Thomas Watson on the Preservation of Scripture

 

Note: Another X post:

A pastor in California recently sent me this quotation from Thomas Watson's commentary on the Shorter Catechism, touching on the divine preservation of Holy Scripture:

"We may know the scripture to be the word of God, by the miraculous preservation of it in all ages. The holy scriptures are the richest jewel that Christ hath left; and the church of God hath kept these public records of heaven that they have not been lost. The word of God hath never wanted enemies to oppose, and, if possible, to extirpate it. They have given out a law, concerning scripture, as Pharaoh did the midwives concerning the Hebrew women’s children, to strangle it in the birth; yet God hath preserved this blessed book inviolable to this day. The devil and his agents have been blowing at scripture light, but could never prevail to blow it out,—a clear sign that it was lighted from heaven. Nor hath the church of God, in all revolutions and changes, only kept the scripture that it should not be lost, but that it should not be depraved. The letter of scripture hath been preserved, without any corruption, in the original tongues. The scriptures were not corrupted before Christ’s time, for then Christ would never have sent the Jews to the scriptures; but he sends them to the scriptures, John 5:39., 'Search the scriptures.' Christ knew these sacred springs were not muddied with human fancies." I told the sender I had not run across it before but will add it to my Puritan "armoury" of citations regarding that doctrine of providential preservation so often neglected in our day. N.B.: Watson upholds not merely the preservation of Scripture's doctrinal content (matter) but also its words (form): "The letter of scripture hath been preserved, without any corruption, in the original tongues."

JTR

BLQ Article; "The Preservation of Scripture: The Indestructible Word of God (Jeremiah 36)"

I was blessed to contribute an article for the 500th issue of the Bible League Quarterly (January-March, 2025).

This article is featured on the BLQ website and can be read online here:

"The Preservation of Scripture: The Indestructible Word of God (Jeremiah 36)"

JTR

2023 Trinity and Text Conference: How Has God Preserved His Word?

 

This lecture was given at the Trinitarian Bible Society's Trinity and Text Conference in London, England on June 16, 2023.

JTR

Interview: Coffee House Sessions: The Enlightenment, Scripture, Preservation, & EFS

 

JTR

WM 273: Debate Review: James White vs. Thomas Ross: Part One

 

JTR

Excerpt: Gavin Beers: "God gives his Word to the church"

 

JTR

Book Review: Meng-Fai Yip. Preservation of the Bible: Providential, Perfect, and Perpetual

 

 

 

JTR

Jots and Tittles 5: John Owen on Preservation, Satan's Craft, and "Missing Verses"

 

My Notes:

Introduction:

In this episode I want to read a section on the divine providential preservation of Scripture from John Owen’s work titled, “The Reason of Faith, Or, The Grounds Whereon the Scripture is Believed to be the Word of God with Faith Divine and Supernatural” (1677) (Works, 4:5-115).

This is part of Owen’s larger study on the Holy Spirit.

I thought it might be helpful to share this given some of the misunderstandings and even outright misrepresentations of Confessional Bibliology that have recently been appearing online.

Owen’s overall thesis in this work is that the believer must come to receive Scripture as the Word of God based on an internal compulsion founded upon the fact that Scripture is divine revelation, rather than upon, what he calls “moral persuasion” based on “external arguments.”

So, he writes:

“The sum is, We are obliged in a way of duty to believe the Scriptures to be divine revelation, when they are ministerially or providentially proposed unto us…. The ground whereupon we are to receive them is the authority and veracity of God speaking in them; we believe them because they are the word of God” (49).

He adds:

“Wherefore, we do not nor ought only to believe the Scripture as highly probable, or with moral persuasion and assurance, built upon arguments absolutely fallible and human… if we believe not with faith divine and supernatural, we believe not at all” (49).

Nevertheless, Owen holds that there is a place for “external arguments” reasonably to confirm belief in Scripture as the Word of God.

