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

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).

WM 224: Peter Van Kleeck, Sr. on Providential Preservation

 

See also WM 213.

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

 

Enjoy! JTR

The Vision (2.14.20): Windows in Heaven

Image: Winter sunset, February 2020, North Garden, Virginia

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 2 Kings 7.

Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Behold, if the LORD make windows in heaven might this thing be? (2 Kings 7:2a).

Israel was besieged and starving. What meager food remained was astronomical in price. A donkey’s head sold for 80 pieces of silver and a handful of dove dung for five pieces of silver (2 Kings 6:25).

Elisha, however, prophesied that by the next day, fine flour and barley would sell for a mere shekel in the gates of Samaria (2 Kings 7:1).

The king’s counselor was incredulous. How could this be, even if the Lord opened “windows in heaven” (v. 2a)?

Think about this reference to windows in heaven. What does it mean? Clearly it is figurative language. It is a way of expressing the providential blessings of God, that which falls from above. In Malachi 3:10 the Lord challenges Israel to bring the whole tithe into storehouse to see if he would not open “the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

This counselor’s protest was not only a challenge to Elisha as God’s prophet, but also to the character and goodness of God, as well as the sovereignty of God. He’s not good enough to want to do this. He’s not powerful enough to do it.

We might consider our own state at times to be like that of Samaria in those days. Perhaps we feel we are beset, besieged, beleaguered. And God’s Word promises a tomorrow that seems out of reach.

He promises that he will supply all our needs. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

He promises to satisfy our deepest longings. “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

He promises to work all things for your good (Rom 8:28).

He promises that present distresses are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom 8:18).

He promises that those who trust in him will one day experience the resurrection to life (1 Cor 15:51-53) and that there is land fairer than day where there will be no more tears (Rev 21:4).

The challenge: Will we believe the promises of God? Will we believe that he is all-good and all-powerful, and he can open the windows in heaven to pour out such blessings on us that there is not room enough to receive it?

Elisha’s word was fulfilled, and the unbelieving counselor was trampled in the gate and died (2 Kings 7:20). Let us be warned, fear, and believe.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Balance in the Christian Life: Considering the "crooked" places and "frowning" providences

Note: Devotion taken from sermon on Ecclesiastes 7:11-18.

Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? (Ecclesiastes 7:13).

This exhortation is a call to consider or to reflect upon the providential works of God.  And it is a call, in particular, to look at the things which the Lord has allowed to happen, which appear, from our perspective, to be “crooked,” misshapen, bent, or evil.  We are instructed to consider that no man can ever change those things or make them straight (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:15a: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight”). These "frowning" providences were allowed by God for our good. Turn again to the words of Joseph in Genesis 50:20 and Paul in Romans 8:28.

Charles Bridges comments:

Yet there are many things crooked in man’s eye, because they cross his will, and thwart his own imaginary happiness (p. 154).

When the whole work shall be complete—every particle will seem to have fallen just into its own proper place. And all will then appear One Great Whole every way worthy of God—the eternal manifestation of his glory (Ecclesiastes, p. 155).

Again, we must begin a self-examination: Have I looked back with bitterness at some of the “crooked”places or "frowning" providences in my life? Have I doubted God’s perfect goodness toward me? Have I brought myself to despair or distraction or frustration by thinking that human means might straighten things out which God has made crooked? And instead might I not trust his heart and his word that all has come about—even the crooked things—for his glory and the blessing of man?

JTR 

The Vision (11.25.16): God's Perfect Timing

Video: Pete Seeger and Judy Collins sing "Turn, Turn, Turn."

Note:  Devotion taken from last Sunday morning's sermon on Ecclesiastes 3:1-11.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is one of the best known passage in the entire book.

Many children of the sixties know the words not from reading their Bibles but from The Byrds song, “Turn, Turn, Turn” which drew its lyrics nearly verbatim from Solomon:  “To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”  It hit Number One on the Billboard charts in November 1965.  The song was actually written in the 1950s by folk singer Peter Seeger.

