All to often I hear these days that the Bible is out of date or that the Old Testament is not applicable or I only follow what is written in red as this is what Jesus Christ said. Then why not just throw it away? When you start to pick and choose what you will and will not follow in the Bible, then how do you know what to follow? Remember that the red text which is supposed to be what Jesus said was still written by men if you take this approach. Personally I believer that the Bible is the word of God and gives us clear direction on how we are supposed to live our lives. Does this mean we are perfect in every aspect, No. It does mean we try to do our best and when we realize we have sinned, we repent.
But the question is why do people feel this way?
- Is it because people do not understand what is written and therefore it has no value? From my experience when someone does understand something and they do not see a value in it and they will not take the time to learn that which they do not understand.
- Is it because they see the Bible as a list of restrictions? This is understandable since so many Christians portray it as such. Christ did not come here to say you cannot do this or do that, but came so the we may have life and have it more abundantly. Yes He did tell people they were wrong especially in defense of His Father. Yes He would tell people to go and sin no more or to do this or do that, but after the persons realization of what they had done or when they asked Him a question.
- Is it because when the Bible was written the technology is not what it is today and therefore it is out of date? My question is has man really changed that much in the past 2000+ years? Take a good hard look at history to get the answer, but the short answer is NO man has not changed at all. To be honest man does not really look all that much different now compared to them.
- Is it due to the fact that society has changed so much over the past 2000+ years? This is true and according to some people the Bible should have changed with society. So my question back to those people is how do you hit a moving target? If the Bible is to truly change with society, they how does one know what is ever right or wrong? God is unchanging and therefore His word is unchanging as stated in Malachi 3:6 and Psalm 119:89. It is not the Bible that needs to change, but peoples attitudes. Just because society has decided that something is right does not mean that God has the same point of view.
- Is it due to the fact that people want to justify their own behavior and ideologies? This kind of goes along with item above about society. but it is more on an individual level. People are never so creative as when they try to justify what they have done. They will create more excuses to justify their decisions and actually start to believe those excuses once they have said them enough times to themselves.
- Is it due to spiritual warfare? I personally believe this is the real culprit. We have denied that the Devil exists or down played His power and as a consequence He has taken a stronghold in us and through us our societies around the world. All of the above possibilities are the result of not realizing the strength of the Devil. Who is the ruler of Earth at this point in time? The answer is Satan. I am reminded of Ephesians 6: 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Instead of us asking the Bible to be changed to meet what we think it should be, why don’t we take the time to study and learn the Bible so we can change to meet what God has already stated?