Theodore Beza (1519–1605)
From H.L. Hastings quoting Beza, as recorded by John W Lea in The Greatest Book in the World (1929).
When the French monarch proposed the persecution of Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, 'Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.' So the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.
Original quote recorded in Theodore Beza the Counsellor of the French Reformation 1519 to 1605 by Henry Martyn Baird (1899)
Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.
it's a nice sentimental concept (and by the way, true) but the same could be said of the Rg Vedas or any other scripture.
ReplyDeleteit just shows there is too much greek logic ruling in Christianity which is boring and un-Jesus-like, especially as he is a Torah-true orthodox Jew with no time for such nonsense.
And yet, anonymous, the Saints endure, they overcome persecution by the word of their testimony and the fact they were willing to trade their lives for the joy they had known. There are many opinions on Jesus and who he was, how he lived, but the best historical records, the ones that have stood the test of scholarship, archeology and textual evidence are the four books written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Taking different facets of his life and his claims, they agree he claimed to be the promised deliverer, the Meshiah foretold by the prophets.
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