“Ecrasez l’infame” (crush the infamy-the Christian religion), Voltaire (1694‑1778). Voltaire vs. the Bible and Christianity’s superiority.  

Pt. 2 of, Can we have confidence in the Bible as God’s guide to humanity?

        Voltaire was a Deist; he vehemently opposed the Christian faith and wrote scoffingly against the Christian faith and the Bible. Voltaire ended his letters to his friends with, “Ecrasez l’infame” (crush the infamy‑the Christian religion). In 1776, two years before he died, he completed his two‑volume commentary on the whole Bible, La Bible Enfin Expliquée, which purpose was to ” make the whole building [of Christianity] crumble.” This was predicted by him to be about 100 years after his death. God had other plans for this deluded man, not long after his death the building where he lived in Geneva was used by its dwellers to store Bibles and tracts for the Bible society! Today hardly anyone, with some exceptions, knows who Voltaire was, nor have any idea of his literary works.  Some have tried to discount these accounts of Voltaire, but this is well researched.  Check it out here for starters; there are several references there at your disposal. https://bellatorchristi.com/2019/03/18/voltaires‑prediction‑home‑and‑the‑bible‑society‑truth‑or‑myth/.  And the Bible? Well, let us see.

        The Bible is Unique In Its Continuity.  Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it was written over a period of fifteen hundred years by forty authors from every walk of life: kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars and shepherds. Some wrote from heights of joy, others from depths of sorrow and despair; still others in times of certainty and conviction, while others during days of confusion and doubt.  This Book, therefore, appeals to every human behaviour and concern.  It penetrates to the depths of the human soul.  Heb. 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

        The Bible was written on three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe and in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; like English today, Aramaic and Greek were the lingua francas of their day. The Bible addresses hundreds of controversial subjects, subjects that create opposing opinions (sometimes heatedly) when mentioned or discussed today: marriage, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, human gender, adultery, obedience to authority, truth‑telling and lying, character development, parenting, the nature and revelation of God, to give a few examples. Yet when reading from Genesis to Revelation one finds an amazing harmony throughout. Contrast the books of the Bible with the compilation of Western classics called the Great Books of the Western World. The Great Books contain selections from more than 450 works by close to 100 authors spanning a period of about twenty‑five centuries: Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Hobbes, Spinoza, Calvin, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Hume, Kant, Darwin, Tolstoy, Whitehead, and Joyce, to name a few. While these individuals are all part of the Western tradition of ideas, they often display an incredible diversity of views on just about every subject, sometimes frequently going out of their way to critique and refute key ideas proposed by their predecessors.  It may be argued that the uniqueness of the Bible, as shown above, may not prove its inspiration, but it does, however, challenge any person sincerely seeking truth to consider its divine origin as concerning its uniqueness. Voltaire and his diatribes against the Bible and Christianity are no match for the Bible and its uniqueness.

        The Uniqueness of its Circulation. One may read of best sellers ranging into hundreds of thousands of sales; sometimes, but less frequently, over a million copies, and rarely pass tens of millions.  It staggers the mind, then, to discover that the number of Bibles sold reaches into the billions!  More copies have been produced of its entirety as well as selected portions than any other book in history. No other book can be compared with the Bible in terms of its circulation.  The latest updates on biblical circulation are as follows (2019): 5.6 billion people now have access to the full Bible in their language.  So far, we have 3, 988 languages (out of 7, 354) used by 246 million people without any Scripture!  Digital Bible Library by the end of 2018 hosted 2, 120 texts in 1430 languages, used by 5.5 billion people, including 799 full Bibles in 440 languages.  The number of audio Scriptures grew to 1125, in 752 languages spoken by 5.4 billion people.  In June 2017, the first full Uzbek Bible was launched in the capital, Tashkent, and officially approved by the Uzbek government. (www.biblesociety.org)

        Even among the Deaf and visually impaired Bible translations in part and whole Bibles are making inroads to reach this group of people. Work is slow there, but Bible Societies continue to expand their work in Braille and sign languages. Friends, no other book in history comes close to comparing with this.  Again, this may not prove its divine origin, but it sure stretches incredulity that it isn’t.  It would appear that there is a Divine hand leading out in biblical circulation.  And Jesus himself prophesied that when this gospel shall go to all the world, then shall the end come.  Are you, my friends, prepared for this wonderful occasion?

        Unique in its Survival.  No other book has been persecuted as the Bible and yet has come out at the top of the line. It has been banned, burned, chained to churches, its sanctity has been violated, thousands have been thrown into the sea, in the west in modern times it has been called “hate literature;” in present‑day China, the Bible and Christians are coming under intense pressure from the communist state, yet as in the past, it will survive while the persecutors will perish.  The Chinese government is trying to re‑write Christianity, by re‑writing the Bible to bring it in line with the terrible communist philosophy.  Many pastors, elders, and members are being arrested; banned from their cities; children are being barred from attending churches.  Christianity is no stranger to martyrdom.  Christianity was born in persecution and martyrdom, but yet it lives on and is still at the top.

        L. Hastings illustrates the unique way in which the Bible has withstood attacks of infidels and skeptics: Infidels for eighteen hundred years have been refuting and overthrowing this book, and yet it stands today as solid as a rock. Its circulation increases and it is more loved and cherished and read today than ever before. Infidels, with their assaults, make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the pyramids of Egypt.  When the French monarch proposed the persecution of the Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, “Sire, the Church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”  So the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures.  If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die, and the book still lives. (Lea, GBW, 17‑18)

        Bernard Ramm Adds, A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral process formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read, but somehow the corpse never stays put.  No other book has been so chopped, knived, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such mass attacks as the Bible? And with such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet?  The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions and studied by millions. (Ramm, PCE 1953, 232‑233).  We have recently read that in the United Kingdom a judge ruled that the biblical doctrine that people are created male and female is “incompatible with human dignity” and those who follow it can be fired from their jobs on that basis. The panel ruled that the person that believes that God made humans male and female and that a person cannot change his or her sex and that efforts to do so are pointless and self‑destructive, and sinful is his “mere opinion.”

        Godless humanity will always attack God, His Word, the Bible, and His followers.  “Those who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  2 Tim. 3:12.   But as the Bible which has never failed in its predictions has said, one day, hopefully soon, Christ will return for his people.  And there will no more be pain, sickness, violence, and death. The question for all of us is simply, are you on His side, the winning side?  The choice is yours.

We will continue on the reliability and validity of the Bible in my next letter.  May God bless you all.

I am heavily indebted to Josh McDowell’s book, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, (1999), for information found in this newsletter.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.