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Thomas Jefferson wrote these glowing words about Jesus: "his system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers."

We have much to be grateful for in Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence is one of the greatest and most consequential documents ever written. But when it came to Jesus and Gospel who was not mainstream at all. At best Jefferson was a Rational Theist. He actually wrote his own revision of the Gospels. In that revision he mostly omitted everything supernatural, which is to say he removed all the miracles. All of them. Even the resurrection. His account of the gospel ends with the Crucifixion and the burial of Jesus. The last words in the Jefferson bible are: “They placed Jesus in the tomb and rolled a huge stone to cover the entrance.”

But it's an incredible thing to take a 1700 year old document and think that your editing, your taking out the theme, the climax, the bases for the entire story would improve on it's meaning. Without the resurrection Jesus sounds like an idiot. He's lying about himself. He's a lunatic. How can he claim to be all the things he said about himself and then just lie dead in a tomb? The resurrection is the evidence, the proof that he is who he said he is.

"They placed Jesus in the tomb and rolled a huge stone to cover the entrance." We are thankful those are not the last words of the gospel story.

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