Is the Bible Still Relevant?

I hear so many people say that the Bible is no longer relevant to our lives today. They see the Bible as an ancient book, partly history, partly myth, and mostly hard to understand. I used to be one of those people, so I understand why people would feel that way. I believed the morality of the Bible to be old fashioned and outdated. How could the writers living thousands of years ago possibly know what life would be like today?

All of that changed for me in January of 2003.

I won’t go into my testimony here, as you can find it in the “About Us” section of this site, but suffice it to say that God opened my eyes to things that I had completely missed. The biggest mistake I made was my failure to understand that the Bible had only one author, and that was God. In the article “How Do We Know Christianity is True?”, I go through an in-depth discussion of why I believe this.

Here is a quick summary:

The Bible was written over 1500 years by 40 writers in 3 languages, yet it has an internal consistency of 99.5%.
Archeological digs consistently offer support for specific people, places, and things as recorded in the Bible. They also support the fact that certain prophetic books, like Daniel, were written long before their prophecies were fulfilled, and they were not forgeries written after the fact.
Writings of ancient historians, such as Josephus, corroborate the accounts of the Bible.
The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies of the first coming of the Messiah, which were all literally fulfilled in Jesus. The mathematical probability of one man fulfilling just 48 of these is 1 times 10 to the 157th power.
There are over 1,000 prophecies of the 2nd coming of Christ, many of which are being literally fulfilled today.

In addition to all of this, there are some unique attributes of the Bible that clearly show a divine hand. For example, in the first chapter of Matthew, we see an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ through his “adoptive” father, Joseph. (Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience and was proving Jesus’ right to Messiahship through the male bloodline, as opposed to Luke, who gave the lineage through Mary.) In the original Greek, each symbol is attached to a number. If you look at the numbers associated with each symbol in that genealogy, you find some interesting patterns associated with the number 7 (7 is a very significant number throughout the Bible). If you converted the words into numbers, you would find that the total number of words, letters, vowels, consonants, words that begin with a vowel, words that begin with a consonant, number of nouns, number of male names, number of total names, number of generations, etc. – are all equally divisible by 7. If you were attempting to create a fictitious genealogy using all of these rules, you would need to make over 40 million attempts in order to succeed! (See link below for the math.)

Further, if you were to look at the meaning behind the Hebrew names of the genealogy of Christ from Adam to Noah as found in Luke 3:36-38, you would find a hidden message:

Adam means Man

Seth means Appointed

Enosh means Mortal

Kenan means Sorrow

Mahalalel means The Blessed God

Jarad means Shall come down

Enosh means Teaching

Methuselah means His death shall bring

Noah means Comfort, Rest

When you put these together, you find the gospel message: Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down, teaching that His death shall bring the despairing comfort or rest.

If you look at all the evidence, the only logical conclusion that you can come to is that the Bible had only one author that exists outside of time and knows the past, present, and future. God is the author of the Bible.

But aren’t there a lot of contradictions?

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this and how many times I said this before truly giving my life to Christ. Why did I say it? There were parts of the Bible I simply didn’t want to obey. I wanted to live life the way I wanted to live it, and there were parts that simply didn’t fit with my chosen lifestyle. Had I actually gone in and found contradictions? No. I never actually took the time to do this, but I had heard others say it and thought it sounded like a great way to condone my poor decisions. As I’ve noted in previous articles, this didn’t work out so well for me, and my mental and physical health suffered greatly.

The truth is that this argument simply doesn’t hold water. There are things that appear to be contradictions, but in the vast majority of cases they have explanations. For example, there are two different genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. One is the genealogy of Mary, and the other of Joseph. Joseph was only the stepfather of Jesus, as Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Both Luke and Matthew had different audiences, which is why they gave the accounts that they did. And in each case, it could be shown that both Mary and Joseph — and hence Jesus — descended from King David as prophesied in the Old Testament.

There are some cases where the meaning of something has gotten changed in translation, but these are rare and they do not impact the overall message or the formula for a healthy life and a real relationship with our Lord and Savior. The painstaking process of Biblical translation is not taken lightly, and the goal is always to remain as close to the original meaning as possible while making it readable to us today.

