Are God's Commandments Outdated?

Were God's commandments just for people like these?

I have heard the argument that the commandments that were given by God, especially those in the Old Testament, are severely outdated and almost backwards. This is especially common, if like me, you have attended a public state funded university. To follow the commands of God is almost seen as being akin to being outdated and is like using a beeper instead of an IPhone in this day. While beepers were cool long ago (actually only about a decade ago) they just don't fit our very "advanced" society that has moved past beepers and is onto greater things since we are more advanced in technology. We see this the same as since we have been more philosophically enlightened we don't need any of this ancient wisdom from a far off civilization that most of us aren't even descendants from. Many Americans and most of the western world see the teachings of the Bible as being inconsequential to our lives. But the real question in all of this is, are these commands really outdated?


Well, no not really. And there are many reasons for this. We would like to think that our civilization is more advanced than that of the relatively primitive, so we should have our own rules. Even some Christians think that since we have a New Testament that makes everything in the Old Testament is for some reason now invalid. The problem with this thinking is that we reduce Jesus and his teachings to be nothing more than just equal to the free love movement and hippies of the 1960's. All that Jesus wants is for us to love one another and not judge each other, but just be completely accepting of people. Including their actions. This argument has been used from proponents of gay marriage to teenage boys in youth group who want to justify looking at pornography. We don't want to be judged for our actions and failures by other people, so we extend this lack of judgement to God. Only problem with this is that God doesn't change his mind like we do.

This is outdated. God's law isn't.

Many think that since Jesus never spoke out against certain sins that it all of a sudden makes them okay for all people. Oddly enough many things that are sins, but socially acceptable sins, tend to fall into this category. Jesus put a death nail into this notion that the law can be changed or be obsolete. Jesus made it plain

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus clearly didn't have his eyes set on getting rid of the laws or the proclamations of the prophets. It is plain as day that he wasn't from this statement. Even the fact that he frequently would refer back to the law and the prophets in his teachings prove that Jesus had a high view of the law. He didn't want to rid the world of it, but fulfill it through his death.

A funny thing about the thought from some that Jesus de-emphasized sin is that he did the exact opposite thing. He upped the ante. He said that if you have hated someone you have committed murder without even wielding a weapon towards them. You can have committed adultery in you heart without ever actually having sex, just by lusting after a man or woman. Jesus didn't take away an emphasis on following the law, but showed it to be even more strict. Thankfully in his grace God did allow Jesus to die so we wouldn't have to try and outdo this impossible task.

Another fault that is found with God's commands is that it is not for our time, but for people long ago. We are just too advanced for these things. Only problem is, the law is timeless. It isn't just for one time or another. In Hebrews we see that it is said

"the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12)

Now the proof that isn't a dead law is that the writer says that the law is not dead, but active and living. It has influence in our lives even today. It isn't just like Latin, a dead language only used by people who are severely interested in it, rather it is something that has massive influence and is in great use. It is more like English  a language that is thriving and has massive influence throughout the world. While we like to think that it is dead, it is not and has influence on our life, much like the English language!

So long story short the commands of God are not outdated. They may be old, but they are just as profitable as when God gave them. Just as the law was relevant and true even before it was given in writing to Moses (proved by God judging the whole earth as wicked and killing all but a small population in the great flood) we see a parallel in that the law is just as profitable and applicable in a time long past the writings of the scripture.

Is the Bible reliable?

One question I have heard many people say is that the Bible is not reliable. The logic goes that since the bible is over two thousand years old it could not be properly maintained in its true condition that it held at the beginning. What people who question this bring into question the "infallibility" of the Bible. Big word, I know. What infallible means is perfect. It means that it is untainted. To many, the idea of the Bible being infallible is crazy.

The main reason most people reject the Bible as a reliable document is that they do not believe that a book, that was written and canonized long after its original happenings sometimes even a decade after, can be right. There is a common belief that since it was not written down right away, that the Bible is automatically void of reliability  I remember on one of the first days of a intro to the bible class that a guy (who is a christian mind you) said that they cannot be correct. Clearly this is even an issue of belief for those who do the hold the bible as sacred.

What is the first problem with this thought process? We are thinking from the minds of a literal society. Even high school dropouts in the United States have some degree of literacy. This was not what it was like in the time of the Roman Empire. Most people were day laborers or farmers in this era, so reading books was low on their priorities. They had no real need for being ultra-literate, so instead the were an oral society. In fact many people in the Jewish faith memorized the Torah as their "education", rather than our standard education reading, writing and arithmetic (along with many other things that have been thrown in). For them telling stories about their forefathers, like Moses and David, were just normal for them. So when a person (Jew and non jew alike) converted to Christianity they would also be  likely to memorize the teachings that they had been passed on from other generations, including those who had seen Jesus in person. This wasn't something that they saw as an inconvenience, but as a necessity to understand their faith.

A good illustration to use for this is how when many people grow up they hear the same stories told many times by their parents. Your parents will tell it over and over and over and over and over until you knew the story inside and out. Much to your ire though, your parents keep telling it. The same idea is of what happened with the early church. Much of these teachings were taught frequently so they remembered it quite well, so like the child who remembers the story about their parent going to Yellowstone national park in 1974 and having a bear attack their truck (just a hypothetical story, unless this really happened to your parents), they remembered the stories of Jesus' life, death, and  Resurrection.

Another thing that makes people bring into question the authenticity of the Bible is the amount of heretics that there were at the beginning of the church. For many skeptics it is hard to believe what is true and what is false. This makes the validity of the bible that was canonized by the original church to come into question because they may see it as just political positions winning out. However, it was not so. The many councils, like the Council of Nicea and the Council of Ephesus, were done to make sure they were making the proper theological decisions in turning away heretics. They did this as a way to maintain the structure of a newly formed religion that could have been susceptible to internal attacks. To bring this into our context this is like how George Washington fought his own people in the little known Whiskey Rebellion of the late 18th century. His intent was not to cause problems in his own country, but to maintain the delicate balance that was present in the country. The rejection of Heretics has helped to maintain the integrity of the infallibility of the Bible over time and keep it as useful for readers today.