The Jefferson Dilemma

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good

work.” - 2 timothy 3:16-17

Today’s bible verse is one that has impacted my life time and time again, and in multiple ways, and different seasons of my life. The hardest part at times to reconcile, for better or for worse, is the fact that “ALL” scripture is breathed out by God. For some this is just a fancy way of saying that a person should adhere, pay attention to and live out the teachings of scripture. While others, on the other hand, struggle or even try and forget that this verse is even apart of the text of scripture.

We unfortunately live in a day and an age where people would love nothing more than to put the proverbial “white out” in various parts of scripture. Whether it be on hot button topics such as: sex, sexuality, gender, abortion and the like. Thomas Jefferson was such an advocate of this method that he literally used a knife and glue to “Copy and Paste” his rendition of the Bible. The book Jefferson wrote would find itself coming to immortality in what is now called the “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”. This writing:

“was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting, with a razor and glue, numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine.”1

Even though this news of Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy in translating the bible seems absurd, we can all in the least agree that Jefferson was consistent in his views of scripture and demonstrably so. Not many people would be willing to take the time to dissect their own bibles and glue back together the parts that they liked and throw away the parts that they didn’t.

In modern times, unfortunately, many people who claim the name of Christ do this very same thing in a metaphorical and intellectual sense. They see the parts they like and memorize those verses and find themselves perplexed at others and choose to ignore or, cut those verses out. My challenge today is for us all to remember that the word of God is that very thing “The Word of God” and it should be revered as such. If we have a problem with a verse, chapter, or book the problem isn’t with the author, it is ultimately with us. We read that scripture is meant to bring reproof and correction which at times can be hard for anyone and sometimes down right irritating because that would require us to change our mindset on some things. All in all what I am not saying is that we shouldn’t struggle, however I personally do believe that we should all struggle well, and in the case of struggling with what the bible says, we need to remind ourselves that we are imperfect humans serving a perfect God and should, in every way, allow ourselves to be corrected by him, to serve Him and to go take up our cross and follow Him.

Todays Reflection:

Take some time today to think over some problem passages that you may be facing. Perhaps like Jefferson, for better or for worse, you find yourself wanting to ignore particular verses or whole books in scripture as a result of how they may make you feel. I encourage and implore you dear reader, to take a second glance at those verse(s) and allow them to challenge you, to grow you, and to mold you into becoming a better follower of Christ.

By Ronnie Johnson

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1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible