Page 3 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible Student Textbook
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Doctrine and History of the Preservation of Biblical Text
By Kris Bjorgen, Ed.D.
Study Section 1: What is the Doctrine of the Biblical Preservation?
1.1 Connect
Have you ever heard a person say, “Oh, the Bible has a lot of inconsistencies and errors in it?
It is filled with contradictions!” I have. I ask them to show me one. So far, every person who
has made this claim cannot show me one contradiction or error. They are just parroting what
others have said without even checking into the claim or validating the truth of the statement.
As believers, we know that God wrote the Bible. If it has errors or contradictions in it, then
God has author lies. We might as well all abandon our faith and go live like the Devil. But we
know from careful study that the Bible is reliable and has no errors in it. Today, as we begin our study,
we are going to learn about the doctrine of the Bible and how God’s Word can be trusted. Let’s get
started…
1.2 Objectives
1. The student should be able to write the definition of Biblical Preservation.
2. The student should be able to explain how the Bible itself claims to be God’s very words.
1.3 What is the Doctrine of the Preservation of the Biblical Text?
Introduction
Bibliology can be defined as a detailed study of the theological doctrine of the Bible. The
doctrine of Biblical Preservation is defined as God’s promise to maintain the accuracy of His
Word to the end of the ages. The Bible is the inspired source of knowledge about God,
Jesus Christ, salvation, and eternity. Without a proper view of the Bible, our views on these
and other issues become clouded and distorted. And unless the Bible we have in our hands today is not
what God originally wrote, then we are hopelessly lost.
Preservation of the Biblical Text
Once the manuscripts were penned by the work of the Holy Spirit, it was essential that God make sure
that those words He wanted all mankind to know were preserved through the ages, so that you and I
can know that the copy of the Bible we have are the words that were written thousands of years ago.
We need to know that God’s Word is reliable and trustworthy. We can study the efforts of mankind to
preserve the truth of the Bible, but we can also see as we study history that God preserved His Word for
us in many miraculous ways.
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