In fact, Franklin seems all too aware to his
approaching finitude, cautioning Stiles, who wanted to honor Franklin at Yale
with a portrait:
You
have an excellent Artist lately arrived. If he will undertake to make one for
you, I shall chearfully pay the Expence: But he must not long delay setting
about it, or I may slip thro' his Fingers, for I am now in my 85th Year's and
very infirm.
In the letter Franklin makes two statements I wish
to comment upon. The first:
“You
desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been
questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour
in a few Words to gratify it.
I had to wonder whether Franklin was accurate in his
memory or whether previous inquires went forgotten. Franklin is now 85 years of age. Is this really the first time he has been
questioned about his religion? What a
tragic reproach upon Christians. I
realize Christians of the colonial era, were not, for the most part, highly
evangelistic and much too intellectual.
I know there were exceptions like
George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards.
Still, no one had taken Franklin to task about what we believe is the
most important part of man—his eternal soul?
And Ezra Stiles?
He was a Congregational minister and a New Englander (Connecticut and
Rhode Island) who may never have meet the Pennsylvanian Franklin in
person. Yet, they clearly had many
correspondences. At least Stiles finally
got around to asking the key question.
So maybe we modern evangelicals can walk away with
two lessons here. First, make sure our
values match our priorities. If we
really value the souls of mankind, let’s have that conversation before we talk
about contemporary events. Sports,
weather, hobbies, and families all make for enriching and non-threatening conversations, but we
shouldn’t be treating faith as an after-thought. Second, it’s never too late to have that conversation
with people in our lives. I know ‘religion’
makes people uncomfortable and I like putting people at ease, so it’s easy to
avoid it. But I, and millions of other
evangelicals, need to get over it. Have
that conversation with the people in your life.
Today.
The second statement Franklin made in his letter was
about Jesus:
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom
you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he
left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I
apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of
the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho' it is a
Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it, and think it
needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of
knowing the Truth with less Trouble.
Again, where were Franklin’s spiritual friends,
elevating the need for him to “busy” himself with thoughts of Jesus? Why did they let him get away with so
casually dismissing the need to contemplate Jesus. Franklin had previously stated he believed in
God. But his belief in God promoted only
a moralism…a doing good to others. He
never saw himself as one who was a sinner…a rebel against the holiness of God
in desperate need of the saving work of Jesus.
In Franklin’s view, Jesus was a good teacher and he didn’t need to take
the time to figure out if that was all Jesus was.
Benjamin Franklin.
Patriot. Founder. Witty and
brilliant; wise and helpful; inquisitive
and experimental. He left the world a
better place. But he never properly
answered life’s singularly most important question—Who is Jesus?
Have you?
