This book is part of the Christian Focus Pocket Guides Series, which they describe as “A series of short, easy to read guides offering an introduction to key concepts and people, that are important to the Christian faith.”

A Christian’s Pocket Guide to How God Preserved the Bible by Richard Brash is well written, and well prepared for the beginner’s level. It intends to address the gap of teaching between the inspiration and illumination of Scripture (pp. 1-2). The tone of the author is not brash, but careful and mediating. Brash is one who accepts the ideas of modern textual criticism, yet approvingly addresses the providential preservation of the Scriptures as a doctrine taught in the Bible (pp. 14-19). Brash asserts that the nature and purpose of inspiration demands preservation (p. 76). However, he eradicates the essence of his argument by reducing that preservation to the ordinary level of all things that are preserved. There is a sense in which everything that is exists by Gods preservation (Hebrews 1:3). In that sense, God has also preserved Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. If that is all we mean by the preservation of Scripture, it becomes meaningless in any useful theological sense.

The author accepts that preservation simply means that all of the biblical manuscripts that exist have been preserved, and that the word of God is contained somewhere within the muddle (his word) of the totality of them (p. 50). To be fair, Brash believes “God…guides his church so that she can always hear the divine words she needs…” (p. 50).

Not recommended for beginners. ( )