by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Some people who never read the Bible form a view of it anyway. They were told that the Bible is out of date, not up with modern culture, has lost its relevance to our times, and is just a mixture of myths and fables anyway. They did not get that view by actually reading the Bible but by the pride of life in thinking they can pull such a view out of thin air, and it would be true simply because they think so and say so.<\/p>\n
The Bible itself actually claims that it did not come from the mind of man but that “holy men of God were moved along by the Holy Spirit<\/em>” (II Peter 1:19-21). The Bible claims that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:16-17), which means “God-breathed.” The Bible constantly challenged its own culture of idolatry, myths, and superstition while still claiming that there is an invisible living Creator. The true God versus all the superstitious pagan gods of idolatry. That makes sense! The Bible rebukes the nation of Israel for letting themselves get pulled into the phony religions of idolatry when the One that gives life to all is ignored or abandoned for the visible works of men’s hands.<\/p>\n So, technically, the Bible never <\/b>was “in step with the times.” It was always challenging the culture and challenging the times. It never tried to “fit in” with people, as it always called people to “fit in” with the Holy Creator. That means that when we properly and carefully read the Bible, we can expect that it possesses qualities that demonstrate wisdom from above, even the ability, in many cases, to foretell things that humans had no ability to foresee or foretell.<\/p>\n The Bible stands above all religious books in this characteristic. The power to foretell the fall of great cities and nations and, especially, of a coming Messiah-Savior is an attribute found only in the Bible. The Bible actually shows divine wisdom, embedding darker “shadows” of the coming Messiah-Savior and prophesying details about where and when He would come. Peter says we would do well to heed<\/em> it like a light <\/b>in a dark place (II Peter 1:16-21), and he quotes the Old Testament that says the word of the Lord “lives and abides forever<\/em>” (I Peter 1: 23-25). In other words, God saw to it that His word would “live” and “abide” through all the coming generations and remain fresh, alive, and relevant “forever.” Those who read and study it carefully know the truth that sets them free (John 8:30-31) from doubt. They know it lives and abides, and it is the most powerful and relevant message of all messages. It enlightens us in a dark world, transforms our inner character, and delivers a living hope embedded in the fact of Jesus and the fact of His demonstrated power over death. It is the most relevant book that has ever been written. You would do well to heed it as a light in a dark world!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Some people who never read the Bible form a view of it anyway. They were told that the Bible is out of date, not up with modern culture, has lost its relevance to our times, and is just a mixture of myths and fables anyway. They did not get that view…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[219],"class_list":["post-68534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12290,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-studied-the-bible-from-an-academic-point-of-view-as-a-historical-document-of-several-communities-making-sense-of-god-in-their-time-of-crisis\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":0},"title":"Have you studied the Bible from an academic point of view as a historical document of several communities making sense of God in their time of crisis?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You give your answers in a canonical view; basically, using the Bible as a whole in its entirety to answer the questions. Yet, the core of what the questions address is why did the authors write the apparent contradictions if it was \"inspired by God\"? There was a time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89864,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-bible-alone-is-the-word-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":1},"title":"The Bible Alone Is the Word of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton No other book is equal to the Bible. Neither the Quran nor the Book of Mormon equals the Bible in the marks or proofs of divine origin. What convinces me that the Bible alone is God's Word? In summary, I would appeal to three areas: It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-stories-in-the-bible-just-true-myths\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":2},"title":"Are the stories in the Bible just “true myths?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently read that C.S. Lewis, who is one of my favorite authors ever, believed that some chapters in Genesis were \"true myths\" as he called them. \"True myths\" being stories of both fact and fiction. Chapters concerning the history of Adam and Eve or Noah and the Ark\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-bible-male-oriented\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":3},"title":"Is the Bible male oriented?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Of couse living in a world of patriarchy MAN wrote the bible !!!!! Hide behind your bible and justify mens disgusting behavior. I think your God is a sick one. If you think spousal rape is acceptable because \"God\" said women are to please her man and not \"giving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility-can-we-trust-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":4},"title":"Biblical Infallibility: Can We Trust the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Trust in the scriptures is important to every Christian. The Bible is the center of our faith. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are Christians because we believe that God exists and that the Bible is God's word - II Tim. 3:16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Believing in the Bible's message will save our souls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-answer-the-claim-that-the-scriptures-have-some-truth-but-cant-be-infallible-because-men-were-involved-in-its-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":68534,"position":5},"title":"How do I answer the claim that the Scriptures have some truth but can’t be infallible because men were involved in its writing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was talking about the inspiration of Scripture with a friend. He claimed that the Scriptures had some truth and were inspired by God, but were not infallible because men had to have messed it up in our fallibility. He also said that there was no way God forced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}