Read 2 Chronicles 13 and Revelation 9.
This devotional is about Revelation 9.
Years ago, as I listened to a recording of a debate between an atheist and a Christian apologist, The atheist complained that the Bible hasn’t been updated in over 1000 years. He compared scripture unfavorably to scientific textbooks that are updated annually to incorporate new information that science has brought to light. It seemed absurd to him that students were learning from their textbooks the latest that science had discovered, but that people who want to know God were using such an old textbook.
You don’t have to agree with his atheism to see his perspective. The Bible was written over thousands of years, so there were new “updates” coming out as new books of scripture were written. Why didn’t God give us more stories, more characters to read about, and deeper insights into Christian doctrine?
There are several aspects to the answer. One part of the answer is that God didn’t give us everything we might want to know, but he gave us enough. There is enough revelation about God in the Bible for us to know his character and his ways. There is enough truth in the Bible to bring us to eternal life in Christ and enough doctrine in Scripture to give us a lifetime of material to help us grow in our faith and knowledge of Christ.
But another part of the answer is that human nature remains the same as it has since the Garden of Eden. Through science, we’ve learned a lot about the human body and how it responds to chemical compounds that we call medicine. We’ve eradicated some diseases that killed people in the past and we’ve learned to manage some health problems that we haven’t yet learned how to cure.
But while medicine can help us with problems of the human body, there is no scientific answer to the problems of human nature. And, fundamentally, the problems of human nature are the same today as they were when every bit of the Bible was written. Some expressions of sin have changed, but the sins themselves have not. Technology delivers people images to lust after now, but lust has been a human problem since the fall of humanity.
Here in Revelation 9, John continued to describe the judgment God will bring on the earth because of the sins of humanity. But, this chapter tells us that despite God’s judgment, human beings will not change their ways. Verses 20-21 say, “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
Let’s think about the sins listed in those two verses:
- Do people still worship idols today? Yes. In some parts of the world, they still worship literal idols. Here in the west, people worship the idols of pride and materialism. So, human nature has not changed.
- Do people still murder? Yes, so human nature has not changed.
- Do people still use “magic arts” today to learn the future or control the supernatural instead of trusting in God? Yes, so human nature has not changed.
- Do people still commit sexual immorality? Of course, because human nature has not changed.
- Do people still commit theft? Yes, because human nature has not changed.
So, we don’t need an update to scripture because sin is still the problem and Christ is still the only salvation from that problem. As we tell the gospel to other sinners, Christ’s atonement 2000 years ago is still what they need today to escape God’s wrath. And, God’s Word and God’s Spirit are still the agents of change that sinful humans like us need.
Human nature persists with human reproduction. Every person who comes into the world comes into it with sinful thoughts and lusts. Only Jesus can change human nature. So read and study his word and let his Holy Spirit change you by the power of his grace.