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Part two of a series. Read part one.
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If God has not preserved every word, every letter of Holy Scripture as He originally gave it, then He has been defeated by Satan. We know this is not true.
In the first article of this series we saw, unmistakably, that Psalm 119:89-96 and other passages declare God's written Word to be both a written declaration and an integral part of His eternal decree. We saw that the great historic Protestant confessions echo this in their statements that "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." Holy Scripture is a declaration of the "whatsoever" that God has decreed, and it is the central element of the "whatsoever". God is sovereign over His Word, because it is the written embodiment of His Sovereign Decree.
This leads us to a further vital conclusion: Since the written Word is the embodiment of God's eternal decree, forever settled, forever standing, then it is inevitable that we will find that God has preserved His Word as He originally gave it by the Holy Spirit through human writers. Not one bit of it has been lost. God would not be God, God would not be sovereign, if He did not maintain the integrity of the text of His written decree, in all generations, despite sinful man's continued efforts to adulterate it.
That is precisely the promise that we find in the pages of Scripture:
Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced, you His servants, the descendants of Israel, His chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; His judgments [more literally, His ordinances] are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the promise He made, for a thousand generations... (1 Chronicles 16:12-15)
Furthermore, we have the words of Jesus himself:
For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18)
The "jot" (Hebrew yod) is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The "tittle" is the smallest stroke in a Hebrew letter. This indicates the extent of the detail of God's preservation of His Word - every word, every letter, down to the last fragment of a letter. Also here again we have the use of the terms for the created order in relation to God's Sovereign Decree, just as we found them in Psalm 119:89-91 - "till heaven and earth pass away..."
Furthermore, we have God's commands concerning our handling of His Word, the embodiment of His eternal decree. Moses gives these commands to the children of Israel as the spokesman for Jehovah:
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)
Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. (Deuteronomy 12:32)
Also later in the Old Testament:
Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)
And at the end of the Bible we find these chilling words:
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this Book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this Book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this Book. (Revelation 22:18-19)
Verse 16 of the same chapter tells us that this dire warning comes directly from the mouth of the Lord Jesus himself - "I, Jesus...the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star."
If God has not preserved every jot and tittle of His Word down to the present day, and will not preserve it for eternity, then God is not sovereign over His Word. He is not omnipotent. He has been defeated by Satan, the enemy of the Word. Furthermore, if God has not preserved every jot and tittle of His Word down to the present day, and will not preserve it for eternity, then He is a liar. If this were so, we would have no grounds for believing His Word, no reason for obeying His Word, and no reason for believing that He has ordained all things by His Sovereign Decree. We would have no reason to believe that the Gospel is true. If God were not sovereign over His Word, then we would be doomed.
But that is what growing numbers of evangelical preachers and scholars are effectively telling us today. We live in a time of open denial of an authentic, authoritative Word from God. Such denials were once the domain of open apostates, the liberals of past generations. And of course the liberals still hold such a debased view of Scripture. But today we find the same attitudes growing even among evangelicals. This increasingly prevalent way of thinking has its roots in Satanic lies. As we continue, we shall examine these falsehoods, and their impact on the church.
Next: Today's Evangelicals - Embracing Ambiguity & Uncertainty About the Bible
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