Theism is the belief in God based on revelation.
Deism is the belief in God NOT based on revelation.
Christianity is theism.
No. Deism is the belief in a God who may have influenced the beginnings of the Universe, but exerts no influence upon the actual workings of the Universe beyond some initial creation act or event (for which He might be ultimately responsible).
BTW, Jefferson is often claimed to have been a Deist, but Jefferson also claimed that "almighty God hath created the mind free...", that "I tremble for my country when I reflect that
God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever (speaking of the injustice of chattel slavery) and that "the mass of mankind was not born with saddles on their backs and others booted and spurred to ride them".
All of these quotes by Jefferson (and a myriad of others reflect the thought of a man who believed that the hand of God was actively at work in the Universe and in the affairs of men. In any event, the struggle is not between Deism and Theism. It is between belief and unbelief. Deism, properly understood, concedes every necessary thing to Theism with respect to the idea of God and the meaning of the idea of a Supreme Being in the public square and vice versa. Both beliefs stand in opposition to naturalistic materialism, or materialism. Both uanssisted reason (the "laws of nature") and divine revelation (the "laws of nature's God") stand upon the same ground and are in essential agreement as to what constitutes moral and immoral behavior. It was upon an appeal to both of these (essentially )non-contradictory (in the decisive respect) systems of belief that the Founders appealed (in addition "to the Supreme Judge of the Universe" for the "rectitude of their intentions"). As an aside, it would have been pointless for the Founders to appeal to God for the justness of their cause if they did not believe that the opinion of that God mattered, viz., that he exercised no influence upon the Universe.
Jordan
