The Mechanisms For The Preservation Of The Words Of God
H. D. Williams, M.D.
Associate Editor , DBS News
The mechanisms for the preservation of
the Words of God are recorded for us in many passages of Scripture. Many
people are surprised by this insight. The mechanisms include literal
as well as providential means. The first step of
preservation was to "write" His Words in a book. [Ex.
17:4, 34:27; Num. 5:23; Deut. 31:24; Jos. 23:6; Isa. 8:1, 30:8; Jer. 30:2;
Rev. 1:19] It is very interesting that "written in the (or this)
book" occurs 93 times.
Second, His Words are written in many
books. [Acts 1:20, 7:42, 13:33, 15:15, 24:13; Mat. 5:17, 23:35 ]
Third, all His Words were commanded
to be written. [Ex. 24:3, 4; Deut. 9:10, 27:3; Jer. 30:2, 4]
Fourth, copies of all
His Words were to be made. [Deut. 10:2,4; 17:8, 27:3; Jos. 8:32; Jer.
25:13, 36:2, 28, 32, 51:60; Psa. 40:7, 102:12, 18]
Fifth, the Words were to be read.
[Ex. 24:7; Deut. 17:19; Jos. 8:34; 2 Kings 23:2, 2; Chron. 34:30; Jer.
36:6, 10] The Hebrew word, Kara, used in all these passages also
means to proclaim, publish, and preach the Words.
Sixth, all generations have been com- manded
to keep (guard, protect, preserve, observe) the Words. [Ex. 15:26,
20:5-6; Lev. 18:4-5; Deut. 29:9; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings. 17:13; 2 Chron.
34:31; Neh 1:9; Eccl. 12:13; Ezek. 11:20; Dan. 9:4; Jn. 14:15, 23]
Seven, all generations have been com- manded to
keep the Words on their hearts. [Deut. 6:6-9; Prov. 3:3;
Psa. 40:8, 119:11; Jer. 31:33; Mat. 28:19-20; Jn. 14: 15, 21] This also
means to understand them well enough to teach them, particularly to
children.
Eight, individuals should recognize that God’s
Words are specific as to the mech- anisms already presented,
and those to follow. This specificity should be recognized just like
Biblical facts are recognized and appreciated. [Ezek. 13:9, 24:2, 43:11;
Dan. 5:24, 25; Dan. 9:13; Hos. 8:12; Mic. 2:5; Mat. 21:13; John 12:6]
Nine, the phrase "it is written"occurs
93 times in the Bible, and invariably it means the Words were written in
the past and are still present now and in the future. [Dr. D. A. Waite,
Defending the King James Bible, pp. 9-11; and Kent Brandenburg,
Editor, Thou shalt Keep Them, David Sutton, p. 75-81]
Ten, God guaranteed the preservation
of the covenant, His Words. [Ex. 24:7; Deut. 7:9, 33:9; 1
Chron. 16:15; Psa. 12:6-7, 89:34, 105:8; Mat 4:4, 5:17-18, 24:35; 1 Pet.
1:23-25]
Eleven, The Lord Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit were the means for man to receive
the Words, which were recorded. [Jn. 3: 31-33, 5:34, 7:38-39,
12:47-48, 14:17, 16:13-14, 17:8, 20:22; 2 Tim. 3:15-17]
Twelve, "God gave responsibility of
preservation of the Old Testament to Israel." [Thou Shalt Keep Them,
p. 104] [Gen. 17:9-10; Ex. 20:6; Deut. 6:6-9; Isa. 26:2; Acts 7:38; Rom.
3:1-2, 9:3-5]
Thirteen, the Old Testament saints were to keep
the Words in the tabernacle or temple, their place of
worship. [Deut. 31:26, 34:30; 2 Kings 23:2]
Fourteen, in the New Testament times, the members
of the churches were to go, to keep (observe, protect,
guard, and preserve), to teach, to receive, and to recognize His Words.
[Mat. 28:19-20; Jn. 10:27, 17:8, 14:21, 15:20; 1 Cor. 7:19; Gal. 2:5; 2
Tim. 2:24-26; Tit. 3:10; 1 Jn 3:22-24; Rev. 1:3, 14:12, 12:17; 22:7, 9,
18, 19].
Fifteen, our local church is to be
"the pillar and ground of the truth." [1 Tim. 3:15]
Sixteen, believers in the churches
are to be the stewards of God’s Words. [1Tim. 1:11, 18-20, 4:6-16;
1 Cor. 4:1-2; Eph. 3:9] [Many of the preceding concepts were obtained from
Thou shalt Keep Them.]
The New Testament era has an even better way for
preservation of God’s Words than the Old Testament times. Dr. Jack Moorman
sums up the present era’s preservation of the Scripture by saying, "Just
as the divine glories of the New Testament are brighter far than the
glories of the Old Testament, so the manner in which God has preserved the
New Testament Text is far more wonderful than the manner in which He
preserved the Old Testament text. God preserved the Old Testament text by
means of something physical and external, namely, the Aaronic priesthood.
God has preserved the New Testament text by means of something inward and
spiritual, namely, the universal priesthood of believers." [Dr. Jack
Moorman, Forever Settled, [DBS #1428] 1999, p. 62]
Yes, the churches, which are filled with Bible
believing saints are responsible for "keeping" the Words of God;
and they have done it. There has been a record of independent churches who
were filled with the priesthood of believers throughout the centuries.
