For 5,000+ years, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who said "I never
change" and "this Torah shall never change" never once even hinted that He
was a "trinitarian" "god", and the Israelites who followed Him all
that time never ONCE considered this possibility in any perspective in any of their
voluminous writings. Jesus Himself, who said He was the SON of God 46 times, and who
also said "not a tittle of the Torah can fail", confirmed that God was NOT a
"trinity". So where then does the "church" get the authority to
add words to Scripture which were never there before, to attempt to justify their
BLASPHEMY which claims that God DID change, Jesus DID lie, and the "trinity"
ALWAYS existed?
Not from a single word of the million words in Scripture could they have deduced such a
concept, so they simply made it up out of whole cloth. Those who read Scripture in
the original Greek and Hebrew, like all of our Founding Fathers, and all of Jesus' Twelve
Disciples, have universally concluded that God is NOT a "trinity", that in spite
of the jews' charge that Jesus CLAIMED to be God in the flesh [for which they demanded He
be murdered] that He was not and never claimed to be, and that trinitarians are LIARS.
The close proximity of the refusal by the British Parliament in 1771 of a key unitarian
petition and the American Revolutionary War five years later in 1776 cannot be ignored,
even though our history books do. If this was such an emotional issue that
"dissenters were not allowed to hold public office" in England, then why would
it not have been equally as emotional an issue for Americans who were dissatisfied with
King George in so many other ways? Such timing suggests that this was a KEY issue in
the Revolution, but ignored by historians.
And Benjamin Franklin was there in England, in Joseph Priestly's unitarian church, in
1774, a scant two years before the Revolution? What Mr. Franklin did NOT admit is of
far more interest than what he did admit about his unitarian religious beliefs.
Mr. Jefferson's letter to Joseph Priestly [below] is proof that Mr. Jefferson knew
about the degraded morals of jews, that it was they who LIED about Jesus claiming to BE
God, that Mr. Jefferson did NOT accept the trinitarian view, and that "incorrectness
of their [jews'] ideas of the Deity" is proof that Mr. Jefferson was a UNITARIAN who
rejected the jew LIE and accepted the truth spoken by Jesus Himself.
Because of the huge philosophical gap between unitarians and trinitarians, it's
impossible to offer "free exercise of religion" to BOTH at the same time, in the
same country, under the same constitution. So then what does this phrase mean? It
cannot apply to both unitarians and trinitarians. And when we consider that it was
unitarians who dissented from the Church of England's trinitarian position, and that our
Founding Fathers spilt BLOOD and won a WAR on behalf of their religious beliefs, it can
only mean that it applies ONLY to unitarians.
"Free exercise of religion" as emblazoned in the US Constituion does NOT
apply to the radical extremist minority calling themselves trinitarians! It applies
ONLY to those who can properly discern the Word of God--ISRAELITES.
The Toleration Act was passed by the
British Parliament in 1689. This act permitted other religious denominations, such as
Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, Catholics, and Jews, to legally exist in England alongside
the Church of England. However, these non-Anglican denominations, referred to as
dissenters or nonconformists, could only refer to their meeting houses as chapels. The
word "church" was reserved for the Church of England. Also, dissenters were not
allowed to hold public office, serve in the armed forces or attend the universities.
Within the Anglican Communion there was also growing unrest over the parliamentary
requirement that the Anglican clergy must "subscribe" to the doctrinal articles
of the church, including the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity. For nearly a century
afterwards a growing controversy continued over that requirement. A climax was reached in
1771, when Parliament refused a petition to abolish the requirement of
"subscription." This precipitated some of the non-subscribing clergy to withdraw
from the church. One of these, Theophilus Lindsey, was the organizer of the first
Unitarian congregation in England. Lindsey conducted his first service for a large
congregation in an auction room on Essex Street, London, on April 14th, 1774. Among those
in that first congregation were Benjamin Franklin and his friend, Joseph Priestley.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) is known the world over as the principal
author, in 1776 at age 33, of the Declaration of Independence; as author of the Bill for
Establishing Religious Freedom instituting separation of church and state in Virginia,
passed in 1786; and as third president of the United States, 1801-09. As president
Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark expedition, launched in 1803, to map the vast,
unknown territory northwest of St. Louis; and he negotiated and persuaded Congress to fund
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, greatly increasing the size of the U.S. He also protected
crucial trade interests of his young nation by making war with the Barbary States,1801-05.
