IT'S OUTDATED!

My Mother-in-law was never one to mince words. She told it like it is long before Howard Cosell took all the credit for being so upfront and personal. As she grew older, she was blunt with what she saw as the truth. If you didn’t like it, tough. It was a waste of time to get into an argument with her. She believed what she believed. Of course, if you didn't like it back then, that was too bad, too.

My Mother-in-law had an opinion on most things. If you didn't believe me, ask her. She had an opinion on the Bible: "It's outdated." Enough said. If you wanted her to explain that remark, you'd have to wait till the cows come home. If you didn't understand the remark, well, she wasn't going to ease your burden any.

Of course, being her son-in-law, and being that I wore this funny collar around my neck, I felt it my duty to try to explain what she meant by saying that the Bible is outdated. After all, it would certainly look like I had been a failure in my duty to teach the truth of the Bible. But I had also learned not to mess with my Mother-in-law.

Nevertheless, she was correct. The Bible is a dated book. Every book is outdated sooner or later with the passing of time. Thus, the Bible as a dated book, one written at certain times and places long, long ago, it is not up-to-date on many, many issues. If we look to the Bible to find the to any question we may ask, especially questions that were not asked 2000 or more years ago, we will find the book outdated as it should be, as it certainly has to be.

But saying that the Bible is outdated and saying that the Bible is wrong is not saying the same thing. There are those who simply dismiss the Bible as a source of truth, even some Bishops. Times do change. Customs change. Even mores change as we learn more and more about who we are as human beings, people created in the image and likeness of God. Even our understanding of God has changed. We grow in wisdom and knowledge as time passes, as years and generations pass. God help us if we did not! But, thankfully, we do, and to our benefit.

We cannot hope to understand everything, even most things. We cannot even begin to think we have all the answers let alone have one book have all the answers. Yet, as my Mother-in-law would have told you and me, the Bible has more truth than we need, more truth than we want to hear. It is easy to dismiss a source of truth as outdated simply because we don't want to hear the truth that is timeless.

It is even easier to dismiss a source of truth as outdated because we want to change the truth to suit our fancy. My mother-in-law knew what she meant when she said that the Bible is outdated because she still believed. She did not claim to understand either the Bible or life itself. She simply believed what she believed and that was enough for her, probably more than enough. I am not sure that those who insist that the Bible is the source of all truth or is simply outdated have her deep faith. They may just want an excuse to insist that they are right and others are wrong.