Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Wednesday May 20 2026
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Hebrews 11:4-By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
Voltaire was undoubtedly one of the greatest infidels of all time. Interestingly enough, he was a deist and not an atheist. What is the difference between these two philosophies, you may be asking? An atheist claims to know that God does not exist, while a deist acknowledges that there is a God but who believes that He is not involved in the world that He created. In fact, Voltaire was a fierce critic of atheism.
With theists Voltaire spoke against atheism. He wrote: “I have always been convinced that atheism cannot do any good, and may do very great harm. I have pointed to the infinite difference between the sages who have written against superstition and the madmen who have written against God. There is neither philosophy nor morality in any system of atheism” (Philosophical Letters, 33). He adds, “it would not be difficult to prove from history that atheism may sometimes produce as much evil as the most barbarous superstitions” (ibid., 29). Indeed, “it is altogether probable that all the powerful men who have passed their lives in that round of crimes which fools denominate strokes of policy, revolutionary remedies, art of governing, & c., have been atheists” (ibid., 33). (Normal L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker Reference Library), 766 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books)
However, Voltaire had a strong hatred of Christianity. He even declared that within a hundred years of his death, there would not be a single Bible left in the world (with the exception of some being located in museums).
Look what actually happened!
The Bible has withstood vicious attacks of its enemies as no other book has. Many have tried to burn it, ban it, and “outlaw it, from the days of the Roman emperors to present-day Communist-dominated countries.” 108/ 232 Sidney Collett in All About the Bible says, Voltaire, the noted French infidel who died in 1778, said that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history. But what happened? Voltaire has passed into history, while the circulation of the Bible continues to increase in almost all parts of the world, carrying blessing wherever it goes. 33/ 63 Concerning the boast of Voltaire on the extinction of Christianity and the Bible in a hundred years, Geisler and Nix point out that “only fifty years after [Voltaire’s] death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and his house to produce stacks of Bibles.” 54/ 123-24 WHAT AN IRONY OF HISTORY! (Josh Mcadowrll, compiled by Bill Wilson, A Ready Defense The Best Of Josh Mcdowell, 30 (Kindle Edition): Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
However, what is perhaps the saddest example of Voltaire’s legacy amounts to his final words.
VOLTAIRE, the noted French infidel and one of the most fertile and talented writers of his time, used his pen to retard and demolish Christianity. Of Christ, Voltaire said: “Curse the wretch!” He once boasted, “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.” Shortly after his death the very house in which he printed his foul literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible Society. The nurse who attended Voltaire said: “For all the wealth in Europe I would not see another infidel die.” The physician, Trochim, waiting up with Voltaire at his death said that he cried out most desperately: “I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. 0 Christ! 0 Jesus Christ! (Herbert Lockyer, Last Words of Saints and Sinners: 700 Final Quotes from the Famous, the Infamous, and the Inspiring Figures of History, 133 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications)
Contrast this sad testimony with that of the Apostle Paul.
2 Timothy 4:6-8-For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
When we live and die in Christ, we can have the blessed hope that the Apostle here speaks of.
Do you have that hope of eternal life?
Acts 22:16-And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
Lord, thank You for being our Light in the darkness. Amen.