A general revision of all laws in Virginia was necessary once America was independent of England. Virginia’s leaders needed to decide how much of the English legal system they would keep as is, and what they would modify to more accurately represent them as independent Virginia Americans. Thomas Jefferson and his …
Thomas Jefferson was not a lifelong skeptic. But he was a lifelong donor to Christian causes. He took meticulous notes of his gifts to various Christian causes. For example, in November 1777, he donated some of his money to a Christian school—we know it today as Washington and Lee University. …
Our book “Doubting Thomas” shows that it’s a myth that Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong skeptic. In fact, he was very generous virtually all his life to many causes, including many Christian clauses. One man he supported a lot through the years—financially and in other ways—was an evangelical preacher, ordained …
[File photo by Jerry Newcombe-interior of colonial American church] Recently, I quoted the opening portion of an agreement for the creation of a Christian church in Charlottesville that Thomas Jefferson wrote up in 1777. This provides ample evidence that he was a Christian at this stage of his life when …
The notion that Thomas Jefferson was a life-long skeptic is a myth. It can be disproved, for instance, in the fact that in 1777, Jefferson wrote up an agreement for the establishment of a church in Charlottesville, his home. They called a patriotic pastor, an evangelical named Rev. Charles Clay, …
[File photo by Jerry Newcombe-of a box pew in a colonial church] Concrete indications of Jefferson’s own religious beliefs began to be clear in the early months of 1777, as he took voluntary initiatives to support a new church in his town. The legislature had created a new Anglican parish eastward in …
In the capital of Williamsburg on October 11, 1776 Thomas Jefferson joined the committee on religion in the legislature and began meeting with many dissenting clergymen. A Dissenter was one who was not part of the government-favored denomination (i.e. Anglicans) and who wished the laws to be revised in favor …
[Pictured: Moses] While in Congress in 1776, Thomas Jefferson served on a committee to propose a national seal for authenticating official documents. Jefferson proposed on August 20 they use an image of “…the Israelites: rays from a pillar of fire in the cloud, expressive of the divine presence, and command, reaching …
[Picture: Statue of Sir William Blackstone, the eminent British jurist] When Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, he touched on religion when it mentioned “…the laws of nature and of nature’s God” and “…We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are …
About half a year later in March 1775, Jefferson attended the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, where he was elected one of Virginia’s delegates to the Continental Congress. A notable event occurred at that gathering. One Virginia delegate named Patrick Henry made a speech that called the colony’s leaders to …