If it
is true that God’s intervention today in the dispensation of grace is not in
circumstances or in outward things, but in the inner man, then how do we
explain the preservation of scripture?
Were the translators guided by their own understanding of scripture, or
was God providentially guiding them?
It was
a lot easier for me to explain the inerrancy of scripture before coming to right division because I just believed that God supernaturally guided the KJB
translators to put down the exact words that he wanted, and therefore it was
the inspired word of God. Nevertheless, I
still believe that the King James Bible is the perfect word of God. Do you have any thoughts on this?
It is God’s will that every human being have
his word. If it is his word, then it is
perfect. Brother Richard Jordan held a
conference about the King James Bible in 2011.
I would commend that to you. You
can contact his ministry for conference materials:
The 400-year anniversary of the 1611 KJB was
2011. The entire conference was about
the word of God. Brother Jordan has all
types of manuscript evidence supporting the KJB, and there are other brothers’
websites that have more than enough material on the preservation of the word of
God to study. I also held a
conference: “We Have the Word of God.” I just
started in Genesis with Adam and Eve.
Christ
said in his earthly ministry:
Matthew 4:4
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
God
took John into the future and said this:
Revelation 22:18-19
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of
this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
If Christ the Lord who is the living Word of
God tells us that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, it means
that man should have it in order to do so.
If God is going to hold us responsible, we should have God’s word.
At the end of the Bible, God says,
essentially, that if you add to it or subtract from it, I will get you. How could
someone do that if they didn’t have it?
God will preserve it.
Psalm 12:6-7
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
[notice
the focus is on God keeping them], thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Although God uses man as his instruments, it
is God who promises to do it. The
psalmist says under the Spirit’s inspiration that God is saying, “I will keep my word.”
Psalm 138:2
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy
lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all
thy name.
He has magnified it and he will preserve
it. Look what our Apostle Paul has to
say about it:
2 Timothy 3:15-17
And that from a child thou [Timothy] hast known the holy scriptures [Almighty God’s
set-apart, written word; the Holy Scriptures; the sacred writ], which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness That the
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
So we
have to have all scripture in order to be who we are in Christ.
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
We know
from scripture that it is the will of God that all men have his perfect
word. Watch what Paul says:
1 Timothy 2:4
Who will have all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Now if
it is the will of God for all men to be
saved, is it incumbent upon God to make the provision today for all men to be saved? The answer is yes. How did he make the provision?
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he
was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures:
How
does he make it available? Through the
preaching of the gospel of grace through Paul.
Colossians 1:23
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
2 Timothy 4:17
Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by
me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear:
and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
So God
did his part for all men to be saved.
Are all men being saved? No. Is the provision there? Yes.
Romans 3:22
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
God’s
will is that all men be saved; he makes the provision: the
cross of Christ, the preaching of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:21
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
That’s
number one.
1 Timothy 2:4
Who will have all men to be [#1] saved, and [#2]
to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
That’s
number two. If it is God’s will for
every man to come unto the knowledge of the truth, isn’t it incumbent upon God
to provide that truth for us? Yes. What is Truth? It is the word of Almighty God, the Holy
Scriptures. We have them…every word, every
jot and every tittle!
How can
you explain the preservation of scripture based on the concept that God is
presently working in the inner man? By
the principles we laid out in Ps. 12:6-7,
2 Tim. 3:16,
1 Tim. 2:4
and Matt. 4:4.
To be continued…
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