The preservation of the Bible shows God’s power to protect His Word through every generation. Thousands of manuscripts, faithfully transmitted and copied, reflect the Bible’s unchanging truths.
We are exhorted in Scripture to be good students of God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15), and we should not let doubts about the doctrine of preservation keep us from diligent study. Although the manuscripts that the writers of the Old and New Testament used are not available to us, God’s inspired truths that were delivered to us through copies of these manuscripts are just as powerful and applicable to our life now as they were to believers in ancient times. In fact, Romans 15:4 indicates that Scripture has been “written for our instruction” and to give us “encouragement” and “hope.” Jesus affirmed that preservation of Scripture(Matthew 5:18). We can count on the preservation of the Bible because of these statements, along with Isaiah 40:8 which communicates that “the word of our God will stand forever.”
The doctrine of preservation is the teaching that God's Word has been preserved, and its original meaning has been kept intact. Some argue that the Bible does not explicitly teach that His Word would be accurately preserved; therefore, they say that the doctrine of preservation is not a biblical teaching. Others refer to the Bible's theological teachings regarding God's Word lasting forever as evidence to support the doctrine of preservation.
A look at the history of God's preservation of Scripture reveals some of the amazing ways in which God has kept His Word for us. Despite the attempts of enemies to destroy the Word of God, far more ancient copies of biblical manuscripts exist than any other ancient document.
Further, a close examination of the thousands of ancient Bible manuscripts reveal that the text of the Bible has remained amazingly stable. For example, prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the twentieth century, the earliest portions of many Old Testament writings dated from about AD 1000. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls included Hebrew copies of Old Testament books from more than 1,000 years earlier that affirmed the accurate nature of the copies we continue to use today. While we don’t have any of the original manuscripts of the Bible's books, many early copies have helped reveal the important work of Scripture preservation that has continued from the past to our day.