Jefferson held many other public offices. He was a delegate to the House of Burgesses in
colonial Virginia, 1769-76; Governor of Virginia during the War for Independence, 1779-81;
for five years U.S. Minister to France, 1785-89, where he observed events leading to the
French Revolution; the first Secretary of State under George Washington, 1790-93; and Vice
President under John Adams,
1797-1801.
The range of Jefferson's genius—his interests, abilities and
accomplishments—would be extraordinary in any age. He is famous for his garden, for
the precise observations he made of his varied plants and for his inventions which
included the dumb-waiter and a machine that duplicated handwriting. After his retirement
from politics, he devoted much time and energy to founding the University of Virginia,
opened to students in 1825. A capable architect, he designed his plantation home,
Monticello, and the early buildings of the University of Virginia. Only one book of his
authorship, Notes on Virginia, was published in his lifetime. Publication of his
letters alone, however, not to mention his state papers, now fill many volumes. He was
throughout his long life an avid student of many fields. Late in his life Congress
purchased his library, at that time the largest in the country, making it the core
collection of the new Library of Congress. Congress published posthumously, in 1904, his
collation of extracts from the Gospels, now known as the "Jefferson Bible."
The character of Jefferson's religion is one of the most interesting aspects of his
intriguing life. Certain evangelicals, who were also his political opponents, tried very
hard to make Jefferson's religion a factor in elections. They filled the press with
scurrilous attacks on his "deistical" beliefs. He made it his steadfast policy
never to respond to any of these attacks or, indeed, to make any public statement at all
concerning his faith. Ironically, in spite of the attacks, evangelicals flocked to support
Jefferson because they favored the end of tax support for established churches—which
meant freedom for their independent churches—as passionately as did he. Today
religious conservatives portray Jefferson as a sympathetic figure, unaware of his
religious beliefs, his understanding of religious freedom or his criticisms of evangelical
religiosity.
These facts about Jefferson's religion are known. He was raised as an Anglican and always
maintained some affiliation with the Anglican Church. He was also known to contribute
financially, in fair proportion, to every denomination in his town. While a student at
William and Mary College, he began to read the Scottish moral philosophers and other
authors who had made themselves students of church history. These scholars opened the door
for Jefferson's informed criticism of prevailing religious institutions and beliefs. But it was the world renowned English Unitarian minister and scientist,
Joseph Priestley, who had the most profound impact on his thought. According to
Priestley's Corruptions of Christianity, published in 1782, and many other of his
books, the teachings of Jesus and his human character were obscured and obfuscated in the
early Christian centuries. As the Church Fathers adapted Christianity to
Mediterranean-primarily Greek-forms of thought, they contrived doctrines altogether
foreign to Biblical thought, such as the doctrine of the Trinity. Jefferson assumed that a
thoroughly reformed Christian faith, true to Jesus' teaching, would be purged of all Greek
influence and doctrinal absurdity.
I must repeat that this letter is to be considered as private and
friendly, and is not to control any particular instructions which you may receive through
official channel. You will also perceive how sacredly it must be kept within your own
breast, and especially how improper to be understood by the Indians. For their interests
and their tranquillity it is best they should see only the present age of their history. I
pray you to accept assurances of my esteem and high consideration.
JESUS, SOCRATES, AND OTHERS
To Dr. Joseph Priestley
Washington, Apr. 9, 1803
1803040
DEAR SIR, -- While on a short visit lately to Monticello, I received
from you a copy of your comparative view of Socrates & Jesus, and I avail myself of
the first moment of leisure after my return to acknolege the pleasure had in the perusal
of it, and the desire it excited to see you take up the subject on a more extensive scale.
