Is the Bible Still Relevant Today?

Many people in our culture, and even in our churches, think the Bible is old, outdated, and has no relevance today. Should we give our lives, our time, and our attention to a book written by a bunch of guys 2000 years ago? But is this really a good objection: the Bible isn’t relevant just because it is old?

C.S. Lewis once wrote that moderners often suffer from what he calls chronological snobbery. Since we are farther along in time, we undoubtedly know more things. Living later in history assures us of being smarter and more intellectually advanced. We’ve moved beyond the primitive thinking of those foolish ancients. Michael Reeves is insightful on this point:

“It is the sort of belief that sits very comfortably in the subconscious, giving one the warm glow of knowing that we are faster, better, wiser, more advanced, and more knowledgeable than our parents and forebears. Yet one of the problems Lewis noticed in the myth was that such superiority tends to produce not wisdom but ignorance. If we assume that the past is inferior, we will not bother consulting it, and will thus find ourselves stranded on the tiny desert island of our moment in time.”

Aside from the naivety of believing age alone can diminish the value or importance of anything – and disregarding teachings and beliefs held by millions spanning thousands of years - there is the issue that truth must always be truth, or it was never truth to begin with. The passing of time is not enough to eliminate any idea, belief, teaching, or moral standard. So, the question is not can these things hold relevancy for thousands of years, but rather, was it true to begin with? If the answer is yes, the relevance of that truth to any time, place, or culture will never cease to exist. So, if the Bible is true, then it is and will always be relevant.

A problem with most moderns is they have a distaste for anything resembling tradition. They push back, avoid and sneer at it. Perhaps this is due to the overwhelming abuses that have occurred in the name of many traditions. But, just as time does not eliminate truth, the abuse surrounding and stemming from a tradition does not make it evil or irrelevant. So, the question is not whether a tradition is relevant, but why was that tradition instituted to begin with. Was the intent, purpose, or values that tradition meant to embody worthy of being passed down? In the same way, the Bible cannot be discredited merely for being traditional or surrounded by ‘traditions.’ If the Bible is true, then its teachings are still relevant today.

So, what is the crux of the question? I think it is fairly simple. If the Bible is not true, if it is not from God, then it is no longer relevant at all. It should have no authority over our lives or any bearing on how we live. At best, it is a book of historical interest. But, if the Bible is true, and it is from God, then it has all the relevance in the world. Truth is timeless, whether written 2000 years ago or written today. Truth is the determiner of relevancy throughout history and for all generations to come.