Relevance, never forget
Over lunch today, I was flipping through our local community newspaper, and I saw an ad inviting people to take part in a community Bible study. I was interested, as I generally support this kind of idea. I looked closer to see who was organizing it, and to see if it was on a night that would work for me to drop in. It turns out that it was a Bible Study that I was already aware of, and it didn't fit my schedule. I won't say who was hosting it, but their description caught my eye. The ad led in with these questions:
"Is the Bible still relevant today? Does God still matter?"
I think these are good questions to be asking in church circles, but the questions were followed up with this:
"Join us to see what the Bible says about these questions."
Sure the Bible has stuff to say about those questions, and maybe I'm being too pragmatic about this, but you can't say that the Bible is relevant because it says so about itself. Of course I believe that it is, I'm a pastor afterall, but it's bad logic to defend the Bible using the Bible. Nobody believes that I'm the world's most prominent expert on comparitive sports analysis just because I say I am. George Bush isn't running on the platform, "I'm the best man for the job, take my word for it."
When discussing the relevance of the Bible, or faith, or God, etc., you are better served to look at what the Bible says about the rest of the world and life in general, not about it's own relevance.

   [ posted by William @ 3:53 PM ]