Looking further at your remarks, David; you said in post 68,
In regards to the scripture themselves, has it not been though that the official reformed and baptist position been that only the original scriptures were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit?
Jesus equated the inspiration that would come upon His Apostles to be the same very nature as that accorded to the OT prophets, but there is no scriptures that would indicate that it would be forwarded to any following the Apostles of Christ.
I gather you are unfamiliar with the Scriptures that posit God's providential preservation of said Scriptures? You did say a true thing, however, when you said, "only the original scriptures were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit".
But your second paragraph is not true, where you opined,
Jesus equated the inspiration that would come upon His Apostles to be the same very nature as that accorded to the OT prophets, but there is no scriptures that would indicate that it would be forwarded to any following the Apostles of Christ.
What think ye of this Scripture:
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD;
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth,
shall not depart out of thy mouth,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD,
from henceforth and for ever (Isa 59:21).
Or this saying of Jesus:
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt 24:35).
Where would they not pass away? Only in Heaven? Or on earth, where they were given for the sake of men, to know God, and be saved by Him, unto His glory?
Or these Scriptures,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4).
...his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue (2 Pet 1:3).
Now, David, if we must live by "every word" of God, and the Scripture clearly states that He "hath given unto us all things that pertain
unto life", does it then not fall to reason that He would preserve for us that which we must "live by"?
The saying of Jesus, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" is in the Greek, ο ουρανος και η γη παρελευσονται οι δε λογοι μου ου μη παρελθωσιν. Now if the English is perfectly faithful—accurate—to the Greek, does not the English hold the same quality of "God-breathedness" as the Greek, although not, as you rightly said, "
directly inspired", but rather indirectly (mediately) via the translation process?
I note that you subscribe to the 1689 London Baptist Confession, which in 1:8 says, in part,
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages...
According to the framers of your confession, the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, "being immediately inspired by God, and by his singular care and providence [were] kept pure
in all ages", including the Greek and Hebrew mss they had in their age (the first half of the 1600s), which were, the TR mss, and the Masoretic Hebrew of the 2nd Rabbinic Bible. So these original language mss were considered by them, according to your own confessional standard, kept pure as regards their inspiration. And, as I said, if the translation of them into the vernacular languages was faithful (accurate), then insofar as this was so, they partook of the quality of inspiration, not directly, but mediately—indirectly.
Is this not sound exposition and doctrine?