In the resources section below, I have included a number of sites that will give specific answers to the supposed Biblical contradictions. I urge you to check these out for yourself and not simply accept the word on the street.

But is the Bible relevant today?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 15:8 (NIV)

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Revelation 22:12-13 (NIV)

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:11 (NIV)

“I the Lord do not change.”
Malachi 3:6a (NIV)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17 (NIV)

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)

God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Numbers 23:19 (NIV)

Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.
Psalm 119:89-91 (NIV)

Over and over again, the Bible — the Word of God — tells us that God does not change! If God does not change, then his Word does not change, which means that we should take his Word very seriously.

The Seven Churches of Revelation

I said earlier that my view of the Bible’s relevance changed in January of 2003. I was a casual Christian willing to accept multiple belief systems, when I stumbled across a book by Ray Stedman called “God’s Final Word: Understanding Revelation”. I was bored and had nothing better to do, so I started reading. What I didn’t realize was that it would change my entire world view.

Revelation 2 and 3 contain letters from Jesus to seven churches that existed at that time, some of which were doing better than others. I’d read them before but never really understood why Jesus would select these seven churches or how they could possibly be relevant to me. Stedman offered two reasons for this. The first is that these are representative of different types of churches and Christians from the 1st century until today. But the more startling revelation was that these seven churches, in order, represented the dominant church through seven different periods of time.

Ephesus: The Ephesian church was doing a lot of good works and had sound doctrine, but they were so busy that they were no longer focusing on Jesus, and their love was waning. This correlates to the period from 70 AD (when the temple was destroyed) to about 160 AD. After the death of the apostles, many churches went from being “on fire” for Jesus to settling for rituals and works.
Smyrna. This is one of only two churches in which Jesus had nothing but good to say about them. They were a highly persecuted church in a city known for emperor worship, so anyone who proclaimed Jesus as Lord instead of Caesar was put to death. As so often happens to Christians when they are persecuted, their faith grows stronger, and their focus is on Jesus. This corresponds to the period from about 160 AD to 324 AD, often referred to as the “Age of Martyrs”. Nero ruled at that time, and he violently hated Christians. Believers were torn apart on racks, fed to the lions, and turned into human torches, whereby they were slowly burned alive.
Pergamum. This church was located in a city known for pagan worship. They were true to the name of Jesus, yet they were allowing corruption and sexual immorality to seep into the church. They were permitting teachings of the cult of the Nicolaitans, who claimed to have a superior understanding of spiritual things over the common people. This correlates to the period from 324 AD to about the sixth century. When Constantine came into power, he legalized Christianity and strongly promoted it. Although he didn’t force conversion, there were significant political and financial benefits to it. The word “pergamum” means marriage. Constantine attempted to marry Christianity to the pagan beliefs of the day to make it more popular. This caused them to bend the rules, watering down their faith. This was also the period of time when baptism was changed from a personal conversion decision to a ritual for infants, simply for convenience.
Thyatira. This church had some good things going for it. They were known for their love, faith, service, and perseverance. Unfortunately for these people, they were required to join a guild to do any business in the town, and these guilds required their members to participate in idol worship, which included immoral sexual practices. One particular woman in this church was teaching that it was okay for them to engage in these practices because it was necessary to do business, and God would certainly forgive them; but God did not agree with this. In fact, this church was considered one of the most corrupt of the seven. In church history, this covers the period from the sixth to the sixteenth century – a period known as the Dark Ages. By this time, the church was very powerful and corrupt. Pagan practices and rituals were now deeply embedded, and religious leaders held great power, not only in the church, but in government. Arrogance and corruption were the hallmarks of the church at this time. There were still groups that were faithfully loving and serving others, but the church overall was corrupt and oppressive.
Sardis. The church at Sardis had a great reputation, but they were a dead church. They were what we would call “nominal Christians”. They went through the rituals and motions, but they did not have a real relationship with Jesus. They were admonished to “wake up”, examine their motives, and strengthen the good that was left in them so they would not perish completely. This church was a prophecy of the reformation movement that occurred around 1517 to 1648. During this time, people like Martin Luther spoke out against the corruption of the Catholic church and rightly professed the truth of salvation by grace alone. However, to protect themselves from the extensive power of the Catholic church, they turned to their governments for protection. These churches very quickly stagnated and became nothing more than ritual.
Philadelphia. This is the second church that received only commendations from the Lord. This church was heavily persecuted, but they remained steadfast. They even endured a massive earthquake. In response, God promised to bless them and open new doors for them. The Philadelphian church corresponds to a time of awakening in church history during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During this time, missionaries spread throughout the world bringing the gospel message. It was during this time that some of the greatest evangelists of church history sprang to life, including John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and Dwight Moody.
Laodicea. Now we come to the final church. In stark contrast to the previous one, God has nothing good to say about them. They are described as “lukewarm” – neither hot nor cold – and the Lord said he was about to vomit them out of his mouth! This particular church was “comfortable”. Laodicea was famous for its eye ointment, and the economy was booming. Those in the church did not suffer persecution or hardship like Philadelphia, but were wealthy and comfortable. In response, they became complacent and arrogant, caring little for true church doctrine. They thought they were wealthy and in need of nothing, but the Lord tells them that they are actually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. This church corresponds to our current-day church. Although we can certainly find examples today of any of the seven, this is sadly the norm in our culture. Most churches in our culture today are “seeker sensitive”, preferring popularity and comfortable topics over truth and sound doctrine. Too many people who call themselves “Christian” are so in name only. They may attend a church, but they do not have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ. They have not really made him Lord of their life, preferring to play by their own rules and rewrite the Bible to better suit themselves. Like the Laodiceans, too many people are blinded by the norms of society and have turned their backs on the true and living God of the Bible. The warning is severe – God is about to vomit them out of his mouth. He urgently pleads with them (and us today) to repent and seek truth. When someone honestly seeks truth, God will heal their blindness and help them to see truth.

