It is clear that men did not write what they could copy down from records. Men did not write down nor put in writing so-called "oral traditions." Men did not write down things they learned from eyewitnesses. You understand, those who wrote might have been familiar with records or they might have known eyewitnesses, or they might have seen some of the things recorded. But when they wrote they did not write on the authority of eyewitnesses or human records or their own understanding. They wrote the matter which God gave them in the words which God Himself gave. So the Bible clearly teaches, and so a believing Christian is glad to believe. - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 24-25]
The Bible is called the Word of God. Jesus also is called the Word of God (John 1:14, Rev. 19:13). There is a divinely intended similarity, almost identity, between Jesus, the Word made flesh, and the Bible, the Word written down in human language. Jesus is the God-man, both divine and human. He is not half God and half man. He is wholly God and wholly man. In Jesus, deity and man are perfectly combined. But that does not mean that His humanity limited His deity. The Lord Jesus Christ has all the perfection of deity, though He took on Himself the form of a servant and became obedient to death, even to the death on the cross. - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 25]
God in mercy selected certain men, prepared them, and these holy men wrote the Bible as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But human frailty no more enters into the writing of the Bible than human frailty entered into the incarnation of Jesus Christ. As Mary did not decide when nor how the body of the Lord Jesus would be formed within her, did not decide any of the processes by which God worked His miracle, using some human means, so men who wrote the Bible did not decide what was written, did not decide what words to use. They participated gladly, sometimes, and in varying degrees. They sometimes understood and sometimes did not understand. Sometimes the words fitted with their normal vocabularies and sometimes they did not. But though men had part in the writing of the Scriptures, it was God who made the decisions and the result is the perfect, infallible, supernatural, wonderful Bible! - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 25-26]
There are those who pretend a love for Jesus Christ though they do not believe that the Bible is all true, and do not regard it as the authoritative, perfect Word of God. They do not attack the Lord Jesus Christ, but they do attack the Bible. But do not be deceived by such men. Those who attack the Bible thus attack Jesus Christ. Those who do not believe the Bible do not believe the historic Christian faith. - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 26]
The Bible is the only rule by which a Christian may safely go. Right or wrong, for the Christian, is settled by the will of God as expressed in His Word, the infallible Bible. - John R. Rice [World-Wide War and the Bible, pg. 36]
The words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17, 18, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but not one jot nor tittle shall pass away even till heaven and earth pass away, Jesus said! Jesus here indicates the eternal and perfect character of the Word of God. Jesus said it will fit all generations, it will never be out of date, it will be good in all languages and climates and ages, and will never pass away till all be fulfilled. That means Jesus puts His deity back of the supernatural perfection of the Bible. - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 27]
In Matthew 24:35 Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Here Jesus plainly says that His own words could never pass away. But in truth, the only record we have of His words is in the New Testament. So, actually Jesus is here guaranteeing the supernatural preservation of the New Testament, saying that the life of God is in the Bible. - John R. Rice [A Coffer of Jewels About the Bible, pg. 27]
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