Text and Time: The Providential Preservation of Holy Scripture

God has revealed himself to man, that we might know him - not things about him -- but that we might know him as the one true God, and our God.

His first revelation came through the things that are made. The heavens, the earth, the sun, moon, and stars proclaim daily, "The hand that made us is divine!" This revelation, though universally given, is not salvific.

God's saving revelation came through the inspiration of scripture (i.e., God "breathed" his heavenly words onto the sacred page). Because God is the author of scripture, it is, by nature, infallible.

Sadly, the veracity of God's testimony is sometimes called into doubt due to innocent errors made while hand-copying manuscripts. We also know that certain evildoers changed some readings with ill intent.

Today, most Christians look to "the experts" and their archaeological discoveries for some assurance that we still have a sufficient portion of God's word. A better approach, however, is presented in this volume.

It begins with the assumption that God preserved the words he inspired so that his people, in every generation, could hear their Shepherd's voice. This preservation was accomplished not by way of miracle, but through the mystery of divine providence.

Believing this, the ordinary Christian may apply the logic of faith to arrive at a place of maximum certainty that he holds in his hands, today, what the prophets and the apostles originally wrote in the Received Texts of the Old and New Testament and through reliable translations like the Authorized (King James) Version.

Edward Freer Hills was a distinguished Latin student when he graduated from Yale University with a BA, Phi Beta Kappa. He also earned a ThB from Westminster Theological Seminary and a ThM from Columbia Theological Seminary. After beginning his doctoral work at the University of Chicago in New Testament textual criticism, he completed his program at Harvard, earning a ThD in this field.