The Doctrine of the Preservation of the Scriptures

The Relationship Between Inerrancy and Preservation

The Doctrine of Inerrancy only applies to the autographed manuscripts.

We do not have any of the autographs.

Scriptural Basis

Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

This does not mean that all the words of Jesus will be preserved. John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Definition

The Doctrine of the Preservation of Scripture is the teaching that God has preserved all of the words He desires for us to have today.

What Evidence Do We Have that Our Bibles Today are the Same as the Autographs?

New Testament Evidence

Number of manuscripts.

Date of manuscripts.

Distribution of manuscripts.

Church fathers.

Old Testament Evidence

Dead sea scrolls.

Why Did God Not Preserve the Autographs?

The Bible doesn’t say.

Veneration could have become a problem.

God chooses to use fallible humans to accomplish His purposes.

In Summary:

The Doctrine of Inerrancy of Scripture is important.

The Doctrine of the Preservation of Scripture is taught in Scripture and demonstrated in the evidence of the reliability of the Bible.