In chapter 3 of “The Reason of Faith” Owen outlines five such “Sundry convincing external arguments for divine revelation” (20-47). They include:

1.     The antiquity of the writings;

2.     The providential preservation of the Scriptures;

3.     The overall divine wisdom and authority of the Scriptures;

4.     The testimony of the church;

5.     The doctrines derived from the Scriptures.

Owen on Preservation:

I want now to read Owen’s discussion of the preservation of Scripture as one of these five external arguments :

[Reading from Owen, Works, 4: 23-26]

Conclusion:

The Reformed doctrine of the providential preservation of Scripture is one of the most neglected themes in contemporary theology. I think Owen’s views add insight into what the framer’s of the WCF meant in 1:8 when they spoke of God’s Word having been “kept pure in all ages.”

In recent years there have been various evangelical and even Reformed attempts either to reject this doctrine (See Dan Wallace) or to reinterpret it (See Richard Brash).

Confessional Bibliology represents an effort neither to reject nor reinterpret but to retrieve this doctrine. Sadly, lack of familiarity with and misunderstanding of this historic doctrine has resulted, in part, in the unjust confusion and conflation of Confessional Bibliology with IFB KJVO-ism (a phenomenon of the 20^th century).

Most recently a Presbyterian youtuber has ungraciously mocked CB as KJVO because of questions raised by us about “missing verses” in the modern critical text and in modern translations, accusing us of promoting wacky conspiracy theories. He has also suggested that the historic Christian position is to accept uncertainty about what exactly the text of Scripture is, so that we have no reason for anxiety when modern editors and translators remove passage from OR ADD to the traditional text.

I think you can clearly see in this excerpt from Owen, however, that he believed in the meticulous care of God’s Word, as he puts it, “that not a letter of it should be utterly lost.” He expresses his trust in divine providence to preserve “this book and all that is in it, its words and its syllables.” He even speaks clearly of the Scriptures having been preserved despite Satan’s efforts to corrupt it. He speaks of Scripture having been preserved despite “the malicious craft of Satan.” He notes that God’s providence even kept “apostatized Christians” from “the corrupting of one line in it.”

I think we can see that the beef some have with CB is really a beef with John Owen and the Reformed Protestant Orthodox and, sadly enough, perhaps with WCF 1:8.

I hope that this reading of Owen might help to clarify this point for those with sincere, serious, and open-minded interest in this topic.

JTR

Ebenezer Ritchie on Psalm 12:6-7

 

Image: I found this sketch of Ebenezer Ritchie on the website of the town of Paisly, Scotland in an article on the restoration of the Original Secession Church building where he served as pastor.

Note: R. L. Vaughan posted this quote to comments on the WM 245 youtubevideo, and I shared on my twitter @Riddle1689 and thought I’d post here too.

Scottish Presbyterian Ebenezer Ritchie on Ps. 12:6-7 and the preservation of Scripture (1868):

“Before passing from this subject, I would advise, in reference to the canon of Scripture, that you meddle not with them that are given to change. We might reason, a priori, from the regard God has to His Word, and the important ends intended by it, as a perfect and infallible record and rule, that it is so much the object of His care and superintending providence that no book of Scripture has perished, and even that no words of God contained it have been lost.

‘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.’

But the question occurs, where are the original inspired words of Scripture to be found? We answer, In the received Hebrew and Greek texts, with their marginal readings, which are the prototype of our English version, and of almost all vernacular translations of the Scriptures at the present time.”

From The Original Secession Magazine, Rev. E. Ritchie, Address to the Students of Divinity of the United Original Secession Church, Volume VIII, No. XII, November 1868, p. 734.

JTR

WM 234: James White's Long Answer to a Short Question on Preservation

 

I recorded this WM on Saturday (4.16.22) and just got around to posting it today.

You can listen to the full video being partially reviewed in this WM here.

I made reference to Maurice A. Robinson's refutation of "the shortest reading is best" argument employed by JW in his essay, "The Case for Byzantine Priority."

JTR

John Owen (1616-1683) on Matthew 5:18: To reject the “meticulous” providential preservation of Scripture is not to believe in providence at all

 

“…yet, through the watchful care and providence of God, sometimes putting itself forth in miraculous instances, it [Scripture] hath been preserved unto this day, and shall be so to the consummation of all things. The event of that which was spoken by our Saviour, Matt. v. 18, doth invincibly prove the divine approbation of this book, as that doth its divine original, ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.’ God’s perpetual care over the Scripture for so many ages, that not a letter of it should be utterly lost, nothing that hath the least tendency toward its end should perish, is evidence of his regard unto it."

