WM 93: Review: Garnet Howard Milne's "Has the Bible been kept pure?"

I have posted WM 93: Review: Garnet Howard Milne’s “Has the Bible been kept pure?” (listen here).

In this episode I read and give some additional comments on my review of Garnet Howard Milne’s Has the Bible been kept pure? The Westminster Confession of Faith and the providential preservation of Scripture (Garnet Howard Milne, 2017): 322 pp.

This book is an important contribution in defense of the “preservationist” confessional text of Scripture over against the “reconstructionist” modern text of Scripture on historical theological grounds.

Here is the conclusion of my review:

It might be added that Milne presents his arguments firmly and resolutely, but that he also does so with a charitable and optimistic spirit. Given his stated belief that God will preserve his Word, this is indeed a necessity. Thus, in his conclusion, Milne observes:

If the Westminster divines were correct in their doctrine of Scripture, then we can expect to see the New Testament Received Text and the Old Testament Masoretic Text continue to be preserved and used by the Lord’s people. We would also expect to see the Westcott and Hort and Warfield approach to textual criticism eclipsed by a return to the Puritan religious epistemology so clearly defined in the Westminster Confession of Faith (301).

He then adds:

As more Christians become educated on the developments of modern textual-critical theory they are likely to see the beauty, simplicity, and the Scriptural basis for the old religious epistemology of the Reformation and the authentic status of the common text of Scripture (301-302).

Has the Bible been kept pure? may well prove a useful tool to aid in unseating the new paradigm of the text of Scripture in favor of the old.

JTR