ATTACKING THE WORD OF GOD

From the very beginning of man, Satan has attempted to discredit the Word of God. Yes, even before it was written down, the devil was able to convince Adam and Eve that God's Word could not be trusted (Gen. 3:1-5). In the six thousand years since then, not much has changed. Men are still mocking the Bible, saying it is unscientific, historically inaccurate, and nothing more than a collection of myths and superstition. Isn't it strange that so much money, time, and effort would be put into trying to discredit the Bible, but our nation would begin passing laws to protect the Koran (also known as the Qur'an, Kuran, Koran, Qur’ān, Coran or al-Qur’ān)? Ever wonder why there is little criticism of it, or the religious books of other religions, and yet the Bible has been continually challenged? Perhaps it is because the others do not pose a threat to Satan.

In A.D. 303, the Roman emperor, Diocletian decreed that every Bible should be destroyed, because he had been informed that Christians were "the people of the Book." In a mere nine years, Constantine, who succeeded him, had replaced the pagan symbols of Rome with the cross. Fourteen hundred years later, the French atheist, Voltaire (1694-1778), boasted that "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." Strangely enough, twenty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased his house for a place to print Bibles.

Today, over one hundred million Bibles are sold yearly, and that does not include the huge number of Bibles given away by groups such as the Gideons International. The Gideons, an evangelical Christian organization, is dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible in over 94 languages and 194 countries of the world. The organization was founded in 1899, and began distributing free Bibles, the work for which it is chiefly known, in 1908, when the first Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. Since then, close to 1.7 billion have been distributed, with nearly seventy-nine million being given out in 2009 alone.

There is an obvious reason why Satan and those who belong to him are so determined to discredit or destroy the Bible; it contains the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). He knows that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was "according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3-4). And he knows that faith in Christ results from hearing it preached (Rom. 10:17). And finally, he knows that God has declared His Word to be even greater than His holy name: "I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy loving kindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name" (Ps. 138:2). He has declared that His Word will stand forever (Matt. 24:35)! Praise God! .