"The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) in "Toward the Mystery"
Thomas Jefferson, a Deist and one of history's most brilliant thinkers, wrestled all of his life to make sense out of the life of Jesus. Known today as The Jefferson Bible, his famous redaction of the four Gospels was a "cut and paste" way for him to reclaim the authentic Jesus from what he called "the corruptions of Christianity." It contains no references to the virgin birth, Christ's ascension and resurrection or any other supernatural mysteries. Instead, Jefferson was most impressed by the simple and eloquent teachings of Jesus, what he called "the most perfect and sublime that [have] ever been taught by man." In fact, his entire interest in the Bible was restricted to the life and teachings of Jesus.
As he selected only those passages that made sense to him, Jefferson formed his own personal religion--the beliefs by which he lived his life. For him, religion was always an intensely personal and private matter. Following the death of his good friend Benjamin Rush, Jefferson wrote to Rush's son Richard that "I have considered it [religion] as a matter between every man and his maker in which no other, and far less the public had a right to meddle." My favorite Jefferson quote is a famous passage from one of his letters: "It is in our lives and not in our words that our religion must be read."
Christian Deism is highly compatible with Jefferson's Bible and his beliefs that guided its composition:
1. The focus of Christian Deism is on the teachings of Jesus found in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
2. Christian Deists believe that Jesus was a human like ourselves.
3. Christian Deists believe that reason is a gift given graciously to us from God, and that He wants us to make use of it in our daily lives.
4. Christian Deists believe that God wants us to study the Bible in light of reason.
5. Christian Deists reject any idea in the Bible that doesn't seem reasonable or make sense to them.
6. Christian Deists reject "the corruptions of Christianity" that have come from the apostle Paul, church councils and other ecclesiastical authorities.
7. Christian Deists believe that the worship of God is a private matter.
For more information about these and other ideas, please read John Lindell's essay on Christian Deism as a Personal Religion.
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