📖 Biblical Definition
Preservation is that aspect of divine providence whereby God upholds and sustains all His creatures in their existence and powers, so that they continue to be and to act from moment to moment. It is one of the three elements of providence, with concurrence and government. Creation brought all things into being out of nothing; preservation keeps them in being, for the creation is not self-sustaining and would lapse back into nothing the instant God withdrew His upholding hand. Scripture is emphatic: by the Son all things consist (literally, hold together); He upholds all things by the word of His power; in Him we live, and move, and have our being; He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, and when He taketh away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Preservation is therefore not a single past act but a continuous divine work, an unceasing exercise of the same power that created. This doctrine demolishes the deist’s clockmaker God, who wound up the universe and left it to run on its own; the world has no independent power to continue, but hangs every instant upon the sustaining word of God. It magnifies the believer’s dependence and the Creator’s constancy: every breath, every heartbeat, the cohesion of every atom, the regular succession of seasons and the laws of nature are not autonomous mechanisms but the faithful, ongoing work of God, who is before all things and by whom all things hold together. To know this is to live in wonder and dependence, for in Him we are upheld, and apart from Him we are nothing.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines PRESERVATION as the act of preserving or keeping safe; the keeping in being or continuance; the upholding of creatures by divine power.
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PRESERVATION, n. — The act of preserving or keeping safe; the act of keeping from injury, destruction, or decay; the keeping in being or life; safety; security; continuance.
PRESERVE, v.t. — 1. To keep or save from injury or destruction; to defend from evil. 2. To uphold; to sustain; to keep alive; to keep in existence.
📖 Key Scripture
Colossians 1:17 — "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."
Hebrews 1:3 — "...and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
Psalm 104:29 — "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust."
Nehemiah 9:6 — "...thou hast made heaven... the earth, and all things that are therein... and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The chief corruption is the deist’s self-running universe—the clockmaker God who created and withdrew, leaving the world to sustain itself by autonomous natural law, needing no upholding hand.
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The great corruption of the doctrine of preservation is the deistic picture of a self-sustaining universe. On this view, God may have created the world and even established its laws, but the cosmos now runs by its own inherent power, a vast machine ticking along by autonomous natural law with no further divine involvement. Nature is conceived as a closed and self-perpetuating system, and God, if He exists, is the absentee clockmaker who wound the spring and walked away. This is the practical assumption not only of avowed deists but of much modern thought, including the unspoken creed of many who profess faith yet imagine the world simply “works” on its own.
Scripture leaves no room for it. The creation has no power of self-continuance; it hangs every instant upon the upholding word of God, by whom all things hold together and apart from whom they would dissolve. The regularity men call natural law is not an autonomous mechanism but the faithful, moment-by-moment working of God, who could no more be absent from His world than a singer from his song. To recover the doctrine of preservation is to recover a creation utterly dependent and a God intimately present—not the distant clockmaker, but the One in whom we live and move and have our being, who gives every breath and upholds every atom. It fills the believer with wonder and dependence, and it forbids the secular conceit that the world stands on its own; the universe is sustained, not self-standing, and its continuance is mercy.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The doctrine rests on Christ by whom all things hold together (sunistēmi) and who upholds (pherō, bears, carries) all things by the word of His power.
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['Greek', 'G4921', 'sunistēmi', 'to hold together, consist (by him all things consist)']
['Greek', 'G5342', 'pherō', 'to bear, carry, uphold (upholding all things)']
['Hebrew', 'H2421', 'chāyāh', 'to live, give life (thou preservest them all)']
['Greek', 'G2227', 'zōopoieō', 'to make alive, give life']
Usage
"Preservation is God’s continuous upholding of all things in being—the creation would lapse into nothing the instant He withdrew."
"The deist’s self-running universe denies preservation; Scripture says by Christ all things hold together."
"Every breath and the cohesion of every atom is the ongoing work of God who upholds all things by His word."