Our Scriptural Confidence

[Anthony Pritchard]

[OK, I try again, without claiming anything about anything being wrong.]

Our Scriptural Confidence

The confidence of God’s people in the purity and accuracy of Holy Scripture does not begin with manuscript families, textual theories, or academic reconstruction. It begins with God Himself. Before any scribe ever copied a line, before any manuscript tradition ever formed, the Lord declared the nature of His words and the certainty of their preservation.

Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” Purity is the starting point. God’s words are not developing, evolving, or improving. They are pure. They are complete. They are perfect. The next verse establishes the doctrine of preservation. Psalm 12:7 says, “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Preservation is not the work of scribes. Preservation is not the work of scholars. Preservation is not the work of textual critics. Preservation is the work of God.

This is the foundation. Any text tradition that does not bear the marks of purity, stability, and preservation cannot be the text God kept. Any text tradition that exhibits instability, contradiction, omission, or editorial interference cannot be the text God preserved.

[chopped]

Our confidence in the accuracy of the Bible rests first on Psalm 12:6 and Psalm 12:7. The text families come after that. They are not the foundation. They are the evidence. The preserved text will be pure, stable, consistent, and received by the believing churches.

© A.K. Pritchard 1990, 2026 – Free to use with proper attribution.

 

[Logos1560]

The truth that is stated in Psalm 12:6 is the fact that "the words of the LORD are pure words," meaning 100% absolutely and wholly pure. Pure used in the particular context of describing the quality of the words of the LORD given by inspiration to the prophets and apostles would clearly be asserting 100% absolute, complete purity or perfection with no mixture of any impurities at all. After the assertion of fact, then an illustration, simile, or comparison is given [as] to confirm that truth, not to contradict it by suggesting that there were some impurities in the pure words given by inspiration to the prophets and apostles. Thus, the phrase "purified seven times" (Ps. 12:6) actually stated clearly concerning silver on earth is used to illustrate and affirm that the words of the LORD are 100% wholly, absolutely, completely, and perfectly pure when given by inspiration of God. This phrase about the refining or purification of silver obviously and clearly would not contradict the earlier assertion or statement of fact. That phrase does not indicate or assert that the words of the LORD are mostly pure, partially pure, or almost pure with a few impurities, defects, faults, corruptions, errors, or contaminants mixed in so that they needed to go through a gradual improvement or refining process of seven purifications in seven translations in different languages, in seven English translations, or in seven editions of the KJV.


In the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, some words or phrases used to define the word pure include the following: “Unmixed,” “clear,” “free from mixture,” “separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter,” “real, true,” “incorrupt,” and “absolute, that and that only unconnected with anything else.” The unabridged Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary included the following in its definitions for pure: “free from defects; perfect, faultless,” and “free from anything that adulterates, taints, impairs, etc.; unmixed; clear” (p. 1463).

Words of the LORD asserted to be wholly and completely pure in the positive or absolute degree could not be made purer; therefore, they would not have any defects or impurities that need to be removed during a claimed purification process. Thus, the quality of being absolutely or completely pure and completely free from all impurities that is asserted concerning the words of the LORD could not be increased. Nothing can be asserted to be purer than what is already 100% absolutely pure according to the meaning of pure used in this context concerning the words of the LORD. Pure in the positive degree would simply make a true assertion concerning what is described as being pure, and it does not compare it to other things. Pure is clearly not used in a comparative degree concerning the 100% absolutely and completely pure and perfect words of the LORD. Every word of God is pure (Prov. 30:6). The commandment of the LORD is pure (Ps. 19:8). The law or the word of the LORD is perfect (Ps. 19:7). Pure words of the LORD would have the very same absolute, complete purity as very pure words (Ps. 119:140). The use of “very” would emphasize the fact of absolute purity, but it could not increase the purity of words that are already 100% wholly and absolutely pure.