God working through His saints is what I call human preservation. God has committed the earthly preservation of Scripture into the hands of His saints, it is true. We are the priests of the church age, and in the Jewish economy God committed the keeping of the law into the hands of the priests of Israel. Likewise, we saints are to preserve the Word of God. We do that through Bible translation, reading, studying, teaching, memorizing, printing, etc.
I disagree, John.
Preservation is done by
God, through His saints by them preserving copies of His words.
God has not committed the preservation of His words into the hands of men;
He
uses men as an extension of His will, to do it.
To me, you are suggesting that God leaves that preservation up to us...
He does not.
He controls it, and believers are used by God as His servants.
Please give me an example from church history of miraculous preservation of the Scriptures (as opposed to providential preservation). Otherwise you are avoiding the question. If a miracle of preservation is observable, then someone observed it. Who? Jerome? No. Ulphilas? No. Erasmus? No. Luther? No, William Carey? No.
So who, and when?
Never mind, John.
It seems that you and I are on an entirely different thought process with this.
I think at this point you need to define "miracle." You appear to be equating "miracle" and "providence" as synonyms, and they most certainly are not.
To you perhaps, but again, I have to disagree.
"Providence" isn't something that God is detached from.
He provides things all the time by "miracle"...
Read the story of George Mueller.
God provides for His saints ( as promised in Matthew 6:24-34 ), everything pertaining to life and godliness ( 2 Peter 1:3 ).
That includes His precious words, and He is not dependent upon unbelievers and scholars to get the job done.
If you understand that God is "sovereign" in all things, then you should understand that He actually does according to His will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth ( Daniel 4:35 ).
He is the one who is motivating His word to be published throughout the world, not men.
But there is also another influence out there who opposes all that is God, and he is plenty willing and able to trouble His people and to sow confusion among them.
Take "textual criticism" for example...
There are far too many organizations out there doing things their own way.
Do you really think God is behind
all that translation work?
I don't.
But I do believe that despite the myriad of manuscripts, uncials, codexes, papyrii and other bits floating around out there, His word is among them.
I just happen to trust that I already have them in my hands, and that He has provided them for me.
That is part of what many call "KJVO" ( but not all of it, by a long shot ) is all about...
Not advocating a strict adherence to one old English translation that is hard for some people to read because of tradition...
But the belief that we as God's people actually have His words in the correct manuscripts and by His own hand and that until another,
better translation from
the right manuscripts actually comes along, we will stick with what we know are God's words in our own language.
We care about every word of God, and we see that much of today's translation work is not done by God's people, but by people who care more about money and not about every word ( to the point that they would tremble at it ).
Why the "trembling"?
Because they are
God's words, not man's words.
I wish you well, sir, and I will respectfully withdraw myself from any further involvement in this thread.
It seems that we are both on opposite sides of the fence regarding what Preservation actually involves.
May God bless you greatly in your personal studies of His word and in your daily life.