Is the Bible relevant?

In order for something to be relevant it needs two things:

1. It must apply to your life

2. It must be true

You may learn the most interesting survival technique for astronauts stranded on the moon. But if you aren't planning on a moon landing in the near future, it just doesn't matter. Things must matter if they are relevant.

The same can be said about the truth. If you're stranded on the moon and someone says, "all you have to do is click your heels three times and say 'there's no place like home' and you'll be back on Earth" - that might sound great, but I'm willing to bet it won't get you very far. No matter how much you like the idea of something being true, it only counts if it actually is true!

Simply meeting one of these conditions will never be enough.

Absolutely.

The Bible applies to your life and is true. While the truth claims of the Bible are beyond the scope of this squidoo lens, I urge you to explore those claims if you have doubts. I've included a module at the end of this lens (hit your page down button a couple of times) with resources to help you explore these questions. Or if you'd like, check out some other material I've written on the topic of Bible reliability.

As for applying to your life, lets take a look at a few of those topics...

Edmund Burke once said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The same can be said of the Bible. It is filled with every type of screw up and mistake that you could make. Murder. Adultery. Lust. Greed. Bitterness. Hatred. Anger. Sounds a lot like the evening news, doesn't it?

Many people consider the Bible irrelevant because it doesn't "speak" to modern problems. But I can't imagine a book that is more insightful than the Bible. What's written in those pages is being confirmed by psychological research. Even Darth Vader knew that anger leads to hatred, and hatred leads to the Dark Side.

Knowing the Bible doesn't mean you can escape all the problems in your life. But it does give you an advantage. If you know where the traps lie, you can avoid them.

Of course it's not just people's problems the Bible talks about.

The Bible is filled with relevant stories of people's happiness, their dreams, their hopes, and even their disappointments. Pick any chapter in the book and there's something you can identify with. There's some story that sounds a little (or a lot) like your own.

Ok, sure, maybe you aren't the king of a country or the wisest man to live like Solomon was. But what you are is someone who struggles with the meaning of life. (If you aren't, what are you a robot?)

The Bible is filled with people dealing with real problems. That's what the Psalms are all about. It's an entire book filled with hundreds of entries about love, suffering, grief, anger, and excitement.

Just because it's old doesn't mean people didn't struggle with the same things we do today.

David, who wrote many of the Psalms was both a murderer and an adulterer. He knew the thrill of victory and the anguish of defeat (his own sons tried to kill him). He knew what it was like to be blessed by God and to suffer for his mistakes. He had very real problems that many people deal with today.

The Bible tells a story about a great General in Syria. He was powerful, influential, and well liked by the King. Yet he suffered from a fatal disease. His only hope was to go to Israel and meet with a prophet. When he met this prophet he was told to go bathe 7 times in the river. Furious and embarrassed the General left. "What kind of response is that?!" he wondered as he left. On the trip home someone came to him and said, "if this prophet had asked you to do something difficult wouldn't you have? Why then, do you not want to do something easy?"

Sometimes we are like the general. We want to believe. But things look "too easy." It must take years of meditation to receive enlightenment, we reason. Or maybe it takes separating yourself from the world. Maybe we need to form a bunch of legalistic rules.

But what if, like the General found out, the answer is simple? What if all it takes is exploring these questions, and realizing there's something there? That maybe, just maybe, what the Bible claims is true.

e. barrett writes R3, a website devoted to living out a life of faith.

In a world filled with choices, sometimes it's hard to sift through everything. How can we distinguish between the claims of one group and the claims of another? Hopefully this lens gives you a place to start. God never fears questions. In fact one of the characteristics God is described as is Truth. Which means if God fears the truth, then he must not really be God. But if he embraces the truth, and the claims of the Bible hold up, doesn't that mean he might really be God?

If you find this lens interesting, or if it's raised questions for you, then I encourage you to check out R3 and explore some more.