Oftentimes when someone wants a quick excuse for not listening to what you have to tell them about the Bible, they’ll remind you that the book can’t be trusted since there are no original documents of it as proof.

What’s so amazing, though, is that God throughout Scripture demonstrates conclusively that it’s been His design from the very beginning to preserve His Word through a multiplicity of accurate, reliable copies and not any original manuscripts.

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In Exodus 31, for one classic example, Moses goes atop Mt. Sinai and stands there and just literally watches God write down the Ten Commandments—the very first original manuscripts ever produced—and then comes down the mountain and breaks up the tablets in anger.

As Jordan explains it, “The tablets were written on both their sides; they were the work of God—the writing was the writing of God—but you know what Moses did? Brother, he DESTROYED the originals!

“He didn’t put them under glass. He didn’t put them in a Brinks armored car. He broke ’em! I mean, he broke those things before anybody ever got to read them. Imagine that! He took the originals and busted them up before anybody got to read them, or hear him, or preach about them and expound on them and communicate them to the people! And you know something, God let him do it!

“Folks, if the original manuscripts were the issue with God Almighty He would have reached down there with His finger, or with an angel or something, and lifted those things up—He wouldn’t have let them be dashed on the ground!

“Moses didn’t even get upset about busting the manuscripts up! What I’m saying to you is the original manuscripts were not the thing God was concerned about because you know what He does—you come over to chapter 34 and God reproduces a copy of that original manuscript.

“You get a reproduction of what Moses had destroyed. And so God Himself takes the initiative in preserving His Word by having a copy of that original preserved.”

“When Moses comes down (the second time) God tells them to take those copies of the Word of God and put them in a box; put them in an ark and commit that ark to a certain tribe in that nation for safekeeping for reproduction and distribution.

“God’s design, folks, is to preserve His Word in accurate copies of the original autograph. The issue with God is to preserve copies of it and you see that illustrated in the very beginning of the writing of the Word of God.

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For another quick example, in Jeremiah 36 there’s a passage where the king of Israel takes a penknife and begins to cut up the word of God.

Verse 4 says, “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.”

Jordan explains, “God had told Jeremiah that He was going to put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord. God said to Jerry, ‘Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.’ (Jer. 1:9)

“Folks, that’s inspiration! That’s God BREATHING the words! God puts the words in Jerry’s mouth, Jerry sits down and Baruch writes down the words as they come out of Jerry’s mouth.

In Jeremiah 36:6, the command is for Baruch to “read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.”

But when doing so, Baruch causes a stir and it says in verse 22-23, “Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
[23] And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.”

Jordan explains, “That’s the first destructive critic’s penknife. I heard a fellow say one time, ‘That’s the original shorter reading.’ The guy’s cutting out the verses and when you see people come along and take verses and passages out of your Bible you ought to remember that passage; that’s where it comes from.

“But Jehudi’s destroying an original autograph. He’s destroying the original God had given to him. So the passage goes on starting in verse 27, ‘Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
[28] Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.’

“Folks, God preserves His Word even though the originals aren’t available. Now, to me that’s fantastic to know! That God wrote me a book and has preserved it and He can do it that close to the destruction of the original!”

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Jordan continues, “Go down to verse 32 if you want to see a verse that will trip you out. It says, ‘Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.’

“I mean, he produced the original with some added stuff to it! You throw that by a scholar and you’ll see a fellow jump over in his grave backwards three times. I have no idea in the world what that is!

“You see, the process of preservation is going to be through a multiplicity of copies, not God taking the original manuscripts and having it under glass or in a cave somewhere for somebody later on to find.

“Now go to Deuteronomy 17. I want you to see this has been God’s design from the very beginning. If you’ll read down from verse 14 to end of verse 20, you’ll see there that God has instructions for the king of Israel.

“When Israel was to get a king these were the things he was supposed to do. There are also things he’s not supposed to do—he’s not supposed to multiply weapons (verse 16); he’s not supposed to go after a bunch of women—have ‘wine, women and song’ kind of a thing (verse 17). He’s not to seek great wealth and so forth just for himself.

“Verse 18 says, ‘And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites.’

“Notice, the king himself is to make his own personal copy of this law in a book. That king, the leader of the nation, is to be a Bible student and he’s to sit down with the copies before the Levites (that’s the original manuscripts—they were kept in that ark) and he’s to take that thing and make him a copy of that original. He’s to make a copy of the word of God for them, folks. You see it’s the copies that God’s interested in?

“If you would have had to have the original, you’d tell the king, ‘You have to have the original, man—you’re the head dude in the nation and you ought to have it!’ But God isn’t doing that; God’s interested in copies being distributed out where the people have copies to teach it to their children and so forth.

“Deuteronomy 6 says when you got kids you’re to teach those kids from the time they can talk and understand—you’re to teach them that law and they’re to ‘write it in their hearts.’ You realize you got to have it to read to write it! The people had the Book!

“In Psalm 119:148, David, the king after God’s heart, says, ‘Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.’ Notice he didn’t say ‘that I might think ABOUT it.’ He said that he could meditate IN it! He’s got his own personal copy and he’s studying it.”