If Truth Is Timeless Then What Changes?

Someone says, “You still think the Bible is relevant?” and it can sound like a smart, modern objection. But I want to slow that question down and look at what’s underneath it, because rejecting Scripture is often less about research and more about resistance to being accountable to God.

Dr. Timothy Mann anchors this message in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, where Paul says all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable, able to make us complete and thoroughly equipped. From there, we walk through three reasons the Bible remains the most relevant book in the world: who wrote it, what it addresses, and what it produces. You’ll hear a memorable “map” analogy that exposes why age alone can’t disqualify truth if the Author is eternal, plus a clear breakdown of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness as the categories that answer the questions that actually haunt us.

We also deal with today’s identity confusion head-on by going back to Genesis 1:27 and the image of God, and we talk about the kind of real-life change Scripture produces through the power of the Holy Spirit. If you’re skeptical, we invite you to do something simple but costly: set assumptions aside and genuinely engage God’s Word, because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not abstract theory, it’s forgiveness, hope, and eternal life offered to sinners.

Subscribe for more biblical truth, share this with a friend who asks hard questions, and leave a review so more people can find Foundations of Truth. What’s the biggest reason you’ve heard for why the Bible “can’t” be relevant today?

Transcript

A Hard Question About Relevance

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Foundations of Truth, the radio and podcast ministry of firm foundations. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word, rooted in Scripture, anchored in the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Reason One God Wrote Scripture

Reason Two Scripture Answers Life

Listener Support Message

SPEAKER_01 0:14

I'm Dr. Timothy Mann. I'm glad you've joined me today. Let me ask you a question that I suspect you've heard before. Maybe from a coworker, a family member, a college student home for the holidays, or perhaps someone sitting across from you at a dinner table. The question goes something like this. You don't actually believe the Bible is still relevant, do you? I mean, it was written thousands of years ago by people who didn't know what we know in a world that no longer exists. How can an ancient book have anything meaningful to say to the 21st century? Now, I want you to notice something about that question. It sounds like an intellectual objection. It presents itself as the conclusion of careful, reasonable thinking. But if you press just a little bit, you'll find, most likely, that it is not primarily an intellectual objection at all. It is a moral one. People do not reject the Bible because they have studied it and found it wanting. Most people who dismiss the Bible have never seriously engaged with it. What they have done is they've decided they do not want to be accountable to it. And that is a very different thing. But I do think the question deserves a serious answer. And today I want to give you one. Our anchored text from God's Word is 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 through 17. So if you have a Bible with you, or maybe your Bible app or something like that, open it there. Open it to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. The Apostle Paul here is writing to a young pastor named Timothy, and it says this All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Notice what it says all scripture, profitable, complete, thoroughly equipped. Those are not the words of a book struggling to stay relevant. Those are the words of a living document with a divine author. And today I want to give you three reasons why the Bible is not only still relevant, it is the most relevant book in the world. The very first reason the Bible is relevant is the most foundational one. And I would say if you miss this, you really will miss everything else. The first reason is this the Bible is relevant because of who wrote it. Now the Apostle Paul says here in verse 16 that, and I quote the scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That phrase that we've just read here in the New King James translation of our English Bibles, that phrase inspiration of God, translates a single Greek word. And that single Greek word literally means God breathed. Not God assisted, not God influenced, God breathed. See, the scripture did not originate with human wisdom and then receive a divine stamp of approval. It originated with God and was carried through human instruments. Now think about what that means for the question of relevance. When someone says the Bible is irrelevant because it is old, they are making a very specific assumption. And that assumption is that the value of information is determined only by its age. In other words, the newer the better. That what was written in the first century cannot speak with authority to the 21st century. But that logic only holds if the Bible's author is limited by time. And God is not. I think about it this way. When I was in the Army in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we used land navigation maps. Now, this predated GPS. Those maps were produced by cartographers, human beings with human limitations. And of course, if the terrain changed over time, the map then became less reliable. And