The Word of God vs. My New Book

The New Year is upon us. 2006 is gone and 2007 is here. Time for New Year's resolutions? Nah. Time for commitments that you will keep in the coming days.

Sad days are upon us. People don't read the Bible anymore. It seems like so many people I meet read everything but the Bible. I heard about a study recently that said only 5% of all people who claim the name 'Christian' have actually read the Bible front to back. That means that only 5% of the people walking around saying they are Christians have actually read the entire Bible. Well let me ask a simple question: How can that be? Would you get on a plane if you knew the pilot had not read the particular manual on how to operate that plane? But what if he had read some great books on crop dusters and hang gliders? How can people claim to be a Christian and not read the book that God gave us? How can we claim to be a Christian and not pour over its pages to find the truths about God? How can it not be our favorite book to read? It looks to me like the answer might be that those people really aren't Christians.

Obviously, there has been a replacement of the Word of God today. Part of the problem has been the changing of God's Word. We now have over 400 English translations of the Bible. Do we really need all those? No we don't. They just happen to be moneymakers for organizations that print them. In order for a Bible to be copyrighted, it has to be a certain percentage different than anything out there. That should worry us right there. I am not looking for a changed Bible. I just need a correct literal translation from the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into English, and then let the Holy Spirit teach me what I need to know. That is why I choose the King James Version which has stood the test of time for 400 years. If it was good enough for Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards, it will be just fine for us today.

But the real culprit seems to be that so many Christians today read "Christian" books and not the Bible. A friend in the Christian publishing industry told me that there were over 200,000 new books published last year, and 30,000 of them were Christian titles. I know someone that is a ghostwriter for a Christian author and writes 100% of the book for the other person. And I know another one that writes 80% of the book and does not get credit. Does anyone see a problem there? Yes, it is called lying. Why do ministries keep pumping out products for the same people to buy? Is it because people need the new book or is it to generate money to pay the bills? Is that next book really going to change the world for Christianity? I must have missed that one in those 30,000. Is it possible that we already have that book? Can you really trust what you pick up in your Christian bookstore to glorify the God of the Bible? Below is an excerpt of an email I received from a Christian bookstore chain about books that will be placed in a new section:

Ah yes, a lifestyle section. No theology need apply. By the way, what if the lifestyle goes against the theology of the Bible? How would we know that since it is not a theological section?

Below are some quotes from six different "Christian" books:

So how do those quotes stack up for you? Actually, that was a terrible question. Why? Because that is the whole problem. We seem to want each other's opinion on what people say and not have something to base the opinions against.

There is something called the canon of the Bible. “It is the books in the Jewish and Christian Bible considered to be Scripture and therefore authoritative in matters of faith and doctrine. The term translates both a Greek and a Hebrew word that mean ‘a rule,’ or ‘measuring rod.’”

See you have to have something to measure against to see if something is true or not. You must filter everything in this world through something. When you grade a test, you must have a key to be able to know what is a right and what is a wrong answer. That is what the Bible is supposed to be for a Christian. It is what we use to filter everything through to see whether or not it is true. We must test everything with Scripture. Now do you see the problems with the statements from the authors above? Not one of them could support their above positions with what the Bible actually says.

One of the assumptions that we make in life is that everything in the Christian bookstore is okay for our faith. We tend to think that everything in there has been read by someone so if it got by them, it should be fine for us. Actually the truth of the matter is a Christian bookstore is one of the most dangerous places you could ever walk into in your life. Why? We tend to let our guard down and don't think we can be misled in that place.

How important is God's Word? Read ahead:

Psalm 12:6,7 says

Psalm 107:11 says

Psalm 138:2 says

Luke 4:4 says

Matthew 22:29 says

2 Timothy 3:15-17 says

We err because we do not know the Scriptures. It is time for a change. Why not start that change right now? Why don't you make a commitment not to buy or read anything but God's Holy Word for the next month and let God's Word seep mightily into your system and meditate on those words that you read? Yes, that would include not buying any Mark Cahill books too. That would be a great commitment to start the New Year. Now matter what you hear, or see, or read in the coming year, filter it back through God's Word to see if it is of God or of Satan and then make your decisions accordingly.

Until the nets are full,