In consequence of some conversation with Dr. Rush, in the year 1798-99, I had promised
some day to write him a letter giving him my view of the Christian system. I have
reflected often on it since, & even sketched the outlines in my own mind. I should
first take a general view of the moral doctrines of the most remarkable of the antient
philosophers, of whose ethics we have sufficient information to make an estimate, say of
Pythagoras, Epicurus, Epictetus, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, Antoninus. I should do justice
to the branches of morality they have treated well; but point out the importance of those
in which they are deficient. should then take a view of the deism and ethics of the Jews,
and show in what a degraded state they were, and the necessity they presented of a
reformation. I should proceed to a view of the life, character, & doctrines of Jesus,
who sensible of incorrectness of their ideas of the Deity, and of morality, endeavored to
bring them to the principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God,
to reform their moral doctrines to the standard of reason, justice & philanthropy, and
to inculcate the belief of a future state. This view would purposely omit the question of
his divinity, & even his inspiration. To do him justice, it would be necessary to
remark the disadvantages his doctrines have to encounter, not having been committed to
writing by himself, but by the most unlettered of men, by memory, long after they had
heard them from him; when much was forgotten, much misunderstood, & presented in very
paradoxical shapes. Yet such are the fragments remaining as to show a master workman, and
that his system of morality was the most benevolent & sublime probably that has been
ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers.
http://www.monticello.org/streaming/speakers/transcripts/religion.html
So it was easy for Adams, but Jefferson had no Unitarian church in Virginia to unite
with. He once notes in a letter that the closest one is in Baltimore. He was always
willing to ride from Monticello to church services but not that far. And when Jefferson
lived in Philadelphia he attended Joseph Priestly's Unitarian Church. His letters make it
clear that he saw Unitarianism as primitive Christianity.
Thus I think we can safely classify America's third president as a conservative
Unitarian. Like Adams he would have fallen into the Socinian category those who believed
Jesus was quote, "from below," end quote. But his theology did not go beyond a
belief that Jesus became the more example for humans while he was below.
Thomas Jefferson had a devotional side he came to believe in the efficacy of prayer. He
was hopeful about life after death. He liked the Anglican liturgy, and he did not feel an
urgent need to separate himself from his ancestral church. He believed in a supreme being
who created and sustained the universe, but his God was not the triune God of orthodox
Christianity or of the Anglican tradition. Had he officially converted to his real home in
Unitarianism, he would have been that movements most famous convert.
George Washington
Finally, I noted how Washington’s systematic refusal to take communion evidences
that he wasn’t an orthodox Christian but rather points in the direction of belief in
the same unorthodox system of Enlightenment rationalism as Jefferson, Madison, and many
other of the elite Virginia Whig-Episcopalians. Michael
and Jana Novak, in their book on Washington, note that many Virginia Episcopalians
likewise didn’t take communion. Yes, but there were many Deists and Unitarians among
the Virginia Episcopalians. And they were the ones who didn’t take communion! At
least, that’s the impression I get from the testimony of Washington’s own
minister, Dr. Abercrombie. Here
he is on all of those elite Whig-Episcopalians, most notably Washington, who ducked
communion:
With respect to the inquiry you make I can only state the following facts; that, as
pastor of the Episcopal church, observing that, on sacramental Sundays, Gen. Washington,
immediately after the desk and pulpit services, went out with the greater part of the
congregation — always leaving Mrs. Washington with the other communicants — she
invariably being one — I considered it my duty in a sermon on Public Worship, to
state the unhappy tendency of example, particularly of those in elevated stations who
uniformly turned their backs upon the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. I acknowledge
the remark was intended for the President; and as such he received it.
Washington never attended that Church on communion Sundays again. But more to the
point, here is Dr. Abercrombie being very direct on the matter: “Sir, Washington was
a Deist.”
In a letter, dated November 29, 1831, Abercrombie explains why he thought Washington a
Deist:
“That Washington was a professing Christian, is evident from his regular
attendance in our church; but, Sir, I cannot consider any man as a real Christian who
uniformly disregards an ordinance so solemnly enjoined by the divine Author of our holy
religion, and considered as a channel of divine grace.”