that's what happens with strictly human knowledge. It has a shelf life. It ages, it is bounded by what the author could see, know, and understand at the time of writing. But what if, what if the map maker had a perfect, unlimited, eternal knowledge of every inch of terrain. Not just what it looks like today, but what it has always looked like, and what it will always look like in the future. That map would never go out of date. Its age would be irrelevant because its author is not limited by time. That is the Bible. All sixty-six books of the Bible, its human writers, Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul, John, and all the others, were limited men. But the author behind them was not. And when you understand that Scripture, God's Word, the Bible, all 66 books of the library that we call the Old Testament and New Testament, when you understand that Scripture is the product of an eternal, omniscient God who knows the beginning from the end, well, the question of relevance answers itself. A book written by the creator of human nature will always speak to human nature. A book written by the author of history will always speak to history. A book written by the one who holds the future will always speak to the future. The Bible is not old news. It is eternal truth delivered in time. And there is a profound difference. So the first reason that the Bible is relevant is because of because of who wrote it. The author. And the author is God. But there's a second reason. The Bible is relevant because of what it addresses. That's the second reason. Because of what it addresses. The Apostle Paul tells Timothy that Scripture is profitable. And I want you to notice, look back at the verse, notice the four areas he identifies doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Now I want to suggest to you that those four categories actually cover everything that matters in human life. Doctrine answers the question, what is true? Reproof answers the question, where have I gone wrong? Correction answers the question, how do I get back on the right path? And instruction in righteousness answers the question, how do I live well going forward? Now, think about the questions that actually keep people awake at night. Not questions about technology or economics or even geopolitics, though those do matter. I'm talking about the questions that cut to the bone. Questions like, who am I really? Why am I here? Is there a God? And does he know my name? Does he even care? What happens when I die? How do I find forgiveness for the things I've done? How do I live with purpose and meaning in a world that seems increasingly chaotic and dark? The Bible addresses every one of those questions, not with vague sentiment or self-help advice, but with authoritative, specific, life-transforming truth. Now, the culture will tell you that the Bible is irrelevant, irrelevant on questions of science, history, ethics, and human sexuality, and other things as well. But I would push back on every one of those claims, but let me just for a few minutes here focus on the deepest one, the question of what it means to be human. We are living in a moment where the culture cannot even agree on what a human being is, is a person defined by their genetics, is a person defined by their feelings, is a person defined by their choices, is a person defined by the gender they choose, is a person defined by their so-called race or their productivity or their success. The debate rages and the confusion, what I can see, is genuine and it runs deep. I talk to people regularly in my own congregation that I am blessed to pastor in our community. I see it online. People who are genuinely lost. They do not know who they are. They do not know what they're for. And no amount of therapy, technology, or political philosophy has been able to answer that question. But ladies and gentlemen, the Bible answered it on page one. Genesis chapter one, verse twenty-seven. The Bible says, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Human beings are image bearers of a personal God. That single sentence in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, carries more weight for human dignity, it carries more weight for human identity, and it carries more weight for human purpose than the entire output of secular philosophy ever has. The Bible is relevant because it addresses the questions that actually matter. Not the questions the culture tells us are important this week or next week or in the months to come this year, but the questions that have actually burned in the human heart since the Garden of Eden. And here's the thing that I want you to notice. Those questions have not changed. The technology changes, the vocabulary changes, the cultural context changes, but the questions do not change. Every generation asks, Is there a God? Am I guilty? Can I be forgiven? What actually happens when I die? How should I live? And the Bible, yes, the Bible, God's Word, answers them every time, in every culture, in every century, and that is not irrelevance. That is the most profound relevance imaginable. And so the second reason that the Bible is relevant is because of what it addresses the most important questions of life and every category that matters in human life. But there's a third reason.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Foundations of Truth is listener supported, and your gift helps bring biblical truth into homes just like yours. You can give a gift now at firm-foundations.org. And thank you. Now back to more of the message on foundations of truth. Here's Dr. Timothy Mann.

