Christianity as Old as the Creation

work by Tindal

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July 17, 2026

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Matthew Tindal's work, Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730), is a key text in Enlightenment Christology and Deism. Tindal argued that Jesus preached a natural gospel understandable by all, but this message was corrupted by religious authorities. Deists, like Tindal, believed that true Christianity was a rational religion devoid of superstition and that clergy had distorted Jesus' original teachings. They sought to uncover the "historical Jesus" by critically examining the New Testament, focusing on Jesus as a moral teacher rather than a divine figure. This perspective viewed Christianity's core tenets as ancient truths, essentially "as old as creation," rather than a unique divine revelation.12

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Christology
Enlightenment Christology
… (1657–1733) argued in his book Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730) that Jesus had preached a gospel of “nature” that all of humankind could understand were it not for the perversions introduced by priests and other religious functionaries. Other Deist interpretations of Jesus were Chubb’s The True Gospel of…
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… (1657–1733) argued in his book Christianity as Old as the Creation (1730) that Jesus had preached a gospel of “nature” that all of humankind could understand were it not for the perversions introduced by priests and other religious functionaries. Other Deist interpretations of Jesus were Chubb’s The True Gospel of…
Read More