Is the Bible relevant today?

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and told to pass them on to mankind.

Then, in the new testament we are asked to believe that the Son
of God Himself came to the earth to teach mankind how to live.


He was rejected and killed.

My question is, if it was relevant then and still relevant today,

why then don't we see more of God and his messengers today?

Why does God not speak to us from the heavens to tell us how to live
and therefore prevent us from sinning and losing salvation?

If He were more vocal and visible today as he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

In a word, NO!

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and to ...[text shortened]... s he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

God inspired more than forty different persons to write His Word over a time span of nearly two thousand years. The first author was Moses; and the last, the Apostle John.

The Bible includes two testaments—the Old and the New testaments. The word “testament” means “will,” “covenant,” or agreement.” The Old Testament was God’s promise, and the New Testament His fulfillment of the Covenant of Grace; His testimony and will concerning salvation through Jesus Christ. These two testaments form one complete book, the Book of books the Bible.

The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language with a few verses or portions in Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezra in Aramaic (a dialect which developed during the Jewish cap­tivity and gradually took the place of Hebrew as the common language of the Jews). The New Testament was originally written in Greek language.

The uniformity of Bible printing sometimes obscures the scope of variety within the Bible’s writings. If Bible printers laid out the print with all the different styles and languages accounted for, including prose, poetry, and songs, a wheelbarrow would be needed to move a Bible from the den to the bedroom.

http://www.holybible.com/resources/poems/ps.php?sid=626

HEBREW, ARAMAIC and GREEK languages were unique in that they did not have a character or set of characters to represent numbers such as our present 1,2,3, etc. Instead, the Hebrew language made use of the letters of the alphabet; so that the first letter of the alphabet stands for 1, the second for 2, the third for 3, etc., until the 11th letter represented 20, the twelfth letter 21, etc. through 800. (The Greek language also had this particular feature). Thus each letter has a numeric value. Thus each word can be given a value by adding the cumulative total value of each of its letters. Additionally, each character was assigned a PLACE value. The difficulty in translating the Scriptures, due in part from these numeric methods, was also due to the fact that these languages did not have punctuation. Sentences were run together without spacing, commas, or any other basis of separation.

http://www.usa-the-republic.com/religion/bible.html#evidence

In a word, yes!

God decided to establish a world of free will creatures with whom He would linearly relate in a give-and-take dialogue. Since the fall of man, God has invited each human being to participate with Him in the overall plan of redemption.

The work of God depends on the resource's available in any given situation and the cooperation of humans. God resourcefully works with human attitudes, values and character, seeking to accomplish His project. God responds to His creatures and gets involved in the give and take of life.
Western theology has had a difficult time placing “God is love” at center stage when discussing the divine attributes. Instead, it emphasizes the more abstract and impersonal attributes of omnipotence and omniscience. In my opinion, this results from the failure to place the discussion of the divine nature under the category of a personal God carrying out a project.

God enters into a relationship that involves risks for both God and His creatures. The almighty God created significant others with freedom, and grants them space to be alongside Him and to collaborate with Him. God expects this collaboration to proceed toward the fulfillment of His goal for creation. God loves us, provides for us, and desires our trust and love in return.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and to ...[text shortened]... s he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

The bible is relevant in the same way that the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad and Beowulf are still relevant.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and to ...[text shortened]... s he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

It is more relevant today then it ever has been. There are major Bible prophecies being fulfilled as we speak and in fact very few of then left to fulfill as we are deep into the ones spoken of in Revelation.
But satan the master of confusion is well aware of this time period and knows he has a very short time left to do what he can do to confuse and deflect us from even understanding what is going on now and the value of the bible.
And god does not communicate to us directly since Adam sinned but is using his son Jesus, his angels and his spirit to do the communication and is very involved in directing the teaching work that Jesus told his followers to do.
And the way god wants us to live is very well described in the Bible. What he expects from us has not changed from the time the bible was written, so all the answers are there.
And there is not one problem we have as humans even today that the bible cannot correct. We are still the same humans that God created and since we lost our physical perfection we all suffer with the same faults. So nothing new has to be coming from God as long as we have the Bible, it's all we need.
Until he gives us something new this bible is still serving us very well.
But if one does not see that or does not want to see it, one wil not see the power of his words in the Bible.

He was rejected and killed.

My question is, if it was relevant then and still relevant today,

Yes because the One rejected and killed rose from the dead.

The conquest over death is relevant to humanity in every age.
The triumph of a Man so absolute for the will of His Father over every imaginable opposition, is relevant to any age.

You curiously ended your summary with Christ's rejection and death. Perhaps you have not had the realization that today this Son of God is alive and available to be known.

His resurrection and His becoming a "life giving Spirit" in which He can enter into man's innermost spiritual being, make Him absolutely relevant in 2013 AD and onward.

"the last Adam became a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45)

why then don't we see more of God and his messengers today?

You have many friends and aquantences, as I do. If you allowed this Christ Who is alive and available, to dispense His Holy Spirit into you, those around you would begin to see God lived out in your life.

God longs to be made visible. And His primary way in the church age is that He be made visible through mingling Himself with men and women who receive Him.

"As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, ... who were ... begotten ... of God" (John 1:12,13)

You see God insists that He be seen from within those who receive the Son and are begotten, or born of divine life - born of God.

Do not point around to others and complain why we cannot see God. Rather say "Lord here I am. Come into me. Live in me. Live through me and be expressed from withing me that men may see Christ shining out from my life."

Why does God not speak to us from the heavens to tell us how to live
and therefore prevent us from sinning and losing salvation?

The book is completed. No new books or chapters need be added to the word of God. He expects you to get the book and believe what has been completed. And He provides the Holy Spirit confirming the written word by convicting us in our conscience.

Some people spend their lives avoiding and fighting off the convicting of the Holy Spirit concerning their need for salvation. It becomes a career for them to avoid the Spirit's moving to bring them to salvation.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and to ...[text shortened]... s he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

Its relevant to those who apply its principles.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by various people
over a period of 1600 years.

It tells stories of history and Kings and prophets
and populations. Triumphs, tragedies and the rise
and fall of various Kingdoms and Empires.

Some claim to have seen visions and have spoken to God Himself.
They say they were given messages and to ...[text shortened]... s he was allegedly back then
thousands of years ago, wouldn't there be less confusion today?

he did tell us once and even then it wasn't all new information. we know how to live, we simply choose different. we know how to love and care for one another. the revolutionary thing about jesus is how he also preaches forgiveness. that one should also love their enemies and forgive their transgressions.

i believe there are still things we can learn from the bible. as long as we understand it is a moral system that may or may not apply to us in particular. proverbs for example is better than the stories of genocide in other books. read it. read the life of jesus. how he spoke in parables and yet buffoons still take him literally.

one must not agree with the bible 100% in order to learn from it. the world is not black and white. read it with a clear mind and decide for yourself what you wish to add to your knowledge and what you wish to discard.



i am christian. i believe in jesus. yet i plan to read the Quran at some point in the future. and despite dasa being a gigantic douchebag, i will read some vedas too. nobody sane should dismiss anything because it is not perfect.