“For my part, I cannot but judge that he that seeth not an hand of divine Providence stretched out in the preservation of this book and all that is in it, its words and syllables, for thousands of years, through all the overthrows and deluges of calamities that have befallen the world, with the weakness of the means whereby it hath been preserved, and the interest, in some ages, of all those in whose power it was to have been corrupted,—with the open opposition that hath been made unto it, doth not believe there is any such thing as providence at all.”

-John Owen (The Reason of Faith, Works, 4, 24).

John Owen (1616-1683) on the "Meticulous" Preservation of Scripture and Matthew 5:18

 

John Owen, The Causes, Ways, and Means of Understanding The Mind of God As Revealed In His Word (Collected Works, 4, 213):

“The words of Scripture being given thus immediately from God, every apex, tittle, or iota in the whole is considerable, as that which is in effect divine wisdom, and therefore filled with sacred truth, according to their place and measure. Hence, they are all under the especial care of God, according to that promise of our Saviour, Matt v.18.... “Till heaven and earth pass, one jota or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. That our Saviour doth here intend the writing of Scriptures then in use in the church, and assure the protection of God unto the least letter, vowel, or point of it, I have proved elsewhere [see Works, 16, 345-421]; and [God] himself in due time will reprove the profane boldness of them who, without evidence or sufficient proof, without that respect and reverence which is due unto the interest, care, providence and faithfulness of God in this matter, do assert manifold changes to have been made to the original writings of the Scripture."

Prooftexts on the "Meticulous" Preservation of Scripture

 

Image: North Garden, Virginia, April 2022.

Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

1 Samuel 3:19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

Jeremiah 36:32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

Psalm 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Psalm 119:89 For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

JTR

WM 232: Gurry on Preservation of Scripture: Kept "Mostly Pure Enough"?

 

For the video under review look here.

JTR

Some Gems from Van Kleeck, Sr. on Providential Preservation

 

Some gems from the Introduction to Peter Van Kleeck, Sr.’s AnExegetical Grounding for a Standard Sacred Text:

"How one interprets the Bible depends wholly on one's a priori acceptance of the Scripture as God's Word" (4).

"The 'house of the Lord' [Ps, 27:4] has always been the best place to do theology" (26).

"Like so many other things God allows in his providence, the 'industrial grade' bible exists for the Church to grow stronger by its rejection" (33).

"Scripture's preservation is first recognized intuitively" (34).

"Preservation is incontrovertibly linked with inspiration” (35).

"Providential preservation does not exist within the observable boundaries of scientific categories to be classified, nor can it be observed till after the fact" (36).

"The Bible cannot be what it says it is if God did not providentially preserve it for us" (44).

DV, I'll have Dr. Van Kleeck, Sr. as a guest on the WM podcast next week to discuss his new book.

JTR

WM 216: Robinson on Preservation: Part One

 

Here is my brief, ex tempore review of Maurice Robinson's article, "The Letter and the Spirit." The episode ends with discussion of this stunning statement:

"Obviously, the preservational role of the Holy Spirit is neither absolute nor specifically miraculous, but occupies a passive and apparently minimalist role rather than an active or observable divine interference within the transmissional process."

JTR

Didache 4:13: Implications for the preservation and transmission of the NT?

Image: Rhododendron, North Garden, Virginia, May 2021

Didache 4:13 (M. W. Holmes trans.): "You must not forsake the Lord's commandments but must guard what you have received, neither adding nor subtracting anything [mēte prostitheis mēte aphairōn]."

Implications for early Christian views on the preservation and transmission of NT?

JTR

WM 195: Interview: "How the Holy Bible Came To Be."

 

 Read "How the Holy Bible Came To Be" here.

JTR

WM 192: James Bearss: La preservación de las Escrituras (The Preservation of the Scriptures)

 

Enjoy! JTR

Seni Adeyemi on the Pure Preservation of Scripture (WCF 1:8).

I commend this recent teaching by Seni Adeyemi from the Phoenix Reformed Presbyterian Church in his survey of the WCF 1:8 on the importance of the purity and preservation of Scripture. Good points made about why this was important to the Protestant Orthodox in their apologetics and why it is still important today. Enjoy!