An ancient book in a modern world

An ancient book in a modern world:

How the Bible Should Influence our lives today

The Bible was written by approximately 40 different men over a period of 1500 years, ranging from around 1450 B.C. to about 100 A.D. The most recent writings are quite aged at at nearly 2000 years old, and much of the Old Testament by our standards would be considered ancient.

How should we read the Bible today, and what influence should it have on our lives? There many schools of thought regarding the Bible's significance today, and how it should be interpreted. Some say it is merely a good book of fables and life lessons, to be considered on the same level as Aesop's fables. Others say it is good for historical or literary study but nothing more.

Even among those professing to be believers in the Bible, there are disagreements about the interpretation and influence of God's Word. Some believe every word must be taken completely literal with no regard to whether the passage might have been written in a poetic or symbolic fashion. Others look for symbolism in every single passage regardless of how literal the context may seem.

There are those that say the Bible is the true Word of God and that we learn from it the path of salvation and some good life lessons, but that we must adapt it to fit our current culture and therefore many of the teachings of the Bible are outdated and no longer apply to our lives today. Others say we must follow every letter of the Bible, including the dietary and ritualistic laws of Israel from their days worshiping at the tabernacle and temple.

There is no way I could ever write enough to completely clear up this matter, for there is far too much content in Scripture and too many issues to tackle. Someone somewhere would have a question that I failed to cover. It is not my intention to give you a list of what to believe and not to believe. This is not a “Dummy's Guide to what the Bible really means.” What I hope to do is to give you some keys to help you begin to understand and properly apply the Bible to your life.

First of all, to truly understand what the Bible says and means, we have to know the Author. Before I start any new book of the Bible in our Adult Sunday School class, I always ask some keys questions about that particular book: who wrote it, who did he write it to, why did he write it, and what did he write about? In discussing the Bible in general, we need to ask these same questions.

Who wrote it? God did, of course. But wait, I said earlier it was written by approximately 40 different men. I could say God wrote it, those men just “penned” it. But that would not be an accurate description either, for it is quite clear they didn't just transcribe it. Paul writes very long run-on sentences. Often times you may read 5 or 6 verses before you hit a period. Paul often times emphasizes grace, James our works in response to grace. The four Gospel writers key on different details as they recount the life of Christ.

So what does the Bible say about itself? 1 Timothy 3:14 - 17 says “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

The fact that Scripture is breathed out by God means the Bible is God's infallible, inerrant word. At times, God gave the writers the exact words to write. When searching the ESV online Bible, I found the phrase “God spoke” 35 times. The phrase “God said” occurred 548 times. “Jesus spoke” occurs 9 times and “Jesus said” occurs 281 times. This doesn't include other variations such as “He commanded them” and the other instances in which the words of God is directly quoted.

While the Bible is full of direct words from God, particularly in the Old Testament and the Gospels, much of the Bible is not a direct quote. Paul was not a prophet nor a follower of the earthly ministry of Jesus; therefore, he does not heavily quote direct words from God. The book of Ester, while clearly speaking of God's sovereignty in all things, never even directly speaks of God.

The largest part of the Bible is not direct quotes from God but rather God using the writer's own vocabulary, background, experiences, and mind to produce His word. Make no mistake, this wonderful act of God using men to write His word in ways unique to each writer does not take away from the divinity of the writing. God ensured the final product was inerrant and infallible and perfectly spoke His holy Word.

There are some very serious ramifications that we have to understand once we come to realize the Bible was written by God. It is not just enough to know there is a God and that he wrote the Bible, we have to know something about Him. I obviously cannot go into everything there is to know about God, nor do I (or anyone on this side of Heaven) know everything about Him (His ways are greater than our ways). But there are some foundational truths that we must understand about God before we can hope to understand His Word.

Here is a rundown of some of those foundational truths:

• God is the Creator (Genesis 1)
• God is the sustainer (Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:7)
• He is sovereign (1 Timothy 6:15)
• He is holy and exalted (Hebrews 7:26)

Before we can truly understand how to properly apply the Bible to our lives today, we first have to understand the most foundational truths: All have sinned. I have personally sinned and offended the holiness of God. The wages of sin is death. I deserve to die. Jesus Christ died to pay the price for the sin of those who will accepted Him as Lord and Savior. If you have not accepted these truths and Jesus Christ is not Lord of your life, your best application of Scripture will fall short.

You see, the key to each doctrinal discussion and debate hinges on understanding that the issues that we are trying to hammer out at their deepest core are not a matter of doctrine but of relationship. When we begin to understand that doctrine doesn't exist merely to give us something to argue over but that our doctrine should be the system of beliefs and practices that we follow because of our relationship with God, we can begin to interpret Scripture through the proper perspective.

When we come to this understanding, then we can begin to understand that we cannot interpret Scripture based on our culture. We cannot view God's Word through modern cultural ideas and perspectives, we must view God's Word through God's eyes.

This is sometimes a bit more difficult when there isn't a clear commandment to practice or abstain from something specific, or when it comes to practices of worship, dietary laws, etc. These issues become more clear when we view these passages in their context and understand their roots. For example, a study of the temple worship will reveal that each piece of the ceremonial laws were a foreshadowing of the Messiah to come, and no longer are we bound by these ceremonial laws but by the principles of proper, reverent worship of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is imperative; however, to understand that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever more. Therefore what God called sin three or four thousand years ago is still sin today. Homosexuality is still just as much of a sin today as it ever has been. We must call it what it is, a perversion of God's plan for marriage and sexuality. The same holds true for all of the standards God has laid out for holy living. Some may call the Bible an antiquated Book full of good stories, but the Bible is in fact God's holy, infallible authoritative, and powerful Word. In the end, the Word (the Bible) reveals the True Word of God (our Lord Jesus Christ).