Thomas Jefferson and Christians

Thomas Jefferson was a true Christian as he said himself. He was so interested in the teachings of Christ that he used his language skills to cut out and place the 4 books of the New Testament Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) side by side in 4 different languages (in which Tom himself was proficient, of course) so that he could see for himself the minute differences rendered in each language.

Incidentally that is why some history writers deemed Tom to be an anti-Christian, because some copies of the Bible in different languages was found upon Jefferson’s death. These Bibles were, of course mutilated and destroyed by cutting words out of pages—lots of them! Thomas was thorough in his studies, and serious in his findings.

Jefferson seldom spoke of his religious beliefs, but did exclaim that he was “a real Christian, that is to say a real disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me an infidel, and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its Author neither said or saw. . . were He (Jesus) to return to earth would not recognize one feature.”
(“Jefferson’s Extracts from the Gospels”, Dickenson W. Andrews, 1983, pages 384-5).

Today my wife and I took a trip from Mesa to Tucson to the open house of the Tucson Temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometime called “The Mormons.” While there I couldn’t help but think that Thomas Jefferson would love the beauty and divine nature of these temple and might even like what the Mormons preach! I even think he would grasp the teachings of those Mormons. He was an architect and gospel scholar after all.

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