Doctrine
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35
Can we really trust the Bible we hold in our hands? In a day when men say the Scriptures have been changed, lost, or mistranslated beyond recovery, this is no small question — for if we cannot be sure of the Book, we cannot be sure of anything it tells us about God, about sin, or about salvation. But the Bible does not leave us in doubt. It makes two great claims about itself: that it is the inspired Word of God, and that God has kept it pure. Both claims are true, and upon them the believer may rest with full confidence.
The Bible did not come from the minds of men. It was breathed out by God Himself, every part of it profitable and true. Holy men wrote it, but they wrote what God gave them to write.
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21)
And the inspiration reaches to the very words — not merely the general ideas. The Lord Jesus Christ said that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and He rested His arguments upon single words and even the tense of a verb.
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)
Here is the promise that answers every fear. God did not merely give His Word once and then leave it to the mercy of the centuries. He promised to keep it — to preserve His pure words forever, from generation to generation.
"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, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." (Psalm 12:6-7)
The Lord Jesus Christ staked the permanence of His words against the very universe: sooner shall heaven and earth crumble than one of His words fail.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
The Word of God is settled, fixed, unmovable — not on shifting earth, but in heaven itself.
"For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." (Psalm 119:89)
The world around us fades like grass, but the Word of our God stands unshaken through every age.
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isaiah 40:8)
Some will grant that God preserved the general message of the Bible, while surrendering the words themselves. But the Lord Jesus Christ promised to keep even the smallest letter and the smallest mark — the jot and the tittle.
"Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18)
Every word of God is pure, and He warns solemnly against adding to His words or taking from them. A God who forbids men to tamper with His Word has surely not allowed His Word to be lost.
"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." (Proverbs 30:5-6)
Think it through. The same God who was mighty enough to inspire His Word is surely mighty enough to preserve it. Would He speak, and then stand by helplessly while His words were lost? It cannot be. The God who promised preservation has performed it. Through fire and persecution, through the rise and fall of empires, through every effort of men and devils to destroy it, the Word of God has come down to us pure and whole. The Book that liveth and abideth for ever is in our hands today.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever... But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:23,25)
We hold the King James Bible to be that preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people. It was translated from the faithful Hebrew of the Old Testament and the received Greek of the New — the text kept and used by the people of God — by men who trembled before the Word and laboured to render it faithfully. For four hundred years God has honoured it: souls have been saved by it, saints have been fed by it, the sick and the dying have been comforted by it, and nations have been shaped by it. We do not lean upon the ever-changing opinions of men, nor upon a Bible that must be corrected in every generation. We stand upon the sure Word that God has preserved and proven.
This is the whisper of the enemy from the very beginning — "Yea, hath God said?" — for if he can make you doubt the Word, he can lead you anywhere. But consider: if God promised to preserve His words, and God cannot lie, then His words have been preserved, whatever men may claim. The believer does not hang his confidence on the discoveries of scholars, which shift from year to year, but on the promise of God, which does not shift at all. We are not left with a broken, uncertain Bible; we are given the pure and settled Word of the living God.
This preserved Word is not a dead book of ancient words. It is living and powerful, cutting into the heart, exposing the soul, and doing the work of God in the reader.
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." (Hebrews 4:12)
It is perfect, and it does what nothing else can do — it converts the soul and makes the simple wise.
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple." (Psalm 19:7)
Above all, it is able to make you wise unto salvation. This is the great purpose of the Book: to bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ.
"...the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15)
The Bible is not an end in itself. Its every page, from Genesis to Revelation, points to one Person — the Lord Jesus Christ — and it was written that you might believe on Him and live.
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39)
"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31)
So do not merely admire the Book; believe it, and receive the Saviour it reveals. The same Word that is settled for ever in heaven is able, this moment, to make you wise unto salvation — if you will trust the Christ of whom it speaks.
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."Isaiah 40:8