What is deism? What do deists believe?
A. J. Pollock gives perhaps the clearest definition. Writing on Darwin's philosophical position, he states:
A. J. PollockBy Deism is meant belief in the existence of a Creator — a great First Cause — unknown and unknowable, coupled with the refusal to admit that God has made any revelation outside of nature in Creation; that is to say, the deist, whilst believing in God as Creator, refuses the Bible as God's revelation and rejects Christ as a Saviour.
In another work, Pollock recounts a well-known historical episode:
Bible_Testimony_to_the_Son_of_GodIt is related of Lord Lyttleton and Mr. Gilbert West, who lived in the 18th century, that they recognized that the great obstacle to the overthrow of Christianity was the belief of Christians in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and they determined to explode this truth. They were both deists, as were so many at that time. Deists were those who believed in the existence of a Supreme Being, but who rejected the Bible. They denied that there was such a thing as revealed religion.
(Remarkably, both men — trained lawyers — ended up writing books defending the resurrection after examining the evidence.)
Deism Distinguished from Other Forms of Unbelief
An article in The Bible Treasury (1883) carefully places deism alongside atheism and pantheism, showing what makes each distinct:
1883_201_IdolatryThe deist recognises the existence and in a measure the government of God, both which he pretends to know by the light of reason alone. He wilfully ignores the condition and the results of reason when man had no Revelation from God; he derides the thought that his reason is indebted to the light of the Bible for its emancipation from the many gods of Paganism. Like the fabled Prometheus he has stolen heavenly fire and employed it against the Book whence he had it. For him the Bible, however much he may admire its precepts, has no more authority than the Koran or the mythologies of paganism. To him sin is not the effect of enmity against God, but errors of judgment or perhaps the mistakes of nature.
"God Without Religion"
A review in The Bible Treasury vol. 17 (1889) titled "Modern Deism" captures the essence of the position as "God without Religion" — the mirror image of Positivism, which was "Religion without God." The deistic creed, as expressed by Justice Sir James Stephen, amounts to this:
"If human life is in course of being fully described by science, I do not see what materials there are for any religion, or indeed what would be the use of one, or why it is wanted. We can get on very well without one; for, though the view of life which science is offering to us gives us nothing to worship, it gives us an infinite number of things to enjoy."
The reviewer exposes the fatal gap in this reasoning — deism strips away all divine intervention and reduces faith to what man already has by nature:
interventionNow it is clear that neither believing that God is, nor natural conscience, is believing in the special facts of Christianity — the incarnation, atonement, resurrection, redemption, being born again, the exaltation of a Man to God's right hand, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In a word, no special truth or fact of Christianity is "written on our hearts by God's own finger," or can be possessed by mere natural conscience or belief in God. All intervention of God is left out. But it is in this, and the statement of what led to its necessity, that revealed religion consists.
Darby on Deism as Disguised Unbelief
J. N. Darby applies the label to Bishop Colenso, who claimed belief in God and moral conscience would remain intact even "though not the Pentateuch only, but the whole Bible, were removed." Darby's verdict is sharp:
J. N. DarbyIn other words (as far as his book goes, which he puts forth as a manifesto), he is a profound Deist. Even with the Bible he only believes so much as his heart and conscience recognize, and that the latter is to be preferred to the Bible as the means of knowing God.
Darby traces the logic to its end: Colenso's position amounts to "extracting Deism from Christianity and heathenism alike, and making conscience the judge of what is to be received from each."
In summary, deism acknowledges a Creator — a supreme First Cause who made the universe — but denies that this God has spoken to mankind through Scripture, through Christ, or through any special revelation. The deist relies on reason and conscience alone, may admire moral precepts, but refuses the authority of the Bible, the reality of sin as enmity against God, and the need for redemption through a Saviour. As these writers consistently observe, deism's great weakness is that it takes the moral light it has inherited from centuries of biblical influence and then turns against the very source of that light — "like the fabled Prometheus, stealing heavenly fire and employing it against the Book whence he had it."