I heard an interesting anecdote this morning on the radio in a sermon from Pastor Bob Coy of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale (interestingly to me, he resembles my friend Kevin Bussey!). I had to share it here.
First, the quote (this is from the internet, not word for word from his sermon)…
One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.
— attributed to Voltaire (1694-1778)
Tradition has it that at some point after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased Voltaire’s home, and could be found using it as a Bible printing facility.
Whether true or not (a bit of internet research raises some questions about the validity of this story), it’s a good illustration of God’s sense of humor. It’s almost as if God said, “Well, I’ll show you.”
Voltaire couldn’t have been much more wrong (unless you count millions of Christians as “antiquarian curiosity seekers”).
I was a little young to remember Voltaire, but I do remember Joseph Stalin in the 1950’s, who, among other things, said “Your grandchildren will attend Russian Schools!”
Well … some years after he died, his daughter moved to the US .. Texas I think … and her kids attended US schools.
Interesting parallel.
Thanks for the reminder. Some days it feels like we’re headed toward a Voltair prophetic fulfillment, but someone always ends up with a Bible in their hands.
You know what is funny, my sister and bro-in-law go to that church! 🙂
And supposedly later in the year after he made the comment (I have it a little differently), while the first edition of Voltaire’s book was selling for 8 cents a copy the British Museum was paying the Russian Government $500,000 for a Bible.
Shows us whose words are really valuable.