Does the Bible teach that God would preserve his word?
If so how does God say it would be done?
Lastly, how should this doctrine apply to textual criticism?
Personally I see a handful of places where the bible teaches God would preserve his word, I also see that God would preserve his word through his people (See Matthew 28:19-20), I do not see God preserving his word through the Vatican (Vaticanus Manuscript) and a Sinai Monastery (Sinaiticus), I also think its is noteworthy that the foundation of modern textual criticism that undergirds the critical text is based on an assumption that we lost the text of the NT and needed to recover it. AKA it is built on a foundation of unbelief:
"I BELIEVE IN TREMBLING BEFORE GOD’S WORD (Psa. 138:2; Prov. 30:6; Isa. 66:2; Rev. 22:18-19).
The Scripture is not an ordinary book; it is the Word of the Living God and as such one must exercise extreme caution in handling it. Even to tamper with the words of a human author is a serious matter and there are laws against it, but how much more serious is it to tamper with the words of Almighty God! I have read dozens of books by textual critics, and there simply is no fear of God in their approach to the words of Scripture. The textual critic approach is strictly a matter of human scholarship and the Bible is simply another book."
"I BELIEVE IN THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (1 Cor. 2:12-16; 1 Jn. 2:20, 27).
Apart from the Holy Spirit, nothing about the Bible can be properly understood. Unregenerate men who lack the Spirit are not qualified in this field. The book From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man claims that it doesn’t matter if textual critics are skeptics. “… a textual critic may be an unbeliever when it comes to the Bible’s doctrinal truths. But when it comes to the Bible’s text--to this question of the Bible’s words--a textual critic is initially little more than a reporter” (From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man, p. 71). In his mistitled book “The Truth of the King James Only Controversy,” BJU professor Stewart Custer uncritically cites the following men in his “Select Bibliography” -- Bruce Metzger, Kurt Aland, Eberhard Nestle, Alexander Souter, B.F. Westcott, and F.J.A. Hort. He does not think it is important that his readers know that to a man these critics blatantly denied the infallible inspiration of Scripture. This approach is wrongheaded in the extreme! A wise position was that of Joseph Philpot, Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, and editor of The Gospel Standard. In 1857 he gave six reasons against a revision of the KJV, the first being that the biblical scholars of that day were “notoriously either tainted with popery or infidelity” (Joseph Charles Philpot, “The Authorized Version of 1611,” The Gospel Standard, April 1857). That was true then and it is even truer today. Philpot then asked an important rhetorical question, “And can erroneous men, dead in trespasses and sins, carnal, worldly, ungodly persons, spiritually translate a book written by the blessed Spirit?” The biblical answer is NO!
Modern textual criticism, which gave us the modern Bible versions, is not founded upon dependency upon faith or the Holy Spirit or any of the aforementioned things. Textual critic George Ladd wrote: “One does not solve a problem of divergent textual readings by prayer or by the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit; but only by an extensive knowledge and skill in the science of textual criticism” (Ladd, The New Testament and Criticism, 1967, p. 81). This is an unbelieving position. The Bible is a supernatural and spiritual Book and nothing about it can be known apart from the application of spiritual tools.
Though some evangelicals and fundamentalists who use textual criticism might claim that they also are following the Holy Spirit, the principles of textual criticism are contrary to this.
We conclude with the following important observation by David Sorenson from his book Touch Not the Unclean Thing (p. 58, f 30): “Some proponents of the critical text may claim that the Holy Spirit has led them as well. However, the working editors of the critical text are steeped in rationalistic philosophy and scientific reconstruction of the text. Their entire philosophical base is not inclined to such a Fundamentalist notion of seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit.”
Biblical Presuppositions on the Bible Version Issue
Men of God Who Foresaw the Fruit of Modern Texts and Versions -a great article on those who foresaw the problems of textual criticism as it was developing
If so how does God say it would be done?
Lastly, how should this doctrine apply to textual criticism?
Personally I see a handful of places where the bible teaches God would preserve his word, I also see that God would preserve his word through his people (See Matthew 28:19-20), I do not see God preserving his word through the Vatican (Vaticanus Manuscript) and a Sinai Monastery (Sinaiticus), I also think its is noteworthy that the foundation of modern textual criticism that undergirds the critical text is based on an assumption that we lost the text of the NT and needed to recover it. AKA it is built on a foundation of unbelief:
"I BELIEVE IN TREMBLING BEFORE GOD’S WORD (Psa. 138:2; Prov. 30:6; Isa. 66:2; Rev. 22:18-19).
The Scripture is not an ordinary book; it is the Word of the Living God and as such one must exercise extreme caution in handling it. Even to tamper with the words of a human author is a serious matter and there are laws against it, but how much more serious is it to tamper with the words of Almighty God! I have read dozens of books by textual critics, and there simply is no fear of God in their approach to the words of Scripture. The textual critic approach is strictly a matter of human scholarship and the Bible is simply another book."
"I BELIEVE IN THE NECESSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (1 Cor. 2:12-16; 1 Jn. 2:20, 27).
Apart from the Holy Spirit, nothing about the Bible can be properly understood. Unregenerate men who lack the Spirit are not qualified in this field. The book From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man claims that it doesn’t matter if textual critics are skeptics. “… a textual critic may be an unbeliever when it comes to the Bible’s doctrinal truths. But when it comes to the Bible’s text--to this question of the Bible’s words--a textual critic is initially little more than a reporter” (From the Mind of God to the Mind of Man, p. 71). In his mistitled book “The Truth of the King James Only Controversy,” BJU professor Stewart Custer uncritically cites the following men in his “Select Bibliography” -- Bruce Metzger, Kurt Aland, Eberhard Nestle, Alexander Souter, B.F. Westcott, and F.J.A. Hort. He does not think it is important that his readers know that to a man these critics blatantly denied the infallible inspiration of Scripture. This approach is wrongheaded in the extreme! A wise position was that of Joseph Philpot, Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, and editor of The Gospel Standard. In 1857 he gave six reasons against a revision of the KJV, the first being that the biblical scholars of that day were “notoriously either tainted with popery or infidelity” (Joseph Charles Philpot, “The Authorized Version of 1611,” The Gospel Standard, April 1857). That was true then and it is even truer today. Philpot then asked an important rhetorical question, “And can erroneous men, dead in trespasses and sins, carnal, worldly, ungodly persons, spiritually translate a book written by the blessed Spirit?” The biblical answer is NO!
Modern textual criticism, which gave us the modern Bible versions, is not founded upon dependency upon faith or the Holy Spirit or any of the aforementioned things. Textual critic George Ladd wrote: “One does not solve a problem of divergent textual readings by prayer or by the inner illumination of the Holy Spirit; but only by an extensive knowledge and skill in the science of textual criticism” (Ladd, The New Testament and Criticism, 1967, p. 81). This is an unbelieving position. The Bible is a supernatural and spiritual Book and nothing about it can be known apart from the application of spiritual tools.
Though some evangelicals and fundamentalists who use textual criticism might claim that they also are following the Holy Spirit, the principles of textual criticism are contrary to this.
We conclude with the following important observation by David Sorenson from his book Touch Not the Unclean Thing (p. 58, f 30): “Some proponents of the critical text may claim that the Holy Spirit has led them as well. However, the working editors of the critical text are steeped in rationalistic philosophy and scientific reconstruction of the text. Their entire philosophical base is not inclined to such a Fundamentalist notion of seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit.”
Biblical Presuppositions on the Bible Version Issue
Men of God Who Foresaw the Fruit of Modern Texts and Versions -a great article on those who foresaw the problems of textual criticism as it was developing
