I received an email from a close family member of mine who is of a different Christian faith requesting that I listen to the sermon given by a former Muslim who had converted to Christianity.
In the sermon, the gentleman discusses the differences between Muslim and Christianity and basically (without saying it, but implying it) that all Muslims had better convert quickly or go to Hell. One of the reasons this man feels the Muslims are heading to Hell is because they do not accept the doctrine of the Trinity.
He goes on to quote Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on the Trinity as well, stating that a Muslim would say “Amen!” to Jefferson’s point of view on the Trinity.
Here are some of Jefferson’s thoughts:
—– To John Adams, 1813
It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one . . .
—– To Van der Kemp, 1820
The genuine and simple religion of Jesus will one day be restored: such as it was preached and practised by himself. Very soon after his death it became muffled up in mysteries, and has been ever since kept in concealment from the vulgar eye. To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
I’ll have to admit that I also said “Amen!” when I heard the former Muslim-converted-to-Christian man share Jefferson’s quotes. It falls right in line with the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Mormons believe.
Mormons believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the LDS or Mormon Church) is the restored church that Jefferson wished for. Personally, I feel that the LDS church probably isn’t an exact restoration of how it was when Jesus walked the earth, but it’s the closest one we have on the planet now. Also, I believe that the LDS view of the Trinity makes a lot more sense than what standard Christians believe.
Mormons believe that there is a God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who make up the Godhead. Each one is an individual personage and makes a lot more sense than the more common explanations of the Trinity that are very complicated, as Jefferson points out.
So…what do you think? If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, would he have been a Mormon?
Grace for Grace 
19 comments
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March 29, 2012 at 7:28 pm
Stan Beale
Unfortunately, TJ had a strong aversion to a belief in any type of miracle. The Jefferson Bible which eliminates any referernce to them and his written comments to people like John Adams show his disdain for thaumaturgy (sorry, I learned the word last week and couldn’t resist, its the performance of miracles or magic).
In addition, he considered Christ a great teacher and seemed more inclined to discount His Divinity. He at times wrote about his non belief in Revelation.
It would be very hard for a person to be a Mormon that did not accept the divinity of Christ, the reality of miracles, or the existance of revelation.
Granted, this picture of Jefferson is the view of nearly all historians except for David Barton, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
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March 29, 2012 at 8:26 pm
ezra
On the other hand, besides denying the construct of God as Father and Son and Holy Spirit, Jefferson had his own account of Jesus, loved the morality and character of Jesus and considered exemplifying this character in his own life as more worthy than believing the redemptive work of Jesus as stated in the Bible….
So, yes, there are a lot of similarities.
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March 29, 2012 at 8:31 pm
ezra
And, like Joseph Smith, Jefferson also was a Freemason.
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March 29, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Stan Beale
ezra. I agree on similarities, but the queation was would he have been a Mormon. At one time he described himself to be a “sect of one” and in one of his last letters to Adams he wrote that we might all be Unitarians someday. A veyr complex man trying to be a man of reason in the Age of Reason.
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March 30, 2012 at 6:20 am
Aaron
In a word: no.
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March 31, 2012 at 10:09 pm
graceforgrace
Aaron,
What is your reasoning behind your statement?
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March 30, 2012 at 7:23 am
Doug
The Bible says that “by their fruits you will know them” and what I have read of TJ-he was not a moral man! He was up there with Ben F when it came to attractive young ladies-hardly a poster boy for the LDS faith! (Aaron-you may not want to make too much of a connection here!) Ezra-it is my understanding that Joseph was a Freemason-didn’t Nauvoo have a Freemason Lodge at one point?
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March 31, 2012 at 10:12 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Doug,
Yes, J.S. was a freemason. As he watched their ceremonies he felt they were a degenerate form of temple worship. Therefore, you probably have heard about LDS temples being compared to the freemason ceremonies. They are similar, but Smith felt the LDS one was a restoration of the true ceremonies, whereas the mason ones weren’t.
