THE PRESERVATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Introduction

Bible is neither the answer book to know our curiosity nor the book of suggestion for success rather it is an inspired Word of God which speaks with God’s authority.  God has given His word first of all to reveal Himself and His love to the fallen Human kind. It also reveals us the fact how God actively involved in human history to save us that we may live in His presence without any guilt forever and ever.   

Rick Warren says in this way “God gave us the Bible to transform us, not simply inform us. It should give us a bigger heart, not a bigger head”.  God makes his purpose for the Bible even more explicit in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (NLT) The purpose of Bible is more than just showing us what is wrong in our lives or how we should live; God gave us His Word to radically transform our lives. He further adds that The Bible describes itself in different ways. For example, it calls itself a hammer, a sword, and a scalpel. All of those are tools designed to make radical changes. God intends for the Bible to dramatically change our lives.

From the above two paragraphs we learned the purpose why the Lord has given us His word to us. The purpose of this article is not to know the purpose why God has given His word but to know how God preserved His precious words down through the centuries to make know His will to our generations and to the generations to come if He delays His Second coming. God has supernaturally protected His word through many reproductions and translations.  The idea of preservation holds that God has faithfully superintended His Word down through the ages, so that even today, some 3,500 years after portions of the Bible were written down, we can say that what we possess, what we love and what we read are the very words of God!

However here I would like to tell you another fact you can’t go anywhere in this world and find a scrap of paper containing the actual writings of Paul, John, Moses, Peter, James, Daniel, Isaiah or any of the other biblical writers. It doesn't give any base for anyone to doubt the integrity of the Bible. Because the inspired Word of God can be decisively proven by using both the internal evidence of the Bible itself and the external sources of historical and scientific evidence, it can also be proven that the Bible has been divinely preserved down to this very day.  With that in mind, let’s take some time to explore the way how God preserved His Word in History by His power.

God’s Miraculous Preservation

Various efforts were taken by the enemy to destroy God’s inspired word for example in Jeremiah 36:1-32 we read that God gave His word to prophet Jeremiah to write a portion of the Word of God. Jeremiah carefully wrote down the words as he was commanded by the Lord. He then took that to king Jehoiakim and asked him to listen God’s word.  King received illumination from the Lord but he not only deliberately rejected the message but also cut it into pieces and burned it Jeremiah 36:23. Jehoiakim apparently thought that he would destroy the written word and will erase what the Lord had said by the prophet. However, God’s word is settled, not on earth, but in Heaven, Psa. 119:89.  God merely sent His word again through the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. 36:28.  Despite the actions of Jehoiakim, God preserved His Word! That is just one small picture of what God has always done in regard to protecting and preserving His Word down through the ages.

Let us further explore how God preserved His word in the midst of several concerted efforts taken by pagan unbelievers to eradicate the Word of God down through the centuries.

• ·In A.D. 303, the Roman emperor Diocletion ordered the confiscation and destruction of all the Christian scriptures.  Thousands of early copies and possibly some original autographs were burned.  However, the Word of God was not eradicated!  Earnest believers protected the Word and hid it away in the catacombs, in caves and in graves.  Thus the Word of God survived that attack!
• The French humanist Voltaire once said, "Another century and there will not be a Bible on the earth." Two centuries have gone, and the circulation of the Bible is one of the marvels of the age. After he died, his old printing press and the very house where he lived was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society and made a depot for Bibles. On December 24, 1933, the British Government bought a book called Codex Sinaiticus from the Russians for half a million dollars. On the same day, a first edition of Voltaire's work sold for eleven cents in Paris bookshops.
• Joseph Stalin took over all of Russia upon the death of Lenin in the late twenties. From this point on until his death in the fifties, Stalin instituted a "ban the Bible" purge from the U.S.S.R. such as had never been witnessed before. The miserable man literally attempted to wipe the Word of God and the God of the Word from the Russian people’s minds. Did he succeed? A recent poll taken in Russia shows that today more people than ever believe in God and His Word.

In 1526, William Tyndale had produced the first English translation of the Bible to be printed on a printing press.  This new version was hated by the Roman Catholic Church and in particularly by the Bishop of London. A certain man named John Packington, who knew the Bishop and his hatred of the Tyndale translation, but who was also secretly a friend of Tyndale, went to the Bishop of London and told him he knew how to get all of Tyndale’s Bibles.  The Bishop told him to get them and that he would gladly pay whatever they cost.  The Bishop of London promised to buy them with the intention of burning them a Paul’s Cross Cathedral in London.  Packington when to Tyndale and told him of the deal he had made with the Bishop.  Tyndale responded by saying that he knew the Bishop would burn his Bibles.  However, printing the Bibles had left Tyndale deeply indebted.   Tyndale decided to sell the Bibles to the Bishop of London.  He saw several advantages in doing so.  First, he could use the money to pay his way out of debt and have even more Bibles printed.  Secondly, when the people of England saw the Bishop of London burning the Word of God they would become enraged.  So, the enemy of the Word of God actually allowed Tyndale to pay off his debts, correct the text of his translation and print three times the number of Bibles that had been destroyed! Later, when some of Tyndale’s associates were arrested and asked where they received the money to print their Bibles, they answered that the money came from the Bishop of London.  This one instance is proof that God is able to preserve His Word despite the attempts of all its enemies to destroy it.

Conclusion

For thousands of years the enemies of truth have sought to destroy the precious Word of God.  Every attempt to do so has failed miserably as the Bible continues to be read and loved by millions of people. Therefore dear friends we can trust God’s Word. All of it is faithful, righteous, and true (vv. 86, 138, 140, 151, 160). It doesn’t change with the times (vv. 89, 152). One of the amazing things about the Bible is that it speaks with practical relevance to every culture in every period of history. The answers to all the problems we face today are in the Bible, because it speaks God’s truth to our human condition, which has not changed over the centuries.