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by Dennis Woods

April 13 marked the 258th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third President of the United States, best known as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. When Jefferson, a member of the Continental Congress, wrote the Declaration in 1776, tensions between Great Britain and her American colonies had become irreconcilable.

The Declaration of Independence encapsulates Jefferson's worldview and reveals his reliance on John Locke. The Declaration is an appeal of the "lower magistrate" to the tyrant king on behalf of the people--the biblical concept of interposition. On the other hand, the Declaration exposes its Lockean roots by positing the "just power" for government in "the consent of the governed" rather than in God. In this the Declaration departs from the Bible, which declares God the source of all civil authority (Rom 13:1).

As James W. Skillen has noted, "Jefferson's appeal for a ground of firm truth and authority is neither to God nor to God's eternal law nor to the Bible. It is simply to what is 'self-evident' within the mind and common conscience of humanity; it is an appeal to the universal/moral essence of human nature that corresponds to the true order of nature, which is God's will" (America, Christian or Secular?, Multnomah Press, 1984, p. 154).

The efforts of some Christians to confer "sainthood" on Thomas Jefferson are at the same time both amusing and distressing. Jefferson more than any man is responsible for the exile of Christianity from public life in America. He held that each individual sect was free to teach its peculiar doctrines, e.g., the Trinity, within the confines of its own walls. However, in the public arena men must agree to a generalized public morality based on their ability to reason together, not on the Bible. This is sometimes referred to as the "American Civil Religion."

Jefferson was extremely successful in converting the churches to this rationalistic/dualistic view of religion in the public square, Jonathan Witherspoon being the chief example. Witherspoon, the President of Princeton (College of New Jersey), had served in the Continental Congress, and was regarded by the churches as "our man in Washington."

In Jefferson and Witherspoon we have the paradox of two men at opposite extremes on the theological scale who, nonetheless, found common cause in the social contract and natural law. That a Christian leader like Jonathan Witherspoon on the extreme right of the theological spectrum could find common cause with Jefferson on the extreme left is graphic evidence of the extent to which the American churches had capitulated to the Enlightenment. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which gave up the most philosophical ground. This perspective reigned in America for the next two centuries and beyond.

It is worth noting, that all three of the key writers of the Declaration of Independence were unitarian in theological perspective (cf. John Eidsmoe, Christianity & the Constitution, Baker Book House, 1987). All three--Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams--denied the foundational truth of Christianity, that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and therefore King of kings and Lord of lords today. If a man denies the Trinity, he denies the deity of Christ, and, by necessary corollary, the lordship of Christ. How is it possible for three heretics to sit down and come up with a civil covenant that is pleasing to God? "A good tree brings forth good fruit, and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit," according to Matthew 7:17.

A right understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity is an absolute necessity for biblical government, as noted theologian R. J. Rushdoony has ably demonstrated in the Foundations of Social Order (Thoburn Press, 1978). It provides the only adequate solution to the philosophical problem of "the one and the many"--how to integrate the freedom of the individual with the necessity of the state. In this regard, Thomas Jefferson failed miserably.

Christians must leave off idolizing the Declaration of Independence, confessing that in reality it constitutes a declaration of independence from the God of the Bible. All efforts to Balkanize the Christian faith--confining its influence to a religious ghetto--must be vigorously resisted.

This essay is an excerpt from the "Great Conversation Seminar" on the Great Books of Western civilization, designed exclusively for ClassicalFree Virtual Academy. ClassicalFree is the world's first real-time classical Christian academy--comprehensive, interactive & free. Scheduled to open September 10th, 2001, over 40% of our grade 7-12 courses are 100% online and free. The author, Dennis Woods, also publishes Discipling the Nations, a book exploring the question, "Is the U.S. Constitution really a Christian document?," available at +1 800 699 9911 or at www.ismellarat.com.

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