God's Word Stands
Christianity and the Bible have always garnered opposition. In 298 A.D., the Roman emperor, Diocletian, began an aggressive and orderly persecution of Christians. Among other things (imprisonment, torture, execution, etc.), Diocletian ordered every Bible burned. He thought by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity. He was wrong!
In less than 25 years, Constantine became the first Christian Roman emperor. He considered himself responsible to God for the spiritual health of his subjects and ordered fifty copies of the Bible copied by hand at government expense.
A few years before the American Revolution, Voltaire (French essayist and philosopher François-Marie Arouet) wrote that the Bible was an outdated legal and moral reference, which was in great part metaphorical, and was most surely a work of man, not a Divine revelation from God. He further asserted that Christianity would no longer exist in one hundred years. He was wrong!
By May 30, 1778 Voltaire was dead. Within fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society bought his house and used his printing press to produce Bibles. It remains the most read, most printed, and most loved book in history.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV)