There are many authors who would dispute this fact, and they would argue
that individuals within the churches wrote fraudulent books to counter
other ideologies seeking dominance. [Bart Ehrman, Lost Christianities,
p. 203-227]. The truth about these authors, however, is that they use
speculation, theory, and circumstantial evidence. The truth is that a
born-again believer sealed with the Holy Spirit could not knowingly change
even one jot or tittle of Scripture.
There has been a continuous presence of independent
Bible believing churches that have preserved the text. Much evidence of
the existence of these churches has been provided in books such as Alexis
Muston’s, The Israel of the Alps, A History of the Waldenses
published in 1875. Muston writes, "In the first centuries of the
Christian era, each church founded by the disciples of Christ had a unity
and an independence of its own. They were united by the same faith,
but that faith was not imposed by authority upon any one." [p. 4] He
proceeds to discuss briefly the concept of the formation of the
state-church under Constantine, but acknowledges the persistence of
independent churches. He even states that Ambrose (339-397 A.D.) "did
not acknow- ledge any authority on earth superior to that of the Bible."
[p. 5] In the 6th century, Muston relates the story of nine
pastors who "separated themselves from the Roman Church, or rather they
solemnly renewed the protestation of their independence of it."
[p. 7] He quoted a 7th century a pastor in Milan: "To combat
the opinion that the pope is head of the church, he directs attention to
the fact that the Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and many
others, had been convoked by the emperors, and not by the pope." [p.
8] Muston relates "the resistance [to the papal see] also
becoming more vigorous in the following centuries, and we can follow its
traces quite on to the 12th century, when the existence of the
Vaudois [Waldensians] is no longer doubted by anybody." [p.8]
He reports that "the Kingdom of Lombardy itself was solicitous for the
preservation of this independence." He says, "thus the
doctrines which characterized the primitive [apostolic] church
and which still characterized the Vaudois Church at the present day
[the 1870's], have never remained without a witness in the countries
inhabited by the Vaudois; and if men had been silent, the Bible would
have spoken." [p.9] The Bible has spoken and the evidence for the
preservation of God’s Words is over- whelming. God’s precious Words have
been preserved in the New Testament era by the mechanisms announced in
Scripture, and independent churches still honor, revere, protect, guard,
and defend the very Words of the Living God. The Dean Burgon Society
was formed to assist the churches to defend, guard, protect, and keep the
Words of the Living God.
During the early centuries, corruptions arose, but
independent churches still con- tinued to flourish. G. H. Orchard says, "During
the rise and growth of these corruptions, the churches for three centuries
remained as originally formed, independent of each other, and were
united by no tie but that of charity." [G. H. Orchard, A Concise
History of the Baptists, Chapter 1, Section III.4] "During the
first three centuries, Christian congregations, all over the East,
subsisted in separate independent bodies, unsupported by
government, and conse- quently without any secular power over one another."
[Orchard, Chapter 1, Section III.7]
By the fourth century, groups of independent churches
formed to resist the corruption of centralized power, wrong discipline,
wrong doctrine, and the wrong philosophical influences of neo-Platonists
in Alexandria, Egypt, that led men like Pantaneus, Ammonius Saccas, and
Origen, to reject the Scriptures as written. The Alexandrian center of
apostasy is very likely the source of the modernist textual critics’
favorite manuscripts, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. The independent groups
that were formed to resist these encroachments on apostolic doctrine were
maligned by Rome and derogatorily called "Puritans."
G. H. Orchard says,"One Novatus, of Carthage, coming
to Rome, united himself with Novatian, and their combined efforts were
attended with remarkable success. It is evident that many persons were
previously in such a situation as to embrace the earliest opportunity of
uniting with churches whose communion was scriptural. Novatian
became the first pastor in the new interest, and is accused of the
crime of giving birth to an innumerable multitude of congregations of
Puritans in every part of the Roman empire; and yet ...these churches
flourished until the fifth century. . . . The churches thus formed
upon a plan of strict communion and rigid discipline, obtained the
reproach of Puritans; they were the oldest body of Christian
churches, of which we have any account, and a succession of them, we
shall prove, has continued to the present day. Novatian’s example had
a powerful influence, and Puritan churches rose in different parts, in
quick succession. So early as 254, these Dissenters [from Rome]
are complained of, as having infected France with their doctrines,
[Mezeray’s Hist., p. 4. Miln. Ch. Hist., c. 3, c. 13] which will aid us
in the Albigensian churches, where the same severity of discipline is
traced, [Allix’s Pied, c. 17, 156] and reprobated." [Orchard, Chapter
2, Section 1] [All emphases are mine.]
The influence of these independent churches would be felt through the
dark ages and into the Reformation. It is a well known fact that the men
of the Reformation were influenced by members of the Waldensian churches.
It was the independent Waldensian churches which supplied the manuscripts
that Erasmus et al. used to print the first Traditional or Received
Text. The evidence of preservation provided by translations into other
languages, lectionaries, the writings of church fathers, and manuscripts
is enormous. The independent, believer churches have preserved, guarded,
and protected the Words of God as commanded. Will we continue? Are we
still able to defend the Truth AGAINST ALL THREATS, and as my Pastor says,
against the GOLIATHS?
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