When President John Kennedy entertained a group of Nobel Prize winners in the White House in December of 1962, he welcomed them as the most distinguished gathering of talents ever assembled in the Executive Mansion, except when Thomas Jefferson dined there alone.

Jefferson was indeed a Renaissance man. Conversant in English, French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek, he was easily able to read the New Testament in its original language. He was fascinated with the ethical teachings of Jesus. He believed that their "system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime . . . ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those of any of the ancient philosophers."

However, Jefferson mourned that the task of preserving these teachings "fell on the most unlettered and ignorant men; who wrote, too, from memory, and not till long after the transactions had passed." As a result, "the doctrines which he really delivered were defective as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, and often unintelligible."

The "mutilated" record of Jesus' life and work included miraculous elements which Jefferson could not reconcile with his deistic worldview. God was to him the Creator of the universe who did not meddle in the affairs of his creation. He allowed the world to function according to the natural laws he incorporated into its operations. And so Jefferson considered himself "a Christian, in the only sense he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other."

Consequently, Jefferson removed from the Gospels every reference to the miraculous, preserving only Jesus' ethical statements. The resulting "Jefferson Bible" ends thus: "There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed."

Thomas Jefferson was not the first or the last to reject biblical authority because of its claims to record the miraculous. There was a time when the science/faith debate led many to believe that acceptance of miracles was intellectually naïve, if not dangerous. Now things are a bit different. The postmodern movement has opened the door for "spirituality" of all kinds, whether it is based on miracles or not. Such claims can be "my" truth without being "your" truth.

However, I still speak often with people who struggle to reconcile scientific materialism with the biblical narratives. They do not believe people can walk on water today, so they wonder how to accept the New Testament claim that Jesus did. They have not witnessed incontrovertible proof of divine healing, and struggle with biblical statements that Jesus performs such miracles.

Several years ago, I spent some extended time with a geologist who was visiting our church and considering Christianity. His great struggle was that he could not reconcile his knowledge of our planet's origins with what he had been told was the biblical account of creation. He could not trust in Christ as his Lord, if he could not trust the book which revealed Christ to him.

What would you say to a person who denies the miraculous? As we close our Friday conversations regarding biblical authority, let's discuss the supernatural and its relationship to your soul today.