Other Prophecies Fulfilled in our Lifetime

The amazing accuracy of the letters to the churches above are good reasons to take the Bible seriously, but there are more prophecies in the Bible about the “last days” that we are seeing occur in our lifetime. (For a full discussion of the “last days”, please see the article “How Will the World End”.) Here are just a few.

In 70 AD, the nation of Israel was completely wiped out. The temple was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered throughout the world. But both Ezekiel and Jeremiah promised that God would regather Israel into their own land and take over Jerusalem again. Israel became a nation again in 1948 and regained control of Jerusalem in 1967.
Revelation said that one day, a political figure would come on the scene to require people to take a mark IN their forehead or hand in order to buy or sell. This technology is now available in microchips, which are being widely used across the world.
Revelation talked about a time when two witnesses would be killed, and everyone in the world would look at their bodies. This would have been impossible until now when news coverage allows this.
The prophet Ezekiel said that God would raise up Israel to have a great army in the last days. Surrounded by their enemies, Israel was attacked in 1948, soon after becoming a nation. With no formal military in place, they won the war anyway. Today, Israel has a nation that is only the size of New Jersey, but they have one of the most advanced armies in the world.
Ezekiel talked about a war against Israel in the last days in which Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Turkey would join forces in an attempt to wipe Israel off the map. Although this coalition of nations was unlikely even a decade ago, today they are perfectly aligned.

Some VERY Interesting Math!

I recently heard a sermon from Pastor Brett Meador from Athey Creek church in Oregon in which he presented some VERY interesting math. (See link below to watch the entire sermon.) To see this, we need to go back to the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. Despite being very clear instructions by God as to what they needed to do in order to be blessed, the Israelites rebelled against God and engaged in violent and despicable idol worship. They also failed to give their land rest every seven years. We know now that this is a healthy thing that allows the land to heal and produce better crops, but Israel ignored this causing harm to the land. In 2 Chronicles 36:15-21 we can read how God punished them, as he said he would, by allowing them to be taken into captivity for 70 years to Babylon – one year for every Sabbath they failed to honor. This captivity began in 605 BC. At the end of 70 years, Cyrus the Great released the people to go home to Israel, but most were living comfortably in Babylon and had no desire to return. Further, they failed to turn from their sin. As a result, Ezekiel 4:3-6 tells us that God extended their judgement for an additional 360 years where they would not be blessed by God. (This number was determined by numbers of years they failed to honor the sabbath rest for their land. But after 360 years, nothing happened! Israel was still scattered and they were still ruled by other nations. Was Ezekiel wrong?

