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Should the Bible Be Your Guide?

THERE is a common view that Bible principles do not apply today, that they will not work in this twentieth century. What the Bible says about honesty, justice and integrity is often far from the world’s mind. In fact, even some religious leaders do not think these principles really apply now. One clergyman went so far as to say that those who preach the Sermon on the Mount “have no expectation of trying to practice it, for if they did they would be summarily entombed in wards for the mentally ill.”a

Rather than the Bible’s high principles, enlightened selfishness is often honored today. There is a general view that if you are a businessman a little crime may pay; that if you are a lawyer a certain amount of dishonesty may be the best policy; that integrity is of value only so long as it is financially profitable. A world following the Bible’s principles of peace, unity, upright morals and real Christian love would be so drastically changed from today’s customs that it would seem almost beyond human recognition!

But is the rejecting of such Bible principles practical? Has the materialistic view proved better than the Biblical one? Are two world wars within this generation practical? Is political corruption? the soaring divorce rate? the rising tide of crime and dope addiction? Or do these things show that Jeremiah’s words are true: “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps”?—Jer. 10:23.

Vast quantities of books have been written and published giving men’s ideas on morals, ethics, human guidance. Probably millions of hours have been spent reading them. “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” (Eccl. 12:12) But have these books solved the moral and ethical problems? No, these problems are getting worse. The shoddy contention of self-centered men that God’s Word is impractical falls flat in the light of the evidence that Bible principles do work today. Men who say they will not work identify themselves as men who have not tried them. If they say Bible principles are “visionary,” then they are men without vision. “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”—Prov. 29:18.

Bible principles are the basis of the laws of many nations. They have found their way into our everyday speech, and are the foundation of many of our common ideas. Most people will say that they agree with the Bible’s principles. Probably you do too. But, unhappily, today’s world is not really living by those principles. The Southern Baptist Convention, representing the third-largest religious group in America, stated that the cause for the decay in the standards of public and private morality lie in the thinking and practices of a public that has “all but lost sight of such virtues as honesty, integrity and truthfulness in both public and private and civic affairs.”

This has reached such a point that when we say that the narrow principles of Christianity are of the greatest value today, you may be asking: “What! Do you mean that Bible principles really work now? and that I should apply them even when the people with whom I am dealing do not?” Yes, that is exactly what we mean. An intelligent person cannot afford to overlook them. Come with us through the next article to see that this is true.

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