Will the Bible Survive?

History is filled with skeptics who have predicted the demise of Christianity and the Bible. Voltaire, the French atheist who died in 1778, boasted that within 100 hundred years of his lifetime, Christianity would have been swept from earth. Only 50 years after his death, though, his own printing press and house were being used by the Geneva Bible Society to produce Bibles! God does have a sense of humor!

In the late 1800’s, Robert G. Ingersoll, who had been born and reared in a devoutly Christian home, grew up to be a great orator. Sadly, he rejected his upbringing and was nicknamed “The Great Agnostic” for his anti-Christian stance. He once said, that “In twenty five years the Bible will be a forgotten book.” Ingersoll died in 1899, and to most of us, he is the one who has been forgotten!

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), an admired British writer and critic, became well-known for his belief in socialism and for his attacks on religion. Toward the end of his life, he wrote an article titled “Too True to be Good.” In that article he wrote: “The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, have led directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshipers in the temples of a thousand creeds, and now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith.”

The attacks continue today. The Bible, which used to be read daily in many public school classrooms, is now banned. Monuments containing the 10 Commandments have been torn down. Members of the military have even been warned not to even have a Bible visible on their desks. Two state governments have demanded that Christian pastors hand over their sermons to be checked by the state.

In spite of this opposition, though, Christians need never fear that the Bible will be defeated. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus Himself said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17–18).

God’s Word endures, and it always will! Not only is the Bible still available and powerful today, but it continues to change lives–including the recent news that thousands of Muslims are converting to Christ.

Here’s another bit of history you may not have read about: Clarence W. Hall was a newsman who followed American troops through Okinawa in 1945. He and his jeep driver came upon a small town that stood out as a beautiful example of a Christian community. He wrote, “We had seen other Okinawan villages … down at the heels and despairing; by contrast, this one shone like a diamond in a dung heap. Everywhere we were greeted by smiles and dignified bows. Proudly the old men showed us their spotless homes, their terraced fields … their storehouses and granaries, their prized sugar mill.”

Hall saw no jails and no drunkenness, and divorce was unknown. He learned an American missionary had come there thirty years earlier. While he was in the village, he had led two elderly townspeople to Christ and left them with a Japanese Bible. These new believers studied the Scriptures and started leading their fellow villagers to Jesus. Hall’s jeep driver said he was amazed at the difference between this village and the others around it. He remarked, “So this is what comes out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus.”