When Is Buying a Bible Wrong

When you buy it with the wrong motive.

I have learned a whole lot about the work of dealing with Bibles in the last 20 years.

I was not prepared for the idea that a Bible can be defiled to the place where, like a flag that has been worn beyond repair, it must be dealt with in an appropriate manner.

My old ESV Study Bible has recently been the victim of a fit of anger when I was dealing with a situation at home. And (confession and vulnerability are good for the spirit of one who is designed to walk as a leader in the church), it was severely damaged in that issue.  No people were harmed, though I was wrong in what I had done. 

All that said, later, my wife later asked me about that particular Bible, and I ultimately realized there was a connection to several negative emotional events, and then she asked me where I had gotten it.

It had been a present for Christmas, back when I had celebrated Christmas, from my ex-wife.  It was bought in the context of an unrighteous, unyielded, unequally-yoked, and ungodly relationship.  And in short, its purchase was an act of rebellion.

As I flipped its pages with this revelation, it dawned on me.

Spirit of anger.  Purchased with a wrong motive.

The bible had become a terrible mixed bag.  For it had become a place where I had learned both great revelation, connected with the L-rd, and had done a great deal of memorization.  It was the bible I have used in my lengthy conversations with Eric Hatch during our long study of Ezekiel, and for whose understanding and reading of that prophetic book I remain exceptionally indebted.  However, it had also been a place of significant mental blocks, choppy flow in relationships, and it was the book in which I found solace in the midst of a rapidly deteriorating marriage, and over which I had engaged in several verbal fights with my ex-wife.

The initial even of friction after that bible’s purchase was in church a few days after I had bought it, when one of my then-toddler sons had taken a pen and graffiti’d in it.

And so, tonight, I did what for many Protestants would be unthinkable.

I burned that old Bible.

And as I burned it, I felt some pushback and shifts, and some nasty demonic retaliation, and a definite sense of cleansing.

For the record, there is a principle that I think someone needs to hear.  And regardless of the pushback, it bears saying slowly and reading deliberately.

That Bible in your hot little hands, follower of Christ, is not the living, breathing Word of G-d.

According to Hebrews 4:12, Jesus is.  If you want the meaning of Hebrews 4:12 and the identity of the Word of G-d, you need to read the entire context of that verse.

And as we are at it, consider the following fact.

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

Arthur Burk

Here is the fact, and sacred cow, gang. 

The distinction that we often make in our word studies between Logos and Rhema is artificial.  Those words are actually used interchangeably in the New Testament for “word”.  We like to use the concept of logos to describe the written word, and rhema to describe when the word becomes revelation and living and breathing in us, but such an attempt at distinction that Scripture does not consistently make is unwarranted.

Furthermore, which word do the New Testament, the Mercy John, and the writer of Hebrews use to describe the L-rd Yeshua?

Answer: LOGOS….  Not the word you would think for living word, but the word we classically associate with the idea of the written word.  That alone tells us that our ideas of word studies may have begun to embrace ideas and mentalities akin to magic incantations.  Besides, gang, just because we can list all the meanings found in a concordance does not mean we have the full understanding of a word.  Words in the original languages of Scripture are precisely like words in our own language.  They do have meaning, but that meaning is primarily found in the context of the passages in which they are found.  Words primarily have meaning relative to whole of the verse or passage, chapter, book, ch in which they are nested.

For the purposes of our word studies, the words logos and rhema are used interchangeably.

Gang, there is a news flash here.  The Bible is not your magic book to learn the right incantations for making the spirit realm behave as you want, nor is it the key to success and all of your wildest dreams. 

Growing in your relational connection with the Man and the L-rd is.

ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE OF WORDS VS. ACQUIRING THE HEART OF THE TRUTH BEHIND THOSE WORDS

Many followers of Christ have grown to value the acquisition of the knowledge of the text of Scripture, but have stupendously failed at the acquisition of understanding the principles behind the words they have dutifully memorized. 

As such, many have grown to treasure both the English book that is the translation behind the text of Holy Writ and the concept of biblical literacy, yet we have a long way to go to see the flowering of both widespread understanding and wisdom.  I am hunting for the fullness of our understanding of the Word of G-d.

It’s not about the book, and I enjoy reading that book as much as the next person, so if the following pictures, that serve as a memorial to the end of that turgid season, offend you, then perhaps ask yourself why they do.

It is about the Man.  We read and study and ingest and execute the principles written in the book in order to connect more deeply with the man.

If all we do is treasure a book, and that book keeps us from walking with the Man that book describes, then something needs to shift.  If the Bible is the most important THING in our life, then it risks becoming a sacred cow, and our valuing its words can turn to bibliolatry.  And if something is defiled and cleansing it is not the answer, then we need to consider that it needs to be removed.  Remove the branches that have stopped bearing fruit.

Just some thoughts.