Well, the good old fashioned book burnin’ ‘n barbeque has fallen on hard times. Just ask yourself, when was the last time your church burned an NIV bible while serving teriyaki chicken wings and potato chips? My guess is that it’s been some time. That’s why it made news when Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. announced its Halloween Book Burning event, where the 14 members of the church plan to burn false bibles (i.e., any except the KJV) and books by noted “heretics” like Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
Couple of thoughts on the story:
1. It’s pretty funny that the church really is serving barbeque chicken at the event. Don’t know why that tickles me so much, but it does.
2. Sorry, hysterical people. It doesn’t sound like like Amazing Grace Baptist Church is going door to door snatching subversive books from all you free-thinking heroes of individuality out there. It sounds like a handful of backwoods baptists trying to create a stir. (Hey, it worked!) Our First Amendment freedoms aren’t at jeopardy when a private person or group of people build a bonfire of books they don’t like. It’s a free country for them, too, after all.
Does it do any good to burn books that contain bad ideas or false teachings? Doubtful. Some of you might not realize this, but there is a website on the interwebs called amazon.com, and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with the South American river of the same name. The website sells books, and guess what…you can buy any of the books Amazing Grace Baptist Church is burning and have them delivered right to your home. (See? I’ve been telling you guys that the internet would have some practical application one day! Thanks Al Gore!) None of the ideas contained in any of those books are going away, bonfire or no.
3. Rather than trying to burn offensive books, why not spend time teaching people the truth? We have this thing called the marketplace of ideas, the same marketplace of ideas that the Apostle Paul and other early church leaders used to successfully share the gospel with non-believers. Somehow I doubt that a lost person will attend the book burning and say, “You know, seeing Billy Graham’s autobiography burn like that really does make me realize I’m in need of a savior.”
4. Even though I’m not a book burner, I actually agree with the church that some of the new translations of the bible are garbage. I’m not a KJV-only guy by any means, but pretty much every non-literal translation I’ve looked at muddies or outright falsifies the plan of salvation. I really think someone is worse off reading The Message than not reading any bible at all. In Matthew 23, Jesus had this to say to the Pharisees:
14″But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
When The Message tells people they need “radical life-change” to be ready to receive Christ, it turns the gospel of grace into a gospel of works and makes the one who believes this false teaching twice as much a child of hell. The people most resistant to the message of salvation by faith alone are those who think they have obtained by their own works. The Pharisees wanted to be justified by their own good lives and refused (with some exceptions) to humble themselves like a child and call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. Even worse, the Pharisees would tell others that strict compliance with the law was the path to reconciliation with God. They would place men under bondage and point them to the broad gate that leads to destruction. Modern day Pharisees do the same thing.
Would I go out and burn The Message or other books with a false teaching? No. Those who have the truth have no need to fear a lie. The Message and other bad translations can actually be helpful in pointing out the difference between salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and salvation by life-change plus “faith.” I don’t think believers are called to snuff out all opposing points of view. We’re called to share the gospel to those who are in darkness. The Light is Jesus Christ, not the flames of a bon-fire burning Joel Osteen books and The Living Bible.
5. Interestingly, though, the bible does have an account of believers burning books. Acts 19 relates the account of the start of the church in Ephesus. It’s a terrific chapter for many reasons, but one interesting point is in verse 19 where the bible says: “And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
This is a great lesson for believers about the way that we should separate ourselves from things that are valuable to man but worthless to God. The men didn’t just box up these books of magic arts; they burned them. What an incredible witness to the new life these men were living! Honestly, I can’t really think of anything I’ve done in my own life that is comparable. It’s a question worth some introspection: What worthless thing that is treasured by man does God want me to burn? Is it my desire for financial security, to be esteemed by others, or some worldly entertainment I refuse to give up?
Another interesting point is the timing of this bonfire. As Paul says in Acts 19:4, John’s “baptism of repentance” wasn’t about turning from sin, it was about believing on Jesus Christ. The people of Ephesus were saved when they believed on Jesus Christ, not when they burned the books of magic, which happened TWO YEARS later (verse 10). Yet many well-meaning people continue to add to the gospel a requirement that an unsaved person “turn from his sin” as a precondition to being born again. The bible is clear and consistent, from start to finish, that salvation is by faith, not by our works, including the work of obeying God’s laws. Should we give up the “books of magic” in our own lives? Definitely. Must we do so to be saved? No, the only prerequisite to salvation is that we put all of our faith and hope in Jesus Christ and accept his sacrifice as the only payment for our sins. As John 3:18 makes clear, the ONLY distinction between those who are condemned and those who are not is faith in Jesus Christ. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
6. Finally, I am really proud of Amazing Grace Baptist Church for one thing: at least they aren’t doing the same lame thing every other church now does on October 31 — the “Fall Festival” (that has nothing to do with that satanic holiday, Halloween, even though it involves costumes and candy and just happens to be on the same day as Halloween). Way to be original guys!
