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Hidden Faith Of Our Founding Fathers – The “Faith of the Founders” blog series is a multi-part, multi-year, bite-sized, fact-based effort to uncover the deep and ubiquitous role of faith in America’s Founding. You can read all the articles here.
I have been a great admirer of America’s Founding Fathers for many years. I always recommend. But I understand that they and the various philosophies they believed in were sometimes seriously flawed. Today’s post is about one such example.
Hidden Faith Of Our Founding Fathers
In a letter to his fellow rebel and former President, John Adams, dated August 22, 1813, Thomas Jefferson made it clear that he rejected the Trinity, the Christian view of the Faith, and thus the idea of revelation itself.
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The historical background of Jefferson’s letter is the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which, according to the laity, declared that Jesus Christ was the Son of God from eternity. This was done to refute the new heresy called Arius, which was named after the Egyptian priest, Arius, who taught that Jesus Christ was not the Son from eternity, but was given “divinity” after his creation. In other words, he had it
The Son of God. He was not the Son of God by nature. Thus Arius’ teaching contradicted the Christian belief in the Trinity—that there is one God in three Persons from eternity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In order to distinguish the traditional Catholic belief of the Trinity against the Arian errors, the Council of Nicaea taught that the Son (Jesus Christ) existed.
, or “in one form” with the Father. In other words, he was part of the Godhead from eternity, and thus the Son of God from eternity. He did not
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The Son of God. He always was, is, and always will be the Son of God. Accordingly, the Council rejected the Arian definition of Christ as
, or “in the same thing” as the Father. If Christ was “in the same form” as the Father, then He was not God from eternity, and God the Father was not the Father from eternity. The whole mystery of Christianity and the economy of salvation is destroyed.
It is too late for honest men to pretend to believe in Plato’s fables that the three are one, the one is three; yet one is not three, yet these three are not one: to divide humanity by one letter into ὁμουςιans [homoousious, or “the same thing”], and ὁμοιουςιans [homoious, or “the same thing”]. But this shapes the art, power and profit of the priests. They have swept away their cloths of true religion, and they will no longer catch flies.
Jefferson failed to realize that there is all the difference in the world between “the same thing” and “the same thing,” no matter how many letters it takes to separate them. If Christ was not God and Son from all eternity, then God was not Father from all eternity. Thus Arius destroys the Fatherhood of God, making Christianity into Islam, who from the beginning openly attacked the Christian idea of the Fatherhood of God, and the practice of referring to God as “Our Father”. Indeed, if God is not the Father, then our acceptance into God’s family is lost, because we are no longer accepted as sons and daughters.
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By a loving Father, but we can achieve what Jesus achieved in our own strength, rather than being gifted with the grace of God’s grace.
That is why Arianism was fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, and it is compatible with occultism, which in the modern world was mainly promoted by Freemasonry. (See Pope Leo XIII’s 1884 Human Genus) Magic in all its forms claims the same thing as Arius: divinity may be
; the divine principle is within each person, it is only waiting to be activated by our efforts to improve ourselves. Jesus is not the unique and eternal Son of God, but merely
As he did with us, just as various spiritual groups claim the millennium (a topic I will write more about in the future).
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Another idea emphasizes the dependence on God that is due to the creature. One asserts independence from God that suits Lucifer’s pride. Indeed, one cannot help but hear the words of the serpent in the Garden: “For God knows that, when you eat of it, which refreshes your eyes, you will be like God…” [Gen. 3:5]
God is two completely different things. For a man who loved words, Jefferson often underestimated their importance when it came to the Catholic Church.
As was typical of Enlightenment “philosophers” such as Jefferson, he once again demonstrated in the history of the Catholic Church his prejudices regarding motives. For example, he said that in making that important distinction, the Council of Nicaea was involved in the “technique” through which the priests gained “power” and “profit”. This would have struck many of the bishops who were in Nicaea and defended its decrees as absurd, because many of them were persecuted, sometimes killed, by the Arians. Some were even watched by the Roman emperors.
Perhaps the most famous example is St. Athanasius. While he was not a bishop at the time, he attended the Council as a deacon, and when he became Bishop of Alexandria, he staunchly defended it against the Arians. He pointed out that the belief in the Trinity came from the apostles—in fact, the term was used long before the Council of Nicaea—and Christians
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He believed that Jesus is the Son of God from eternity. He also showed how undermining this belief destroys the entire Christian concept of grace, salvation, and eternal life. Because of his efforts, he was expelled from his church at least five times, and many of his flock were killed, tortured, or otherwise persecuted. In a letter addressed to all bishops of the Catholic Church, St.
Our sufferings were terrible, unbearable, and it is impossible for me to bear with you. from the day our Savior, when He was taken up, commanded His disciples, saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” [Matt. 28:19]
So much so that it was “the power and profit of the priests” that Jefferson spoke of. But doubting Thomas went further:
Therefore, we should all, like the Quakers, live without the order of the priests, behave well, follow the inspired conscience, say nothing about things that no one can understand, or believe in; for I think belief is the mental acceptance of an intelligible proposition.
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It is not surprising that Jefferson, who was not Catholic, did not like the idea of an authoritarian priesthood. But he also rejected the Christian view of Faith, which is a gift by which God has revealed a part of his inner life to his creation, a revelation that we can either accept or reject. By its very nature, Faith is superior to reason – because it must be revealed by God’s first step; and it is in harmony with it – because God, as the Creator, is the origin of the reason and order that we see in the universe.
Jefferson, on the other hand, believed that the human mind can only believe propositions that it has come to by its own power (ie reason alone). This certainly means that, while Jefferson in many places proves his belief in God the creator, who sometimes intervenes in people’s affairs, this God may not be interested in revealing anything that belongs to a person that cannot be found by a person for his own reason. or he cannot do so.
The first thought makes God unnecessary and irrelevant. The second idea, surprisingly, is itself a proposition that cannot be known because of what Jefferson said as the only form of belief – namely God.
You revealed something, how does jefferson know that? Such a revelation would pass reason, but Jefferson rejected this. Being Him
Nope. No Slavery Or Rape Amongst Our Founding Fathers.
Reveal something, then this “God” is unnecessary and/or irrelevant to humanity. The second idea falls into the first. Thus, Jefferson’s views were in complete agreement with Masonic beliefs, described by Pope Leo XIII as “naturalism” in his encyclical on Freemasonry, Humanum Genus:
Now, the fundamental doctrine of the naturalists, which they sufficiently introduce by their name, is that human nature and human reason ought in all things to be mistress and guide. To put it down, they do not care much about the works of God, or they distort them with wrong and unreasonable ideas. Because they deny that anything is taught by God; they do not allow the teaching of religion or truth that cannot be understood by the human mind, or any teacher who is supposed to believe because of his authority. And since it is the special and special responsibility of the Catholic Church to fully explain in words the truths accepted by God,
