"Is My word not like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? Jeremiah 23:29 Those of us who stand on the Word of God have been swimming upstream down through the centuries and we have never been in the majority. Chances are good you are the only one in your neighborhood who believes the bible is inerrant. Chances are good you are the only one in your classroom who believes that the scriptures are to speak truth and everyone else considered a liar. If you are guiding your family by the principals of scripture you are going to be seen, at the very least, as politically incorrect in this culture we live in today.
God’s Word has certainly endured the test of time. Men, sects and even empires have down through the centuries undertaken to destroy every jot and tittle of the enduring and everlasting Word of God.
The last 10 emperors of the Roman Empire, starting with Nero and ending with Diocletian, persecuted the Christian religion relentlessly and mercilessly, yet, the Christian faith continued to spread and grow across the then known world. Of those 10 Roman emperors, Diocletian was the most vindictive and cruelest of the Cesare’s. Not content to just arresting Christians and having them, in many cases, put to death unless they recanted their faith, Diocletian would burn any homesteads that were owned by Christ followers and sought to burn any of the sacred writings that his army would come across, (perhaps one reason why the original writings of scripture do not exist today.)
Nevertheless, 25 years after Diocletian’s reign of terror, a new emperor came to power and of all things, converted to the Christian religion. His name was Constantine and in 328 A.D., he commissioned Eusebius, a bishop of Caesarea Maritima, to prepare 50 copies of the scriptures, all at the expense of the Roman government, the same Roman government who had spent nearly 3 centuries trying to eradicate all signs and remembrances of Christianity and it’s book.
“Is My word not like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
And then there was Voltaire, a French philosopher, historian, and deist. He was a free thinker who became a most influential and prolific writer during what had been called the “Age of Enlightenment”. Voltaire had a deep distain for Christianity and especially the Holy Bible.
In 1764 he wrote, “The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart” (Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764).
He even once so boldly wrote, “We are living in the twilight of Christianity” (Philosophical Dictionary).
So engrossed in his disdain for Christianity, Voltaire ended every letter to friends with “Ecrasez l’infame” (crush the infamy — the Christian religion).
Voltaire, in his voluminous writings against Christianity and the Bible, predicted in 1776, “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.”
Within fifty years after his death, in an ironic twist of Providence, the very house in which he once lived and wrote was bought by the French Bible Society. It was eventually used by the Evangelical Society of Geneva as a storehouse for Bibles and Gospel tracts and the very printing presses he used to print his volumes of irreverent works, were now used to print the Holy Scriptures.
“Is My word not like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
Peter and Isaiah, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, put it perfectly.
“… for you have been born again not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS,
AND ALL ITS GLORY IS LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS.
THE GRASS WITHERS,
AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.”
There is a deep concern today for how many believers truly understand the power and the blessings of God’s Holy Word. Everything that pertains to life and eternity is contained within the covers of the Holy Bible. And when we embrace it, it makes a difference in our emotions. It makes a difference in our reactions, our responses to our fellow man. It makes a difference in how we view life, how we handle relationships, how we handle stress, and how we handle our worries concerning the future or of things which are past.
We do not worship the book or the print in that book. It is the truth of the Word that directs us to Christ, that drives us, motivates us, and fills us with hope. It confirms our trust and faith in an Almighty God, in His begotten Son, our Lord Jesus and gives us assurance that what He says, will come to fruition. For as God spoke through Isaiah 55:11:
“So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty (void), but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
God’s Word is indeed a fire and a hammer that shatters every rock of opposition and bastion of unbelief. It strengthens the heart of every person who puts their trust in His proclaimed word and fills they’re very being with hope. If you have yet to fully embrace the all-consuming Word of God and make it a staple of your everyday life, why not start today?
Br. Dennis
