When an author pens a manuscript, he or she owns the rights to the words in that manuscript. No one else can use, rewrite, or summarize the material without the author’s specific permission. No one can remove parts they do not like, and in the same manner, no one can add words to enhance what’s already there.
One interesting aspect of copyright law is that the author does not have to be the person who actually pens the manuscript. If Company A pays an employee to write a story, then Company A is the legal author of the story, and the employee has no rights at all to the manuscript.
Who is the author of the Bible? We understand without question that the hands of Moses, David, Paul, and John wrote the words we revere today. Those men and a hundred others penned the manuscript, but the copyright is God’s. The rights to the Bible belong to him, and we cannot change them because we do not like what they say, or we feel they are incomplete.
Here are four proofs that we must not infringe God’s copyright:
Infringement Proof #1:
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
All means all. We cannot exclude a single verse.
Infringement Proof #2:
Revelation 22:19 warns us that “if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
God’s words are his own, for he is the authority that is the legal owner of each and every word in the Bible.
Infringement Proof #3:
Proverbs 30:6 reminds us that the Scriptures are complete. “Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”
The words penned two and more thousand years ago do not need to be updated for a modern world. Their lessons are still pertinent to us today.
Infringement Proof #4:
Hebrews 4:12 gives us the true power of God’s written manuscript. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
God’s Word already has the power to divide right from wrong and bring the unbeliever to Christ. We do not need to try to rewrite God’s manuscript for him.
God is the author of the Bible. The men who penned the words worked for the almighty Father, and in their faith, they relinquished their author’s rights to the one who paid them with salvation and life everlasting. We have no need to make any changes, because the Word says exactly what God means it to say.
We must respect the integrity of the written word of God, because the manuscript is the legal property of the greatest being in the universe.
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Code: FGO.F.23.14b.vp