The Bible Relvant for Today???

Whenever we open our Bibles to read, we are immediately transported to a far away place in a distant, distant past. The world in which the Bible's story unfolds is in many ways a very different world than the world in which we live. That world was quite primitive and undeveloped (can you imagine - no cell phones!!) and largely rural and agricultural. Travel was slow and communication to distant places even slower. Bottom line, there is much about the world of the Bible that makes us feel like outsiders looking in. SO - is it possible for a book written in such a different world be relevant to us today living in our fast-paced 21st century world?

My answer to that is an absolute YES! And here are two reasons why. First, even though the world has changed much across the course of many centuries of time, man has not changed. Man remains a fallen being living in defiance of the God who made him. And this defiance (a.k.a. "sin") manifests itself in many of the same ways, whether we are talking 1332 B.C, 36 A.D. or June 29, 2009. Broken relationships, violence, self-centeredness, hatred, envy, gossip, adultery, etc. are all sins that we are far too familiar with! So even though the world around us has changed dramatically since Bible times - the heart of man within has not!

But there is yet another powerful reason to embrace the Bible's relevancy for today. The God who interacted with the people of the past - is the same (EXACTLY the same) God with whom we relate today! James 1:17 states that God does "does not change like shifting shadows." And Hebrews 13:8 reminds us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." The reason God never changes is that He is perfect ... and being perfect He cannot change! He cannot grow stronger or weaker or wiser as time moves on. "He cannot change for better," A.W. Pink wrote, "for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse." Because God does not (and cannot) change ... this means His purposes, His Truth, His ways of dealing with man do not change. And so for this reason - the Bible written so long ago is relevant for us today!

I close today's posting with a quote from J.I Packer's book, Knowing God, which got me thinking along these lines. He posses the following penetrating (read "ouch!") question:

"If our God is the same as the God of New Testament believers, how can we justify ourselves in resting content with an experience of communion with Him, and a level of Christian conduct, that falls so far below theirs? If God is the same, this is not an issue that any one of us can evade."

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj