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THE PRESERVATION OF SCRIPTURE "When the dust of the battle dies down we shall hear all sixty-six books declare with the Apostle Paul, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here!" God lives forever, so His Book shall live forever. In Ecclesiastes 3:14 Solomon said "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it that man should fear before him." We've learned about the inspiration of Scripture. Now let's study the reasons and methods concerning the preservation of Scripture. Reasons for Preservation The first reason for the preservation of Scripture is the logical reason. Just as it makes no sense that you would fool around and lose your birth certificate, your high school diploma, or your marriage license, it makes no sense that God would inspire and record His words and then lose them. This is totally against His nature. As much effort as God has put into giving man His words, it would be foolish to lose them. From the very beginning God has delighted in preserving various people, places, and things for His own glory. God preserved man through the fall in Eden. God preserved Noah and his family through the flood. God has preserved the Jewish people until this very day, in spite of their many captivities, servitudes and persecutions. God has preserved Jerusalem, in spite of the many aggressive attacks against her. It is logical to assume that God would preserve the Book that He inspired. Another argument for the preservation of Scripture is the fact that preservation is needful. Jesus said, "...if a man love me, he will keep my words." (John 14:26) How can you keep His words if God didn't preserve them for you? In II Timothy 4:2 Paul exhorts Timothy to "Preach the word..." How could young Timothy preach the word if the word hasn't been preserved? The Lord Jesus prayed in John 17:17 and said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Friend, you can't even be sanctified if God didn't preserve His word, because it is the word which sanctifies! God's word can keep us from sinning (Psa. 119:11). God's word gives us wisdom and spiritual discernment (Pro. 22:17-21; I Cor. 2:12-14). The word brings success (Jsh. 1:8), and gives us light for the path of life (Psa. 119:105). Most of all, God's word is essential for a person to be born again! I Peter 1:23 says, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Friend, it has been needful for God to preserve His words. Finally, the best reason for believing that God would preserve His words is promise. GOD SAID HE WOULD PRESERVE HIS WORDS. Note the following: "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." (Psa. 12:6-7) "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations." (Psa. 100:5) "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever." (Isa. 59:21) "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Mat. 24:35) "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (I Pet. 1:24-25) God never said once that man would preserve His words, but that HE would preserve them. Our responsibility is to be faithful and believe what God has said and ignore what the skeptics are saying. God promised to preserve His words, so He has preserved them. Method of Preservation The Bible is GOD'S Book, so God can preserve it in any way He chooses. Since the very beginning, God has used MEN to carry out His work on this earth. It should surprise no one that God uses His people to preserve His words. Many scholars agree that since Christians still have a sin nature (the flesh) that God cannot rely on them in matters of preserving His holy words. Well, God doesn't RELY on anyone for anything. God, in His sovereign authority, chooses to USE certain individuals to accomplish His will. For example, Moses and David had a sin nature just like you and I, but Jesus Christ still considered their writings to be Scripture (Mat. 4:4; 19:4; Luke 24:44; 20:42). God wouldn't allow Moses to enter the promised land (Deut. 32:48-52; 34:4), but He still used him to write the first five books of the Bible. David committed adultery (II Sam. 11), sinned by numbering Israel (I Chr. 21), and acted like an idiot before the king of Gath (I Sam. 21), but God still used him to write over half of the the Psalms. Peter denied Christ three times and then went on to write two epistles. The one who penned the words of Romans 7:18 also penned a third of the New Testament (Paul). If God could use only sinless people, then He would have to do everything Himself! The preservation of Scripture is GOD'S responsibility, and He is quite capable of overruling man's faults and sins in order to get the job done. Since most scholars worship their education rather than God, they'll never understand or accept this essential and undeniable truth. God's method of preservation is to use His people. Before the time of Christ the Scriptures were given to the Jews (Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2). It was the priestly tribe of Levi that was responsible for the actual handling and copying of the Scriptures (Deut. 17:18; 21:5; Ezra 7:11; Neh. 8:7-13; II Chr. 29:30). Today (until our Lord returns) the Levites have been replaced with Christians, a spiritual priesthood (I Pet. 2:4-10). So the church now has the responsibility of handling and copying the Scriptures faithfully. In fact, we are given severe warnings about handling the Scriptures unfaithfully (Rev. 22:18-19). God's method of preservation is to use Spirit-filled believers in the body of Christ to faithfully copy and pass His words on to future generations.