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April 1, 2012 at 5:39 am
Cal
That’s interesting.
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March 31, 2012 at 7:00 am
ray
A Mormon in Joseph Smith’s time or a Mormon as we are today? Joseph Smith was clearly trying to create a theocracy, something Jefferson would have shrunk from in horror. The church today is more blended into the mainstream, although afflicted by an annoying groupthink when it comes to U.S. politics. I doubt Jefferson would have been attracted to Mormonism in either case.
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March 31, 2012 at 10:13 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Ray,
very good point about Joseph Smith’s vision to create a theocracy and I think you are correct. Jefferson was very adamant about separation of church and state.
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March 31, 2012 at 7:44 am
Cal
Wasn’t George Washington also a Freemason?
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April 1, 2012 at 11:39 am
Doug
Yes-Washington was (as was Franklin). A number of the founding fathers were.
Aaron-since the Freemason rituals predate the restoration-where did the Masons get their rituals from (in LDS thinking?) Do LDS believe that the current Temple ceremonies and endowments come from the Biblical OT Temple? What Biblical support is there for this?
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April 1, 2012 at 12:24 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Doug,
I don’t think there is official LDS teaching about the current temple ceremonies, but the very common opinion that I’ve seen is that the temple ceremonies of today are rituals that were around all the way back to Adam. Therefore, the general feeling is that Freemasons did derive their rituals from something that was given by God originally even though what they do today may not be exactly how God intended it.
If you ask most LDS people, they probably aren’t very well versed on the Bible and how it relates to temple worship other than there are temples in the Bible and part of the restoration is that temples are again on the earth today. Also, most LDS are not very well researched on how stuff in the temples is similar to Freemasonry, so it is hardly ever discussed.
My other Evangelical friends though are quick to point out in the New Testament where the temple is rent and other scriptures that show that Christ’s death did away with the need of a temple and Christ’s body represents that temple now (if I understand it correctly).
Having gone through the temple and also participated in other Christian denominations as a youth and also with other non-LDS family members (my brother-in-law is a pastor, so we’ve had quite a few discussions) I can relate to both points of view.
I think a good place to point you to learn more details on LDS temples is a blog called “Temple Study” see: http://www.templestudy.com/. The author is an LDS person and temple advocate, so his research and points of view are very pro-Mormon, which is a very good place to go to learn about how many Mormons view the LDS temples. However, he has a lot of very valid and good points and provides a very good case in support of temples.
Another good place to learn about it is in the book “Rough Stone Rolling” by Richard Buschman on Joseph Smith. He discusses in that book how Joseph Smith used similar methods of teaching that he had seen as a Freemason to teach in the temple. The message in the teaching is completely different in an LDS temple vs. Freemason temple, but the method is similar. Since there were so many Freemasons during Joseph Smith’s time who were also LDS, it makes sense that he would choose to teach that way.
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April 1, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Cal
GraceforGrace, “my brother-in-law is a pastor, so we’ve had quite a few discussions.”
I’ll bet! . . . at a barbeque maybe?
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April 1, 2012 at 8:30 pm
graceforgrace
lol! Cal…I still need to see that movie. And we’ve had many a discussion over bbque for sure!
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April 1, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Bradley
One morning in a dream I met George Washington, and he said something like “You people treat Jefferson like he’s a God”, and his tone indicated that he didn’t approve. So when woke up I did some web surfing.
It turns out that TJ was quite the cynic. If he rejected and ridiculed the Gospels, what other true principles did he reject and marginalize? Perhaps he has been built up precisely because he was a useful tool of the establishment.
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April 1, 2012 at 8:34 pm
graceforgrace
Hi Bradley,
You bring up a good point that when people are gone we tend to immortalize them and highlight only the good things they did. As you and others have pointed out, TJ may not have been as perfect as many people think!
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April 2, 2012 at 6:52 am
Cal
I’d like to hear more about that dream!
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