Was John Adams a Christian?By Chris Pinto
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"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity." – John Adams
 
John Adams was America's second president, and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson.  Adams, Jefferson and Ben Franklin worked together on the first committee to design the Great Seal for the United States.  While it does not appear that Adams was a member of any secret group, he was a Unitarian and shared views of Christianity not unlike those of Paine, Jefferson and Franklin.  Adams was an intellectual whose belief in "God" was, at best a collection of pagan ideas amalgamated together by his own imagination.  This comes as a shock to many Christians, who often think that Adams, of all the founders, must surely have been a true believer.  But quite the contrary is true. 
 
In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams condemned the beliefs of Christians in Europe, and while many of those beliefs may have been in error, look at what he refers to:
 
"The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both
ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of.
They are all infected with Episcopal and Presbyterian creeds,
and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle
which has produced this boundless universe, Newton's universe
and Herschell's universe, came down to this little Ball, to be
spit upon by Jews; and until this awful blasphemy is got
rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world."
(Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, January 22, 1825)
 
Just to be clear, when Adams mentions "that great Principle," he is referring to God.  When he says "this little Ball" he means the Earth.  So, what he is condemning is the fact that Christians believe that God came to Earth as a man, and was persecuted and killed for the sins of the world.  This is what he is calling an "awful blasphemy" that he wanted "got rid of."  Adams was at least the third major founding father (along with Paine and Jefferson) who called for the destruction of the Gospel.  Of course, rejecting Jesus as the Son of God fits with his non-Trinitarian doctrine.  If Jesus is not the second person of the Godhead, then He cannot be God.
 
Adams, the Eastern Mystic
 
The truth seems to be that Adams considered Christian belief "blasphemy" because his ideas about God came, not from the Bible, but from an ancient Eastern mystical book known as The Shasta, which is the first book of Brahmin theology.  It was from this book that he developed the following view, where he says:
 
"When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean …
Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that
is, an essence that we know nothing of …" (Adams, Letter
to Thomas Jefferson, January 17, 1820)
In another of his many letters to Jefferson, Adams explains his views further and reveals the origin of his beliefs.  He writes:
 
"Where is to be found theology more orthodox, or philosophy
more profound, than in the introduction to the Shasta?  'God is
one, creator of all, universal sphere, without beginning, without
end.  God governs all the creation by a general providence,
resulting from his eternal designs.  Search not the essence and the
nature of the Eternal, who is one; your research will be vain
and presumptuous …. The Eternal willed, in the fullness of time,
to communicate of his essence and of his splendor, to beings
capable of perceiving it.  They as yet existed not.  The Eternal willed,
and they were.  He created Birma, Vitsnow, and Sib.'  These
doctrines, sublime, if ever there were any sublime, Pythagoras
learned in India, and taught them …"  (Adams, Letter to Jefferson,
December 25, 1813)
 
Notice that for Adams the idea of Jesus as God was an awful blasphemy, but this Pagan concept about "Birma, Vitsnow, and Sib" was sublime doctrine to him.  In this correspondence, he shows that from this Eastern writing is the idea of God as an "essence" that cannot be searched out.  Later in this same later, he expresses some belief in reincarnation, saying:
 
"And how does this differ from the possessions of demons in
Greece and Rome, from the demon of Socrates, from the worship
of cows and crocodiles in Egypt and elsewhere?  After migrating
through various animals, from elephants to serpents, according
to their behavior, souls that, at last, behaved well, became men
and women, and then, if they were good, they went to Heaven.
All ended in Heaven, if they became virtuous." (Ibid, Adams to
Jefferson, same as above)
 
Yet the Scriptures refute the Pagan teachings of reincarnation, telling us that:
 
"… it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
 
The rich man of Luke chapter 16 who died and went to hell, was not given a second chance to come back as another person and "get it right," as is so often taught by adherents of New Age doctrine today.  Every man must give an account for the one lifetime he is given by God, whether to fear Him and walk by faith, or to reject Him in unbelief.
 
 
 
 
Treaty of Tripoli
 
It was during the presidency of John Adams that the much debated Treaty of Tripoli was signed, in an attempt to "make peace" with Muslims.  The treaty bears perhaps the most damning statement against the idea of the United States as a Christian nation.  Article 11 of the treaty begins with these words:
 
"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Mussulmen (Muslims) …" (Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, Annals of Congress, 5th Congress, written by Joel Barlow in 1796, approved by the U.S. Senate, July 7, 1797, then signed by President John Adams)
 
Despite the efforts of some Christian leaders to spin-doctor this document, the statement speaks for itself.  If you read the whole treaty, it becomes clear that the first statement serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, other than to appease the Islamic hatred for Christianity.  Furthermore, this was approved by the entire U.S. Senate and then signed by President Adams.  Where was the outcry from the Christian senators?  Perhaps the answer comes from 19th century preacher, the Rev. Dr. Wilson, who investigated the faith of the founding fathers, and concluded:
 
"Those who have been called to administer the government
have not been men making any public profession of Christianity."
(Wilson, as cited in Six Historic Americans, by John E. Remsburg)
 
Imagine your church saying that it was "not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion," or a member of your congregation telling their neighbor that their own personal faith was "not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."  If such words are unfit for Christians and their churches, how are they acceptable in a Christian government?  There is simply no context that justifies the statement – other than it being a deliberate denial of Christianity. 
 
The Mystery of Article 11
 
Some have argued that Article 11 was written into the treaty to appease the Muslim government of Tripoli, and yet a curious detail emerges in spite of this.  Upon examining the original Arabic version of the treaty, it has been discovered that Article 11 is nowhere found within it!  In other words, the phrase "not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion" was never presented to the Muslims.  These words only show up in the English version, which was later drafted and confirmed in America.  Historians who have commented on this, admit it is a bit of a puzzle.  But further light seems to be shed by 19th century historian, Moncure D. Conway, who tells us that it was George Washington himself who drafted the controversial article.  The treaty was engineered during Washington's administration and then ratified once John Adams became president.  Of this, Conway wrote:
 
"And President Washington, the first time that he ever came
in treaty with a non-Christian people (Tripoli), sent to the Senate
… a treaty which opened with the following: 'As the Government
of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on
the Christian religion … There is the statement … from the
great Washington." (Moncure D. Conway, addresses and reprints,
1850-1907, p. 347)
 
We must remember that the Treaty of Tripoli was drafted at a point in history without the Internet, or telephones, or any such form of swift communication.  Thus the treaty was first drafted in Tripoli by Joel Barlow, and then sent back to America for approval.  It was only then that Washington seems to have added Article 11.  But why?  Is it possible that this declaration was never really intended for Muslims; but rather, to stand as a barrier against the idea of Christian government in the United States?  In other words (as much of the evidence clearly demonstrates) was the "original intent" of the Revolutionary Founders to limit the powers of Christianity in the new American government?  Was that the real purpose of the Treaty of Tripoli?