America similar to Jerusalem

Last week I went on a fieldtrip with the middle school to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. It was the second time at Monticello for me but this was the best. I learned a ton about Jefferson that I never caught the first time through (I was a student myself then). The most amazing part of the day was actually seeing items that were owned by Jefferson. In his bedroom there is a stain on the floor beside his bed where, each morning he would place his feet in cold water; he thought this was healthy and it also helped him wake up. Nearly every room in the house has displays of antlers, inventions, maps, portraits of Jefferson’s friends and much more. He even had a huge well that was filled with ice during the winter and lasted most of the summer so guests of Monticello could have ice-cream. One of my favorite rooms inside the house is the parlor. This room is full of paintings including my favorite; a picture from the Bible story where Herodias has John the Baptist beheaded. Three of the portraits in this room are of men Jefferson called “the three greatest men that have ever lived:” John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon (all three men where devout Christians). Another room that really caught my attention was Jefferson’s Library. At its greatest, it is believed this room held as many as 6,000 of Jefferson’s books and at a time where books were not exactly easy to come by. Today Jefferson is quoted daily at Monticello for saying, “I cannot live without books.” Though all the books at Monticello are not proven to be Jefferson’s, there are a handful behind a glass shelf that were unquestionably his and one in particular caught my attention. The spine of the Book had two words; the smallest word I could not make out as we were hurried to the next room but the biggest word was JERUSALEM.

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world and would have been of great interest to men like Thomas Jefferson for an important reason; these men were shaping a government that they believed “would never perish from the earth,” therefore they studied nations that were steadfast through the ages. We know that Jefferson conducted in-depth studies about Israel and the Jewish heritage and we also know that he held the teachings of Jesus in the Bible above any other philosophical or theological works. This is of great importance because Jefferson was no rookie when it came to philosophy as he studied men like Plato and Aristotle on a daily basis. Thomas Jefferson was an extremely brilliant man and it could probably be said that he had more impact on the direction of our country than any other person in our history. For this reason I look to Jefferson politically when deciding my stance on many issues as I consider myself an American fundamentalist, meaning I think we should strive to continue taking our country in the same direction as our founding fathers originally intended. This means our governmental powers should be small, our military should be big, citizens should have personal responsibilities, life should be valued at the highest extent, and our value system should consider its very underpinnings those of Judeo-Christian principles. I feel strongly that Jefferson felt this way and I believe we should not depart from this mentality.

I have heard the theory that Thomas Jefferson along with our numerous founding fathers set out to model the Judeo system and after seeing the Jerusalem book in Jefferson’s library my interest was really sparked. Here I will list the similarities at which I believe Jefferson strived to maintain and on my blog I will post other similarities that Jefferson could not have known (followhard.com).

During the time of Jefferson and still today, there has been a notable theory, for various reasons, that the British had been direct descendents of King David through one or more of the lost tribes of Israel. The early colonists were almost certainly aware of this and it is possible that many actually believed they were descendants as well. This means that there were more founding Americans other than just Thomas Jefferson who believed in the Judeo-Christian value system. John Smith, in 1626, referred to King James (who had the Bible translated into English) as “Jaccobus” in his history of Virginia and New England. He used this name because James is the English word for Jacob who became Israel (after God changed his name in the Bible). John Smith was certainly aware of this and more than likely he was naming the first colony of the new world after Israel, the head of the 12 tribes; incidentally, 12 colonies came after Virginia. In 1628, John Endicott, with six others, landed in the new world and named their new settlement Salem, which is short for Jerusalem, it is said they did this to commemorate the first covenant between God and mankind.

Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams were very much aware of the puritans desire to follow God. All three men approved and recommended the first design for the official seal of the United States. This seal in 1776 depicted the Jews crossing the Red Sea with an inscription that said, “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” So much more is clearly seen in the writings of our early fathers, especially Jefferson. He believed in a Manifest Destiny, that our new land was “the promise land.” We know that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t solo in his desire for a New Jerusalem; Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Rush and even whole groups like the Puritans desired this land. Even our Declaration of Independence was taken from the words of John Locke who, without a doubt, dedicated his life to the teachings of the Bible. These men knew they were fighting for something real and they wanted something that would work. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and a denial of that is a clear misunderstanding of America’s modest beginnings.