Many men have tried to destroy the Bible. In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christians and their Bibles. Over a burned Bible, he built a monument on which he wrote these words, Extincto momene Christianorum (meaning “the name Christian is extinguished”). Twenty years later, Diocletian was dead, and the new Emperor Constantine commissioned fifty copies of the Bible to be prepared at government expense.
In 1776, the French philosopher Voltaire said, “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by some antique seeker.” One hundred years from the day of Voltaire’s prediction, the first edition of his works sold for eleven cents in Paris, but the British government paid Russia half a million dollars for an ancient Bible manuscript.
It truly is interesting to read what men have tried to do with God’s Word, which shall stand forever. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
—Author Unknown
“‘The word of the Lord endures forever,’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” – 1 Peter 1:25
