Challenges to the Bible’s trustworthiness (2): being out-of-date and irrelevant to modern issues

Isn’t this some old dusty book, and we know better now?

This argument against the Bible admits that it was useful in its time. But we know better now. Culturally, scientifically, in our modern world we have moved on. We can now dismiss the Bible, some say, as it was written in some ancient worldview that we now know is incorrect.

For example, what people called demon possession seems so odd, maybe they didn’t know any better. Maybe it was a form of mental illness? Or the three levels of creation in Genesis, water, sky, water, that seems quaint and not scientific at all.

Let’s not be so fast to dismiss the wisdom God has given us because we feel superior to those who came before us. People are people, sin is a constant, and God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If we read the accounts of demon possession, for example, we see that people back then did know the difference between that and illness. And many around the world have observed demon possession today; we should not dismiss it. And the three-level creation in Genesis might not be written in modern scientific textbooks. But there is truth to it, with seas, sky and clouds, a simple explanation of the water cycle. It is not wrong because it is written in simple terms.

It is arrogance to think we know so much we can disregard the Bible. In the end, it is an authority issue. We can think we know so much that what God tells us doesn’t really matter. It’s a form of sin, not enlightenment. And it is rejecting the very source of truth God has given to us.

But the Bible doesn’t deal with the modern issues we face!

We have all kinds of issues we have to deal with that people in Bible times did not. We don’t see chapters on things like AI, modern economics, free trade, and IVF in 1 Corinthians! If the Bible doesn’t deal with these real issues for us, how can it actually be helpful?

The core answer to this is that the Bible deals with our biggest problem, whatever time we might live in. We find out about the God who made the world, about our sin and rebellion, about the only hope we can find in Jesus, and our future eternal life. All the other issues we face are less important than this one.

But saying that doesn’t mean that the Bible doesn’t speak to whatever issue we might be facing. When Paul wrote his letters, many of the issues he dealt with were not outlined in the Old Testament Scriptures he had in front of him. He wrote about meat sacrificed to idols, about speaking in tongues, and about a man who slept with his stepmother, none of which were dealt with directly in another passage. So, what did Paul do with these issues? He found Biblical principles and applied them to the situation. He considered what was more loving to a neighbour, what was more helpful to the church, and what glorified the God who made us and saved us. And this enabled him to deal with all kinds of issues.

God made us to think, not just to follow a list of instructions. No book could cover every single situation, but we can learn what God is like, the principles that matter, and apply that to our lives. We see this in the wisdom books like Ecclesiastes and Job, which encourage us to think about meaning and suffering. Jesus tells his disciples to consider the birds of the air, and he used farming and the weather to help people see the principles. The Bible can be helpful with our thinking about AI, as we thought about last week. Just because something is not mentioned in the Bible doesn’t mean that the Bible is no help to us. God has told us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). As we grow to know it more, we will find it useful in so many different situations.