I often tell my college students, that every religion has a view of time.  The Jews and Christians, based on the special revelation of Scripture,  saw time as linear.  It has a beginning and a purposeful ending.  The pagans, on the other hand, without that guidance, saw time as cyclical, the same things repeated over and over without purpose.  This is how the idea of reincarnation developed.  With the pagan view of time came a sense of futility and lack of control over time, so that man was seen as the victim of time as a capricious master.  Men saw themselves as subject to the great wheel of fortune.  Round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows.  One man’s house gets hit by lightening and burns to the ground while his neighbor’s house stands intact.  One child is stillborn, another is born and lives to 100. It’s all a matter of chance, or fate, or karma.

Solomon in our passage puts forward his own views of time from the perspective of godly wisdom and he teaches that time is not a master but it is a servant.  Time is on God’s leash.  He controls it and he uses it to fulfill his purposes for the world and for every person and creature within it.

God is sovereign over time.  As Isaiah prophesied, the Lord declares “the end from the beginning,” saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10).  Every day ordained for man was written in God’s book before one of them ever came to be (see Psalm 139:16 NKJV).  Proverbs 16:9 teaches: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”  And Jesus himself taught that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground unless it be God’s will (see Matt 10:29-31).

Christians, therefore, do not believe in luck or fortune. Those are pagan terms.  There are no accidents or mistakes.  We believe in providence.  God provides for all his creation, and especially for the redeemed, what gives him the most glory and does them the most good.  The opening paragraph of chapter five “Of Divine Providence” in the 1689 Baptist confession:

God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will; to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.

That is what is being affirmed in Ecclesiastes 3.  Solomon not only declares that man’s life is meaningful but also that man is not the victim of time as a series of random and purposeless events.  John Currid observes:  “the Preacher argues against those who believe that time is a tyrant that is totally out of control” relentlessly pushing us toward our deaths while we are but “helpless pawns in a cosmic game!” (p. 49).  No, Solomon says, for every time there is a purpose under heaven!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle 

John Owen on Divine Preservation of Scripture

In his treatise “Of the Integrity and Purity of the Hebrew and Greek Text of the Scripture” the Puritan John Owen affirms both the inspiration and preservation of Scripture, noting that God would not have given his Word to his people if he had not also intended to preserve it for them:

But what, I pray, will it advantage us that God did so once deliver his word, if we are not assured also that that word so delivered hath been, by his special care and providence, preserved entire and uncorrupted unto us, or that it doth not evidence and manifest itself to be his word, beings so preserved? ….

Far be it from the thoughts of any good man, that God, whose covenant with his church is that his word and Spirit shall never depart from it, Isa lix. 21, Matt. v.18, 1 Pet. i.25, 1 Cor xi.23, Matt. xxviii.20, hath left it in uncertainties about the things that are the foundation of all that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands (Works, Vol. 16, p. 350).

The Vision: Psalm 12:6-7 and Preservation

Note:  Here are some notes from last Sunday’s sermon on Psalm 12:

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.

Does Psalm 12 support the doctrine of the providential preservation of God’s Word?

I believe the answer to that is “Yes.”  The heart of that comes in v. 6.  God’s word is pure.  It has been made pure by God himself.  It is not an adulterated word.  It is like silver purified in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.  Notice:  It was not left in a state of impurity and corruption for thousands of years until the right scientific knowledge arose to purify it.  It has always been pure.

Though we might grant that the thrust of v. 7 is about the preservation of God’s people (rather than directly about the preservation of his Word) that is not a point unrelated to the doctrine of the divine preservation of Scripture.  Why can God’s people have confidence in his ability to keep them?  Because the Lord keeps his promises.  He keeps his word.  His Word can be trusted in all generations!

The Geneva Bible notes on v. 5 declare:  “Because the Lord’s word and promise is true and unchangeable, he will perform it and preserve the poor from this wicked generation.”

So, the right interpretation of Psalm 12:7 need not be “either it is about the preservation of Scripture or it is about the preservation of God’s people,” but “both, and.”  This is the way Matthew Poole understood it when he said that the meaning of v. 7 is that God’s preservation refers to “either:  (1) the poor and needy, ver. 5, from the crafts and malice of this crooked and perverse generation of men, and for ever. Or, (2) The words or promises, last mentioned, ver. 6.”