The answer is found in Leviticus 26:21-28. Here, God warns the Israelites that if they still do not accept God’s correction, he would multiply their punishment by seven times. If you multiply 360 years X 7, you get 2620 Jewish years, or 907,200 additional days after the initial 70 years of captivity. (Both Jewish and Babylonian calendars were lunar calendars of 360 days.). This brings us to two interesting dates.

Cyrus the Great released Israel after the 70 years on July 23, 536 BC. If we add 907,200 years of addition curse on the Jews to this date, we come to May 14, 1948, the very day that the League of Nations gave the Jews the land of Israel. They were finally an independent nation once again. That’s interesting. But there’s more. The final siege on Israel by Babylon occurred on in 586 BC when the Temple was finally destroyed and the last of the Israelites were taken captive. 90 years from that date takes us to August 16, 517 BC. If we add 907,200 days to that, we come to June 7, 1967 – the day that Israel took Jerusalem and the Temple Mount during the 6-day War. Although the acting Israeli relinquished the Temple Mount, Israel retained Jerusalem, the city where God had placed his name. (2 Chronicles 6:6, 2 Kings 21:7, 1 Kings 14:21) This is also very interesting. And to me, this suggests that the God who knows the future truly authored the Bible!

How to Know Truth

The world we live in today is filled with deception. The Bible tells us that Satan is currently the ruler of this world. (See Ephesians 6:12-13). God is still in control, but when Adam rebelled, sin entered the world, and the rulership was passed to Satan. This will all change when Jesus returns and lays claim to his kingdom. But for now, we live in a world of deception.

We live in a world where we are constantly being told what to think. 24-hour news, social media, and political figures are very quick to proclaim their knowledge of all things. And what happens when the so-called experts can’t agree on what is true? With all of the different narratives floating around, how can we know what or how to think?

When Jesus returned to Heaven, he didn’t leave us without help. He promised to send his own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to live inside believers. One of the names of his Spirit is Counselor. The Holy Spirit has several jobs, the first of which is to convict us of our sinful nature and our need for a Savior and to nudge us to accept Jesus as Lord of our lives. He will never force this, but he will encourage. Once we take that step, honestly and completely, the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to truth.

One of the things that was so very encouraging when I honestly put Jesus in charge of my life was that scripture came alive for me. Passages I’d read several times without understanding suddenly made sense. Things that previously looked like contradictions connected in a way that cleared everything up. I craved Bible study and worship time. I was given direct impressions that answered questions I asked in prayer. I saw sin for what it really was and understood how destructive that had been in my life. And my eyes were opened to the lies that this world had been telling me. It felt as though a blindfold had been removed, and I could see things for what they really were. Did my life magically become sunshine and roses? Absolutely not. But, when things were difficult, I knew that I could take them to the Creator of the universe, and he would see it through. And do I now magically have all the answers? Of course not. But I do see things much more clearly now, and the more time I spend in Bible study and prayer, the clearer things become.

So What Now?

If you have never truly made Jesus the Lord of your life, now is the time to do so. Going to church doesn’t save you. Getting baptized doesn’t save you. Checking the box that says “Christian” doesn’t save you. Doing good things doesn’t save you, either. The ONLY thing that saves you is going to your Father in Heaven, confessing your sin, repenting from a life of sin (changing your mind about it and desiring to follow Jesus), and asking Jesus to truly be the Lord of your life. It is a decision to let God take the lead, and agree that what God says is good is in fact good, and what God says is sin is bad. How do we know? His Spirit and his Word tell us.

I spent too many years trying to make up my own rules, and it ended very badly. I see it over and over again with people around me who are trying to do it on their own, yet are never really finding joy in their life. I see people all around me who are deceived by the lies of this world, and it is truly sad to see the hurt and pain they cause themselves and those around them.

I have chosen to trust the God who created me, who lives outside of time and knows the beginning from the end. God is much better equipped to guide my life than I am. Now I live my life with a sense of peace, security, and joy. This is my wish for you as well.