The Book That Has Survived Its Enemies
By Editorial Staff
Published December 2007
The Bible, like no other book in history, has withstood vicious attacks from its enemies. Many have tried to ban it, burn it and outlaw it … from the days of the Roman emperors to the present-day tyrant-dominated nations.
Sidney Collett, in All About the Bible, says, “Voltaire, the noted French infidel who died in 1778, said that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history. But what has happened? Voltaire has passed into history, while the circulation of the Bible continues to increase in almost all parts of the world, carrying blessing wherever it goes.
“For example, the English Cathedral in Zanzibar (present-day Tanzania) is built on the site of the Old Slave Market, and its communion table stands on the very spot where the whipping post once stood! The world abounds with such instances … As one has truly said, ‘We might as well put our shoulder to the burning wheel of the sun, and try to stop it on its flaming course, as to attempt to stop the circulation of the Bible.’ “
Concerning the boast of Voltaire on the extinction of Christianity and the Bible in 100 years, Geisler and Nix point out that “only 50 years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to produce stacks of Bibles.” What an irony of history!
In 303 A.D., Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christians and their sacred book: “an imperial letter was everywhere promulgated, ordering the razing of the churches to the ground and the destruction by fire of the scriptures, and proclaiming that those who held high positions would lose all civil rights, while those in households, if they persisted in their profession of Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty.”
The historic irony of the above edict to destroy the Bible is that Constantine, the emperor following Diocletian, 25 years later commissioned Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the scriptures at the expense of the government.
The Bible is unique in its survival. This does not prove that the Bible is true, but it does prove that it stands alone among books. A student seeking truth ought to consider a book that has the above qualifications.
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