There is a joining here of two great and related doctrines. God keeps his Word and God keeps his people.  God preserves his Word and God preserves his people.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (7.17.15): Josephus on the Preservation of God's Word

Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100 AD) was a Jewish military leader and historian who was roughly a contemporary of the apostle Paul.  Modern historians have found the writings of Josephus to be an invaluable source for understanding the religion and history of Israel during Biblical times.  In his work titled The Jewish Wars, for example, Josephus provides a vivid eyewitness description of the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.

In an apologetic work titled Against Apion, Josephus defends the Jewish people and religion against its pagan critics.  As part of that defense, Josephus describes the meticulous care which the Jews of his day gave to the handling and transmission of the Old Testament Scriptures:

We have given practical proof of our reverence for our own Scriptures.  For, although such long ages have now passed, no one ventured either to add, or to remove or to alter a syllable; and it is an instinct with every Jew, from the day of his birth, to regard them as the decrees of God, to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to die for them.  Time and again ere now the sight has been witnessed of prisoners enduring tortures and death in every form in the theatres, rather than utter a single word against the laws and the allied documents (Against Apion, I.8).

Since Jesus himself and the apostles were Jews, we can imagine that they shared a similar sentiment regarding the Scriptures.  This same spirit is evidenced when Jesus said things like:  “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” (Matthew 5:17).  Such statements provide the vital Biblical proofs which support the doctrine of the providential preservation of God’s Word.

We can rely on the faithfulness of God’s Word, because God has been faithful to keep it.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (7.10.15): Calvin on the Providential Preservation of Scripture

In his classic systematic theological work The Institutes of the Christian Religion, the foundational Reformer John Calvin articulates the doctrine of the providential preservation of Scripture (see Book One, Chapter VIII).

As part of his historical survey of how God has preserved his Word through the ages, Calvin discusses the time when the Greek tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes “ordered all the books to be burned” (as recorded in the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees).  Calvin observes:

….let us rather ponder here how much care the Lord has taken to preserve his Word, when, contrary to everybody’s expectation, he snatched it away from a most cruel and savage tyrant, as from a raging fire.  Let us consider how he armed godly priests and others with so great constancy that they did not hesitate to transmit to their posterity this treasure redeemed, if necessary at the expense of their own lives; and how he frustrated the whole fierce book hunt of rulers and their minions.  Who does not recognize as a remarkable and wonderful work of God the fact that those sacred monuments, which the wicked have persuaded themselves had utterly perished, soon returned and took their former place once more, and even with enhanced dignity?

He later adds:

By countless wondrous means Satan with the whole world has tried either to oppress it or overturn it, to obscure and obliterate it utterly from the memory of men—yet, like the palm, it has risen ever higher and has remained unassailable.

Calvin held not only that God had inspired his Word but that he also had preserved his Word in all ages.  This understanding of the providential preservation of Scripture came to be reflected in the classical Reformed confessions like the Westminster Confession and the Second London Baptist Confession when they affirm that the Scriptures “being immediately inspired by God, and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them” (2LBCF, Chapter One, “Of the Holy Scriptures”).  Though traditional and evangelical Christians in the modern age have generally articulated and defended the divine inspiration of the Bible, they have been less confident and clear in their defense of its providential preservation.  Let us be vigilant to uphold both these vital doctrines.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeffrey Riddle

Flavel: "tools of all sorts in the shop of Providence"

I'm reading John Flavel's The Mystery of Providence (orig. 1678; Banner 1963).  Here's one choice nugget:

Even in viewing the accurate structure of the body of a man, the figure, position, and mutual relationships of the several members and vessels has convinced some, and is sufficient to convince all, that it is the work of divine wisdom and power; in like manner, if the admirable adaptation of the means and instruments employed for mercy to the people of God are carefully considered, who can but confess that there are some tools of all sorts and sizes in the shop of Providence, so there is a most skillful hand that uses them, and that they could no more produce such effects of themselves than the axe, saw, or chisel can carve or cut a rough log into a beautiful figure without the hand of a skillful artificer (p. 32).