Page 6 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

The majority of that which we can know about God comes from the Bible. You have a choice. You can
hold the Bible in high esteem as the inspired and inerrant Word of God and handle it properly through
careful interpretation and application, or you can turn to other sources as authority such as human
reason, science, tradition, mysticism, experiences, or as listed above, or the writings of religious men. If
the Bible is a book full of nice stories and thoughts, but is not to be taken seriously, then what does it
matter? We all die and that’s the end of it. However, if the Bible is true, and if you take alternate paths
to knowing who God is, you will certainly lose out on the eternal promises of salvation and eternity with
God. You will spend eternity in Hell being judged for your sins. Your life on earth and your entire hope
of eternal life is all based on how you respond to the Bible.

Our view, approach, and attitude toward the Bible are foundational. If our view of the Bible is
inadequate, we will naturally handle the Bible accordingly. If we do not think it is God-breathed, we
won’t think it is profitable for direction in life. If we think it contains a lot of errors, or that only some of
it are inspired while other parts are not, then we are left with the dilemma of knowing what part is true
and what part is not. On the other hand, if we believe it is God’s infallible and inerrant Word, as the
evidence we will study supports, then we can accept every part of it and study it carefully, applying all of
it to our daily lives.

The Bible declares itself to be God’s spoken word to man.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, ESV

2 Peter 1:20-21 Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own
interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit. ESV

Matthew 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass
from the Law until all is accomplished. ESV

2 John 1:9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have
God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ESV

We find that the writers of Scripture claimed that God spoke to them and told them to write down the
contents of what he said. For example, we read.

Exodus 17:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered
and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under
heaven"

Moses obeyed God by writing down things that the Lord
instructed him to write.

Deuteronomy 31:22 So Moses wrote down this song
that day and taught it to the Israelites

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