, he was a hero to many of the evangelicals …
Thomas Jefferson may well be one of the most misunderstood of our founding fathers. He is the one from whom we get the phrase “separation of church and state.” But, contrary to the popular modern myths, he was not a lifelong, closet atheist. Nor did he believe in banishing God …
Jefferson harbored doubts late in life on some core Christian doctrines. Nonetheless, he was an active church-goer, an avid Bible reader (in particular the sayings of Jesus), and a generous supporter of churches. He also was supportive of Christianity in its various forms, even in the public arena. Here are …
DOUBTING THOMAS, the book I co-wrote with Charlottesville pastor, Mark Beliles, seeks to shed light on two questions: Was Jefferson some sort of closet atheist? Did he believe in what is called today “the naked public square”—which means the expelling of any kind of godly influence in government? The answer …
It’s a myth that Thomas Jefferson was some sort of closet atheist. Later in life he came to privately doubt some core Christian doctrines. And there are credible answers to those doubts. But the man regularly attended church, was a reader of Bible—in particular the teachings of Jesus—and also quite …
We have been given the impression that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong skeptic and not someone involved with church. That impression is not accurate. Our book, DOUBTING THOMAS, shows that Jefferson was quite actively involved in the church—basically all his life, when it was available to him. As president, Jefferson …
I saw a website that listed Thomas Jefferson as a Deist at the time of the 1776 Continental Congress, the group that gave us the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the chief author. It is accurate to say that later in his life, Jefferson appeared to doubt key …
In Jefferson’s day, when he was in the White House, there were many camp meetings in his Albemarle County and the surrounding area. These were “revivals” of evangelical religion The chief organizer of these camp meeting revivals in Central Virginia was Methodist Rev. Henry Fry. Jefferson and Fry knew each other …