15 October 2020
In our consideration of the books of James, 1 and 2 Peter, and the epistles of John, we noted the danger of false teaching and distortions of the revelation of God in Scripture.
It might be profitable to just pause and consider some aspects which point to the fact that Scripture is reliable and faithful.
Our faith in the consistency and total reliability of God warrants an attitude of confidence that the text in Scripture is sufficiently trustworthy not to lead us astray. If God gave us the Scripture to grant men the wisdom unto salvation through faith in Christ, we can safely conclude that He never permits the Scriptural texts to become so corrupted that they no longer fulfil God’s intention.
Textual scholars also give the unanimous verdict that the biblical text is excellently preserved and no point of doctrine depends on any of the small number of cases in which the true reading remains doubtful. In other words, in terms of wholesome truth and doctrines conveyed in the Scripture, we can be sure that there is no major deviation or inaccuracy to affect the core teachings of these essentials. While the work of recovering the original text is ongoing, we should not hesitate to believe that the text we have it is sufficiently correct and may safely be trusted in communicating to us the Word of God with sufficient accuracy for all purposes in Christian living; God’s faithfulness is our guarantee.
Scripture mediates to us real knowledge of God; God also warns us constantly to stay within the boundaries of revelation and not to stray outside the God-given light in the darkness beyond. We must not try to penetrate by guesswork or personal ponderings into places where Scripture offers no thoughts for us to think.
The humility of wisdom should keep us within these boundaries when searching out the secrets of revelation; any speculative venture going beyond what He Himself tells us in Scripture is a sort of presumption that invariably leads to disaster.