Helen, one of our older ladies has donated her extensive library to the church and we just completed a 19 foot bookshelf to accommodate all the books. We're going to catalog all the books she gives, but because she is such a student of the Word one thing we won’t need to do is scrutinize each book to make sure of its theological footing. However, this isn’t always the case with donated books. There are those who do judge a book by its cover and they sometimes give books to the church based on spiritual appearance, not on the content. In Paul’s day some new converts took it upon themselves to have a public book burning of inappropriate books that were once prominent on their library shelves…today we just send them to the landfill. (Acts 19:17-20)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I don’t mind folks burning and trashing books today. I don’t like the attitude of destroying falsehood by simply eliminating its statements rather than by logically exposing them. Its disrespect bothers me. Opponents to the truth and their seekers are more easily won when shown at least the basic respect and dignity one deserves for just being human. And winning folks to the Lord is our goal. But today, trashing and burning is ineffective. It doesn’t even make a dent in the supply of stupid books.
-----Throughout history, trashing and burning has been the defensive practice. And that is sad, because their supply of books was very short. In the seventh and eighth centuries, both Muslims and Christians trashed and burned the great Alexandrian library. That library was built by a rather totalitarian law requiring everyone venturing into Alexandria to turn their books over for copying. Of course, the traveler received the copy and the library kept the original. After centuries of this practice, the library was very substantial. There may well have been much information in it explaining the sources and background surrounding many anomalies we possess today, such as the Peri Reis map. There may have been histories and literature held by it as antiquities that for us would have shed clear light upon the connection between the unknown peoples in Genesis’ table of nations and today’s archeological sites. Since the Word of God is true, the Alexandrian Library most likely had much material connecting it much closer to the history we now know, and correcting our historical misgivings as well. All of what was lost in its burning and trashing makes me shudder.
-----But there are plenty of books to survive today’s burnings and trashings. I have some of those surviving books in my library. Other folks would throw out these “wondrous works”, but they are very valuable to me. Several years ago I bought “Revelations 2000” by M. J. Agee, “...the extraordinary Bible scholar who unlocks secrets and reveals mysteries with a depth of insight that continues to amaze readers, now illuminates Scripture’s final drama...From the Rapture and the Tribulations to World’s End and it’s renovation in a New Jerusalem, M. J. Agee provides authoritative, insightful answers...” was the hype on the book cover that attracted me. I love to talk and laugh about this book: the throne of God on the planet Neptune, the sword of God being asteroid strikes, and Satan’s planet having been between Mars and Jupiter now cut off by a sword of God! How comical! But more importantly, these books represent to me the opportunity to know the ideas we must confront. The better we understand a falsehood, the more convincingly we are able to present the truth of God’s Word to its captives. I know most people disagree with my attitude, so you don’t find many churches with a special “know the enemy” section of their libraries. But since understanding is a part of loving, I do have a “love my enemy” section in mine.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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