Reason Three Scripture Transforms

A Direct Gospel Invitation

The Church Needs Courage

Support Foundations Of Truth

SPEAKER_01 13:43

The Bible is also relevant because of what it produces. Third reason the Bible is relevant is because of what it produces. Look, the Apostle Paul here closes his statement with what we'll call a purpose clause. He says, Scripture is profitable in these four areas, quote, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. End quote. So the goal of Scripture is not merely information, it is transformation, it is completeness. It is being thoroughly equipped, which means lacking nothing. Lacking nothing necessary for the life that God has actually called you to live. Now, I do want to be careful here, because this is where people sometimes get confused. They read a passage like this, and they think that the Bible is a self-improvement manual. That somehow, if you just read enough of it, you will become a better version of yourself. That is not at all what the Apostle Paul is saying. It's not what the Bible's saying. Paul is saying that the scripture, the word of God, operating by the power of the Holy Spirit, God Himself, in the life of a regenerate believer, a born-again follower of Jesus, the Scripture operating in that person by the Holy Spirit produces a kind of person that no other book, no other program, and no other philosophy can produce. A person who is complete, whole, thoroughly equipped. Not perfect. We will not be perfect this side of glory because we still live in a fallen world. We still live with a fallen flesh. We still have indwelling principles of sin. We have a mind that must be renewed on a regular basis. So it's a person who's not perfect, but it is a person who is genuinely transformed, a person who is truly being changed. Genuinely changed at the level of character, the level of desire, motive, and even direction. Yes, we can still stumble, we can still fall, we can still sin, and we will. We'll make bad decisions, we'll make mistakes, but when you look at the overall trajectory of this kind of person's life, it is a trajectory of change, growth, the direction of becoming the kind of person that God has called us to be. See, I have been in pastoral ministry for over 30 years, and I have sat with people in the best moments of their lives and the worst. I've been at hospital bedsides, I've been at gravesides, I've counseled marriages on the verge of collapse, and I have watched the Word of God rebuild them. I've walked with men and women through addiction, through grief, through moral failure, and despair. And I can tell you without hesitation that I've never seen anything produce lasting, genuine, transformative change in a human life the way the consistent, faithful, spirit-empowered application of Scripture does. Now, that's not been for everyone because they didn't cooperate. They didn't yield to the work of God in their life. They didn't do what the Bible actually says. They didn't want to change ultimately. But for those who did and pursued that, there was change. There was transformation that took place. There was healing that happened. There was brokenness restored. There was forgiveness brought about. There was growth, real spiritual growth over the course of their life. And it came about because of consistent, faithful, spirit-empowered application of Scripture. So you want to talk about relevance? Show me something else that takes a broken human being and makes them whole. Show me something else that can reach actually into the darkest places of the human heart, the places that are full of shame and guilt and regret and bring genuine peace. Show me something else that can give a dying man or a dying woman hope like this. Show me something else that tells the truth about who we are, about where we are, and then offers a way to become what we were made to be. I'll wait. Because there is nothing else. There is no rival. The Bible is not competing for relevance in a crowded marketplace of ideas. It stands alone. And I want to say something right here to those of you who might be listening today, and you are not yet a genuine believer or follower of Jesus. You've not been saved. You perhaps picked this podcast out of curiosity, or maybe someone shared it with you, and you have been told your whole life that the Bible is a relic, something for uneducated people, something for people who need a crutch, something for a pre-scientific age. I want to invite you right now to set that assumption aside just for a moment and ask an honest question. If this book, God's Word, is what it claims to be, if it is genuinely the Word of the Living God, breathed out by the one who made you and knows you and yes loves you, then what would it cost you to actually engage with it? Really, sincerely engage with it. This Bible says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into this fallen world, lived a perfect, sinless life, never broke the law of God. He was the God man, God in the flesh, and he died literally on the cross, crucified for the sins of people exactly like me and you. He was buried, and he rose again on the third day. He was resurrected. And it says everyone who turns from their sin and trusts in him will be forgiven. Completely, permanently, eternally forgiven, and will receive the gift of eternal life. That, my friends, is not irrelevant. That is the most relevant thing anyone has ever said to you. So let me bring this together. Is the Bible still relevant? Well, the answer is yes. Not because we have decided to keep it relevant, not because we have updated it or modernized it or made it more palatable for a contemporary audience. It is relevant because its author is eternal, because it addresses the questions that have always mattered to most human beings, to all human beings, even if they don't know it. And because it brings something that nothing else in the world can produce. So I want to close with something I've said before, and I will say again because I believe it with everything in me. The church does not need new truth, it needs the courage to preach the truth we already have. The Bible does not. Need our defense, it needs our proclamation, it does not need to be updated, it needs to be opened, it does not need to be made relevant, it is relevant, and the world is waiting, whether it knows it or not. The world is waiting for someone to stand up and say so without apology. Yes, with grace, but also with truth. We need to stand firm. The Bible is relevant, and that's what we're here to do on foundations of truth. Week after week, we're going to open this book, stand on this word, and trust that the God who breathed it out is still at work through it today. Thank you for joining me today. I'm grateful you have. If this broadcast has been meaningful to you, I would ask you to consider supporting this ministry, Foundations of Truth. Foundations of Truth exist because listeners like you believe that the Word of God deserves to be heard. You can give at our website firm-foundations.org. That's www.firm-foundations.org, or by mail to Firm Foundations Ministries. A PO box 731-867-Orman Beach, Florida. Until next time, this is Dr. Timothy Mann. Stand firm, think biblically, live faithfully. And remember, the Bible is relevant.

Free Resources And Daily Broadcast

Book Recommendation Saved

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Foundations of Truth is a presentation of Firm Foundations Ministries, Ormond Beach, Florida. You can download today's message. Is the Bible relevant free wherever you get your podcasts? Dr. Timothy Mann also has a free resource available this month. If you sign up for our email list at firm-foundations.org, you can receive three reasons why you can trust the authority of Scripture. You can hear Foundations of Truth daily on the radio at 10 a.m. weekdays on 990 a.m. 101.5 FM, The Word Orlando. Thanks for joining us today, and tomorrow we continue our series Home Security, God's Protection Plan for the Family, on Foundations of Truth with Dr. Timothy Mann.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Before we close today, I want to tell you about a resource that I believe will be a genuine help to you. I've recently published my first book, Saved, Understanding God's Work in Us. In over 30 years of pastoral ministry, one of the questions I've encountered more than almost any other is this. How can I know that I am truly saved? It is a question that deserves a careful biblical answer. And that is exactly what this book is designed to give. Saved, understanding God's work in us, walks through what the scripture teaches about salvation, what God has done for us, what he is doing in us, and the assurance that every believer can have because of his work. If you want to understand salvation more deeply, stand on firmer ground in your faith, or be better equipped to share the gospel with someone you love, then this book was written for you. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes Noble, and Books a Million, and pretty much anywhere you buy books. Just search Saved, Understanding God's Work in Us by Dr. Timothy Mann. I pray it strengthens your faith.