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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