Has God Kept His Word?
Suppose God had breathed out every word of Scripture and then let those words drift and decay until no one could be sure what He said. Inspiration would be a gift locked in a room no one could enter. The doctrine of preservation answers that fear. The God who gave His Word has kept it.
We confess two truths side by side. God inspired every word of Scripture, and He has preserved those words through the ages in the Hebrew and Greek text. We also hold the King James Version to be one of the best translations for English-speaking people, a faithful translation of that text, and we use it for preaching and teaching. This study explains both convictions from Scripture and from history.
This matters for every believer. The enemy's oldest question is still Yea, hath God said? (Genesis 3:1). If you are not sure you have God's words, you cannot stand on them, preach them, or die resting on them. God does not leave His children guessing.
Inspiration is God giving His Word. Preservation is God keeping it. Because He has kept it, every generation, including ours, can hold His Word in hand, read it, trust it, and obey it.
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For Deeper Study
- The Translators to the ReaderAmazon Miles SmithThe preface to the 1611 King James Bible, written for the translators. It shows their purpose, their method, and their humility.
- The King James Version DefendedAmazon Edward F. HillsA classic defense of the Received Text from God's providential preservation of His Word. Hills was a Presbyterian scholar.
- Thou Shalt Keep Them: A Biblical Theology of the Perfect Preservation of ScriptureAmazon Kent Brandenburg, editorEssays by Independent Baptist pastors. It ties preservation to the Received Text more strictly than this article does.
- Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611–2011Amazon Gordon CampbellA readable history of the translation, its printings, and the 1769 standard edition, from a university scholar who follows mainstream views of the text.
- Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual CriticismAmazon Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry, editorsThe Critical Text view explained by evangelical scholars who hold to inerrancy. We differ with its conclusions on the text, but it presents that view fairly.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Reliability of Scripture: Textual Integrity
God has preserved His Word, and the manuscript evidence gives every reason to trust that the Bible we hold is what was originally written.
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