By Thomas Paine, Presented by Lewis Loflin
Paine’s final published work (New York, 1807) blends a rational exploration of dreams with a critique of New Testament prophecies, reflecting his Deist commitment to reason over revelation.
This essay introduces Paine’s last work, printed in 1807 as "An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old and called Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ," with an appended "Essay on Dream" and thoughts on a future state. It draws from the unpublished Part III of "The Age of Reason" and his response to the Bishop of Llandaff. An earlier fragment appeared in Paris (1803) as "Extract from the M.S. Third Part of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason," possibly for private circulation, now rare and housed in the Bodleian Library.
Paine gifted a copy to Daniel Constable in 1807, predicting its challenge to clergy. A later London edition (1811) led to Daniel Isaacs Eaton’s 18-month imprisonment, prompting Shelley’s defense. Here, I present the full "Essay on Dream" and preface, aligning with my Deist focus on reason (My Deist Journey).
To the Ministers and Preachers of all Denominations of Religion:
It’s every person’s duty, within their ability, to uncover delusion and error. Not all have the talent, and among those who do, many lack the will or courage. For over a millennium, Christendom has been captivated by claims of Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ, preached in countless sermons and books. I’ve examined these New Testament citations and found no such prophecies—they relate to Jewish circumstances of their time, not future events. I cite chapter and verse, staying within the texts themselves.
Unfounded belief often turns into habitual hypocrisy. When people profess what they don’t believe for worldly gain, they abandon moral integrity, becoming untrustworthy beyond legal bounds. This vice explains the deceit among many churchgoers—morality loses its grip when reason is forsaken.
Some preachers tie salvation to belief in Christ, forgiving sins—an invitation to recklessness, like a youth assured his debts are covered. Yet, if no Old Testament prophecies support Jesus, the New Testament’s credibility collapses, a forgery from the Councils of Nice and Laodicea (circa 350 CE), where books were voted in by yeas and nays. Others preach predestination, a doctrine that, if true, renders judgment past and preaching futile, demoralizing humanity further.
My aim, as in my political works against monarchy, is to elevate humanity through reason, fostering divine morality—justice, mercy, benevolence—free from the fables of so-called holy books.
—Thomas Paine
Dreams feature prominently in the New Testament, so we must first understand their nature to judge their reliability. The mind comprises three faculties—imagination, judgment, and memory—active in waking life but uneven in sleep, making dreams less rational than waking thoughts.
The brain, the mind’s seat, reveals its role through injury—skull fractures can turn wisdom to idiocy—yet its inner workings remain mysterious. Whether its faculties occupy distinct regions or move differently (pulsating, fermenting), we cannot know. Like a watch, imagination drives motion, judgment regulates, and memory records, but in sleep, their balance shifts.
Imagination rarely sleeps, while judgment rests easily and memory acts silently until called. If judgment dozes while imagination runs free, dreams become chaotic—wild images and impossible scenes seem plausible without order’s guard. If memory sleeps, we recall only a vague sense of dreaming; if it stirs later, fragments flood back.
Curiously, the dreaming mind plays all roles—conversing, questioning, answering—as if staging a theater of its own. Yet, it cannot retrieve forgotten facts (e.g., a name) or truly remember what it never knew, instead counterfeiting memory with vivid fictions. Time in dreams bends to events, not clocks, stretching or shrinking as scenes unfold.
This state suggests we’re all briefly mad nightly—if we acted out dreams awake, we’d be confined. Sanity requires all faculties in harmony; insanity mirrors sleep’s imbalance persisting into day. To base religion on dreams, like the claim of Jesus’ divine birth from Joseph’s dream (Matthew 1:20), is absurd. Such tales have mesmerized Europe for centuries, resisted only by reason’s champions—like the American and French Revolutions opening free inquiry.
[Note: The following was omitted in Paine’s 1807 edition but restored from the Paris manuscript:]
Every new religion invents new props—like the Holy Ghost and angels, absent before Christ and Abraham. Angels flit through scripture, eating, drinking, and vanishing, their logistics unaddressed. From angels to prophets and dreamers, the Bible pits God against Pharaoh in childish contests—drowning armies, conjuring lice—vulgar tales bettered by Jack the Giant-Killer. The New Testament shifts scenes but keeps the crudity. Reason rejects this God of fable for the God of nature’s order—a blasphemous travesty otherwise.
I conclude with Ecclesiasticus 34:1-2 (Apocrypha): "The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false; and dreams lift up fools. Whoso regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind." Next, I’ll show the so-called prophecies of Christ are no such thing, tied to their own era, not a distant savior.
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Grok, an AI by xAI, for formatting help. Paine’s words are presented with my edits, resonating with my Deist critique of revelation (My Deist Journey). —Lewis Loflin
Section updated, added 4/05/2025