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Monday, December 10, 2012

No Dawn

There are many great books written today, I have read a bunch of them.  There are also those that are not so good.  I have had many of those recommended as well.  What is the difference?  Truth.  Measured in two ways:
  • Can what the book says be supported by the Word of God?
  • Is the book internally consistent?  That is does the author not contradict himself in the presentation of his point of view?  
Just because something is published in a book does not mean that it is true.  How can we tell?
Evaluation of a book on these factors requires first that we know the Word of God and second that we read a work critically.  I am learning that printing words on paper and binding that paper with an attractive cover, does not equal either accuracy or truth within.  That becomes a problem when communities promote books not the Bible as “Bible Study.”  Again there is much to be gained from books about the Bible, but they cannot replace our time in the Bible either in priority or time.  If we have time to read them, we should have time to study the Word ourselves.

Books are like those who are traveling through our spheres of influence with a message.  We are to check them out like the Bereans did with Paul, Acts 17:11.  Further we are to evaluate them based on Isaiah 8:20.  If they do not reflect the truth of the Word, they were written in the dark.

1 comment:

  1. How do I evaluate them? All are secondary to time in the Bible. If I'm not spending an hour a day reading the Bible, I have no business reading other books. As someone said,"What would I say to Ezekiel when meeting him in heaven? 'I read the popular books in my culture, but I never had time to read yours!'" All I need to fulfill God's purpose for my life is in the Bible -- 2 Tim 3. And currently I'm reading The Admirals (of WWII), Decline and Fall of the British Empire, The Millennials, Medal of Honor (history of), and 4 magazines. But they are all inconsequential to my development compared to the Bible.

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