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The Book That Has Survived Its Enemies
The Bible, like no other book in history, has withstood vicious attacks from its enemies. Many have tried to ban it, burn it and outlaw it ... from the days of the Roman emperors to the present-day tyrant-dominated nations.

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 has 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.

"For example, the English Cathedral in Zanzibar (present-day Tanzania) is built on the site of the Old Slave Market, and its communion table stands on the very spot where the whipping post once stood! The world abounds with such instances ... As one has truly said, 'We might as well put our shoulder to the burning wheel of the sun, and try to stop it on its flaming course, as to attempt to stop the circulation of the Bible.' "

Concerning the boast of Voltaire on the extinction of Christianity and the Bible in 100 years, Geisler and Nix point out that "only 50 years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to produce stacks of Bibles." What an irony of history!

In 303 A.D., Diocletian issued an edict to destroy Christians and their sacred book: "an imperial letter was everywhere promulgated, ordering the razing of the churches to the ground and the destruction by fire of the scriptures, and proclaiming that those who held high positions would lose all civil rights, while those in households, if they persisted in their profession of Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty."

The historic irony of the above edict to destroy the Bible is that Constantine, the emperor following Diocletian, 25 years later commissioned Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of the scriptures at the expense of the government.

The Bible is unique in its survival. This does not prove that the Bible is true, but it does prove that it stands alone among books. A student seeking truth ought to consider a book that has the above qualifications.

U.S. answers to higher law
By the Rev. Rob Schenck
It could be argued that the Ten Commandments should be publicly displayed for no other reason than that these precepts informed our Founders. Our system of law is based on English Common Law, which had its moral foundation in the Ten Commandments. But there are other reasons for these timeless words to be publicly recognized by Americans.
The Commandments are a constant reminder of a higher moral authority than us. We are not the ultimate arbiters of right and wrong. The image of Moses in the Capitol is a statement that the laws of God are higher than the laws of man. Not all governments agree. In many countries, murder serves a state purpose. Not so here; we believe moral absolutes control governments as much as individuals. We can't change the Commandment against murder because we didn't make it in the first place. So it is with all the Commandments and the laws they effect.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says the Commandments can't be displayed publicly because they reference God. Yet the Declaration of Independence refers to "Nature's God." Our president swears in his oath of office "so help me God." Congress begins its day with a prayer to God. The Supreme Court itself announces every sitting with "God save the United States and this honorable court."
Contrary to what some critics claim, this public acknowledgement of God transcends religious sectarianism and unites us, rather than divides us. Our national motto, carried on our money, is "In God We Trust." We pledge allegiance to "one nation under God." The Ten Commandments simply explain what God requires of us. Jews, Christians and Muslims equally revere the Commandments and nearly every other religious and secular group considers them beneficial for society.
The Founders knew liberty could be afforded only to a people restrained internally by a moral governor. No matter how many laws we have against murder, how many police we have to catch the culprits, how many courts we have to prosecute and punish them and how many prisons we have to lock them up, only a conscience informed by a law greater than a human law can stop a murder before it happens. Displaying the Ten Commandments on public property is an admission by all of us of this truth.
The Rev. Rob Schenck is founder of the Ten Commandments Project in Washington, D.C.