What did Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin actually believe about God? In this first installment of a series on worldviews, Dr. Phil Fernandes, President of the Institute of Biblical Defense and pastor of Trinity Bible Fellowship, examines deism — the belief that God created the universe but then stepped back and left it alone.

Dr. Fernandes explains the core deist position and draws an important distinction between the pro-Christian American deism of the Founding Fathers, who still promoted Christian morality and believed in prayer, and the anti-Christian French Jacobin deism that helped fuel the French Revolution. He also tackles the internal inconsistency of rejecting miracles outright — if God is powerful enough to create a universe from nothing, there's no logical reason He couldn't perform miracles. And when you actually examine the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, Dr. Fernandes argues, it becomes clear that miracles haven't just been claimed — they've occurred. Deism, in the end, can't account for that.

A clear introduction to an influential worldview that shaped the founding era and still shapes how many people think about God today.