Now, clearly Washington believed in a warm-intervening Providence and wasn’t a
“Deist” in that strict sense. But the notion that Washington was a Deist is an
invention of modern revisionists historians is utter balderdash. Modern historians may be
wrong in believing Washington’s God was a cold-distant watchmaker, but these scholars
assert Washington was a “Deist” because his own ministers said so.
[note: Mr. Jefferson too was accused by others, mainly jews, of being a deist, even
though he wrote in his own hand "I am a real Christian". It was jews who
made this accusation because Mr. Jefferson correctly labled the jews as deists, so their
charge is spurious and trivial. It's not correct for trinitarians to claim that
unitarians are deists simply because they don't accept their churchianity view of the
world, and it's particularly slanderous for a jew to make that claim of our unitarian
Founding Fathers. Trinitarians who accept the jew LIE are anti-Christs, and
unitarians who accept what Jesus said are the only "real Christians". Our
Founding Fathers' rejection of the "church" is their ACCEPTANCE of Jesus]:
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
Deist
DEIST, n. One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion,
but follows the light of nature and reason, as his only guides in doctrine and practice; a
freethinker.
John Adams
John Adams, first of the four presidents who were Unitarians, was on-and-off friends
with Thomas Jefferson, who had Unitarian leanings, but was not a member. Learned and
thoughtful, John Adams was remarkable as a political philosopher and was one of the
indispensable founders of our nation. Prior to serving as President, Adams was a delegate
to the Continental Congress, a diplomat, and Vice President under George Washington.
John Adams had studied for the ministry, but came to believe that government service
would be more exciting.
Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were life-long members of First Parish
Church, Quincy, Mass. Their tombs stand in a crypt within the church, beside those of
their wives, Abigail and Louisa Catherine.
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the only President who was the son of a President. (Until G W
Bush) As a boy, his mother had told him that some day the state would rest upon his
shoulders. It did not rest lightly.
Never publicly popular, often reviled by his political enemies, he nevertheless ended
his life in the sunshine of national esteem. The presidency was only one of his careers,
sandwiched between being a successful diplomat and Secretary of State, and, after the
interlude of being President, an equally successful tenure as a Congressman who opposed
slavery.
Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were life-long members of First Parish
Church, Quincy, Mass [a UNITARIAN church]. Their tombs stand in a crypt within the church,
beside those of their wives, Abigail and Louisa Catherine.
Benjamin Franklin
Emerson was the first American Unitarian minister who influenced European Unitarianism.
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Adlai Stevenson and
Clara Barton were among American Unitarians, or have been claimed by Unitarianism as being
in harmony with Unitarian thought of their time. Albert Schweitzer was probably the best
known European Unitarian.
Dr. Franklin
and Dr. Priestley were intimate friends. Of Franklin, Priestley writes:
"It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character
and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as
much as he did to make others unbelievers" (Priestley's Autobiography, p. 60).
This great man was himself denounced as an Infidel. He was a Unitarian of the
most advanced type, and was mobbed and driven from England on account of his heretical
opinions and his sympathy with the French Revolution. Franklin's Infidelity must have been
of a very radical character to have provoked the censure of Dr. Priestley.
Joseph Priestly
Joseph Priestley was brilliant, multi-talented, and controversial. He was a scientist,
author, linguist, teacher, cleric, and political activist. He was born near the city of
Leeds in Yorkshire in 1733. He was the oldest of five children in a lower middle class
family. After the death of his mother, Priestley's father struggled to keep the family
together until Joseph was nine years old. Eventually, young Priestley was placed in the
care of his Puritan aunt, Mrs. Sarah Keighley. Thus Joseph Priestley was raised as a
Dissenter.
At the age of 19 years, just before he left home for the Nonconformist Academy at
Daventry, Priestley sought membership in the church he had always attended with his aunt.
A precursor of things to come became evident when the church elders refused him membership
on the grounds that he did not appear to be quite orthodox. The nature of the dispute had
to do with the doctrine of original sin.
Priestley's three years of accelerated study at the academy were happy ones where he
found a liberal and inquiring atmosphere among his teachers and fellow students. After
receiving an education in literature and natural philosophy, he entered the ministry at
Needham Market, Suffolk at the age of 22.
.”
