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-41-
God Hath Spoken
Preservation And The "Correctors"
A few years ago, I received a letter from a preacher who wrote, "With all its inconsistencies, obscurities and faults, we prefer the King James Version. We have no qualms about correcting it where necessary." I returned reply and said his spirit was haughty, naughty and peevish.
If faith is based upon scholarship, how can the uneducated believe? We ought to praise God that He has not withheld faith from common, everyday men; neither has He withheld happiness from the poor. Even a poor man can be a happy man. It is by the wise design of God that most wealthy people are not happy, and that most brilliant scholars cannot believe. "Not many wise men after the flesh ...are called" (I Cor. 1:26). The Bible is not a book of mysteries that only philosophers and critics can understand. Even an uneducated man may believe.
"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (Psalm 12:6). Place silver in the smelter and melt it down, drawing off all the impurities. Then put it again into the smelter and draw off more impurities; and do this seven times until pure metal is finally the only thing remaining. The Lord here gives us an expression denoting the sincerity and purity of the Scriptures. "The words of the Lord are pure words."
The Scriptures are just as they appear to be. God does not mock us. God, who is all wise, has the ability to use men to write what He means and to mean what they write. The Scriptures are designed for our learning, and they are designed for our good.
"The words of the LORD are pure words." They proceed from God, who is pure, and they are intended to make men pure. In so expressing it, the psalmist describes the preciousness of God's Word. "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" (Psalm 19:10).
Let us return to Psalm 12, and note verse 7: "Thou shalt keep them O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." The Word of God is not only sincere, it is of great value; and here he also tells us the Word of God is preserved. "Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."
History And Preservation
The saints of ages now past have trusted the Word of God. They have tried them, and they have found them sufficient. I recently read an account about James Gardner, who in the 1800's went as a missionary to the Indians in Tierra del Fuego at the extreme tip of South America.
When he and his party first arrived, the Indians stole their food, so they sent word home, and waited for a ship to bring fresh supplies. They waited, and they waited, and they waited. One by one they died from starvation. One man, as he died, was singing,
Arise, my soul, arise, Shake off thy guilty fears: The bleeding Sacrifice In my behalf appears.
Think of that! These men who had come to give the Indians the truth of God were slowly starved by those very Indians!
The saints have trusted the Word of God before, and have found it able to succour them, and to carry them through the river of death. His Word is true, and God is going to preserve it forever. It is not going to be debauched by men, because it is forever settled in heaven. It is preserved.
God, who has never left Himself without witness, is going to preserve His Word "from this generation for ever." Men may rage, and the people may imagine a vain thing, but "He that sittest in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision" (Ps. 2:4).
Neither John, nor Paul, nor Peter were authors of Scripture: they were "amanuenses," or "penmen." They were the writers of Scripture, but God Himself is the Author. "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 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" (II Pet. 1:20, 21). God is the Author of the Bible, and Scripture is as much the Word of God as when God spoke the organic word, "Let there be light:" and there was light.