Practical Advantages of Belief in God - Part 4

Forty years ago in America, no one posed naked for a movie or TV show. Today, it is the norm, and almost everyone in the culture has watched a movie or TV show that included nudity.

Forty years ago in America, your family would have been scandalized if your child or even your cousin went to live with a member of the opposite sex and set up housekeeping together. Today, it is a common practice, and nobody says anything about it.

There are many, many more examples. Human morality is generally dictated, at least in part, by the ideas that are currently in fashion. Someone writes a persuasive book and a whole generation of children are raised without discipline. Someone sings a popular song, and drugs are a right of passage instead of a horrible tragedy in a person’s life. Someone tells a good story, true or not, and 40 million babies are aborted. A couple of scientists say that some human races are superior to others and 6 million Jews are slaughtered.

4. A touchstone that is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A major practical advantage of the Bible is that it has an established moral code, hundreds of proverbs giving direction for living, and a complete world view to guide its adherents. The Bible is virtually unchanged for almost 2000 years, and the Old Testament dates back 2500 to 6000 years. The basics are unchanged. The Ten Commandments are still valid for today. The proverbs still ring true. The Psalms still provide guidance for all aspects of living. The primary themes of grace, redemption, forgiveness, righteousness, etc., are consistent from Genesis to Revelation.

From a practical standpoint, one can go to this Book and see that it has stood the test of time. When everything else created by man changes with the wind, or the fad, or the group in power, it is very reassuring to have a foundation that is solid as a rock. Then, when a new charismatic leader comes along and says that he has a new approach to how we should live, we can check it against God’s Word. If it fails that test, it is wrong.

Does it make sense to follow the whim of the week or the Rock of Ages? To test the answer, review the ideas of man that do not have support in the Bible and check out the consequences for those that followed them. See how long they remained as the current way to live. Usually it is only a generation, before the natural consequences of the errant behavior cause a backlash. Sometimes the society doesn’t wake up, and the entire culture is destroyed from within or without.

There are at least 14. 5, 6, and 7 are related and can be found here