Monday, April 29, 2019

Did Voltaire believe Christianity?


From page 27 of The Portable Voltaire: 
This one particular religion was Voltaire’s target because it was the one in power in the  Europe of his day. Had another religion been dominate he would have despised and attacked it…Of course he did not condemn Christianity—because he believed that the laws of right and wrong are known to mankind, including Christians; a belief that he summed-up in the statement: 
That there is only one morality and there is one geometry. 
The writer continues: 
He believed in the existence of God—a prime mover—for the homely reason that he found it impossible for there to be a watch without a watchmaker. 
But,
He did not see the great watch of the universe running marvelously if not beneficially regarding mankind.  

Voltaire observed the human conditions (as with King Solomon) as woeful, the lot of much of mankind, suffering and sacrifice.  Meanwhile, the church of Day (Anglican or Catholic) was in Voltaire’s view corrupt—the consequence of power...alliances with the state.  

Christ’s church is described as a radiant bride, pure and perfect, as opposed to other institutions of acclaimed churches steeped in all manner of sin, carnality and corruption. To separate the two is sometimes described Biblically as the wheat and tares, sheep and goats, the house built on rock versus that built on sand, and others…

When/as the church is purified so too is God glorified, the son’s return and the earth restored, a New Jerusalem.   Until that great and glorious time, the church must hold-fast in holiness, in the world but not of the world.

Voltaire observed the adulterous condition of the church and exposed it as perhaps one of some, likely leading to some form of condemnation—the consequence of any and all who challenge power, the state and its suckling.  

Christ’s condemnation (crucifixion) was a conspiracy of both the established church leadership (Sadducee) and the state (Governor Pilate and Herod); and indeed, these two remain alive and armed to exact more hardship and hegemony on any and all who attempt to hold them accountable or otherwise threaten their ways, their power.    

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