Im being hammered on about reading books outside the bible.

[collaredfairy0304]

Im having a hard time with this. The Lord is my first place in everything. I recently have started reading some books and am really enjoying them. I was sharing this with a close friend of mine, and ever since I am constantly cornered about reading anything other than the bible.

He said the bible is what molds and transforms us, and the bible talks about it being all we need, so we should read outside the bible. And that God is angry when we go to anyone other than him or sources other than him.

I dont believe there is anything wrong with reading other books. But boy this is really hard constantly having to hear about this.

This is what was said last night....

"did you read the bible today? good. psalms 19:7 says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul" so.. its all we need and everything we want to know about is in the bible.

ezra 9:12 and deuteronomy 23:6 says do not seek their peace or their prosperity

he wants us to seek from Him and anything outside of His Word upsets Him becaause we are complete in Him"

i then told him thank you very much for you input, and he responded, its not my input its what God says, i shared the verses.

this has been going on for a while, and it is starting to make me feel bad.

 

[collaredfairy0304]

BUMP, would still like some help

 

[AirDancer]

There is nothing amiss with reading books beyond the Bible .... just as there is nothing wrong with viewing movies or tv .

Perhaps your friend is more concerned that some people get caught up in the material world and skip the fundamental importance of daily spending time in prayer and with studying the Bible.

Them thar's my 2-cents ....

- AD

 

[Clear2Learn]

It's very easy to put too much stock in others opinions, especially when they seem as vehement as your friend appears to be. Praying for the person who judges you is an amazing experience. I used to get very hurt when people were critical of me and by praying rather than waiting to feel hurt, I quickly became able to listen to their critiques, and then smile and go about my day. Your friend probably does mean well! God bless him! (or her?)

Steve

 

[tim-from-pa]

From my experience, the more one reads their bible, the more foolish other secular books and movies seem to be, especially if it is "Dr Phil" type advice which tries to trump man's solution over the bible's.

However, I would not say one cannot read other books. With the meaning taken spiritually, even Jesus said that it would not harm us (Mark 16:18).

But what we put into our minds is like food. Do we eat more junk, or more good food? Some junk food won't hurt us and the body can deal with it. But a steady diet of junk, with just a few servings of good food (well, I had my apple and carrots today --- bible reading) does not really cut it, either.

Also, there are many good books biblically based. And I'm not talking this motivational junk with a few bible verses attached for good measure. For starters, you can read the book Judah's Scepter/Joseph's birthright. (My favorite book link below). In the end, it may interest you in genealogy. Love the stars? There's books out biblically explaning the meaning of each constellation which will spur one to want to get interested in astronomy and looking at the stars. How about cooking? There's books out about biblical foods. How about gardening? Again, is there any parable that Jesus used that did not in some way refer to growth? There's good books on that.

So you see, the bible expands out on MANY topics that you can read about and use in your life for productive reasons --- and the bible gives the baseline for how to do it. One would never be bored that way.

That's better than movies and sit-coms and other books that I noticed are geared to violence such as shooting people up, or in the case of comedies geared to making fools of someone all the time. It's so myopic and limited in scope, and yet people watch (or read) that all the time not realising a far broader world (of the bible) they are missing.

Take a look at my signature and see that I have other interests that I can read about. But not one of those interests are outside the biblical scope believe it or not. And anyone who says that are severely lacking in understanding what the bible is about.

 

[thethinkingrebel]

Im having a hard time with this. The Lord is my first place in everything. I recently have started reading some books and am really enjoying them. I was sharing this with a close friend of mine, and ever since I am constantly cornered about reading anything other than the bible.

He said the bible is what molds and transforms us, and the bible talks about it being all we need, so we should read outside the bible. And that God is angry when we go to anyone other than him or sources other than him.

I dont believe there is anything wrong with reading other books. But boy this is really hard constantly having to hear about this.

This is what was said last night....

"did you read the bible today? good. psalms 19:7 says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul" so.. its all we need and everything we want to know about is in the bible.

ezra 9:12 and deuteronomy 23:6 says do not seek their peace or their prosperity

he wants us to seek from Him and anything outside of His Word upsets Him becaause we are complete in Him"

i then told him thank you very much for you input, and he responded, its not my input its what God says, i shared the verses.

this has been going on for a while, and it is starting to make me feel bad.

Nothing wrong at all, just read books, take them for what they are.. God asks us to be seperate from the world, but not to be ignorant of it. If you are looking for comfort from the world that is a different matter, the world offers fleeting hopes, comfort that dies with time. Use the bible as a foundation and capstone, but if you want to read books (as I do) they increase knowledge and some provide exposition on biblical matters. Just remember to take everything you read with a pinch of salt, and to have a good theological basis before reading others opinions.

 

[Free]

Im having a hard time with this. The Lord is my first place in everything. I recently have started reading some books and am really enjoying them. I was sharing this with a close friend of mine, and ever since I am constantly cornered about reading anything other than the bible.

He said the bible is what molds and transforms us, and the bible talks about it being all we need, so we should read outside the bible. And that God is angry when we go to anyone other than him or sources other than him.

I dont believe there is anything wrong with reading other books. But boy this is really hard constantly having to hear about this.

This is what was said last night....

"did you read the bible today? good. psalms 19:7 says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul" so.. its all we need and everything we want to know about is in the bible.

ezra 9:12 and deuteronomy 23:6 says do not seek their peace or their prosperity

he wants us to seek from Him and anything outside of His Word upsets Him becaause we are complete in Him"

i then told him thank you very much for you input, and he responded, its not my input its what God says, i shared the verses.

this has been going on for a while, and it is starting to make me feel bad.

It is true that we do need to read the Bible but there is nothing in the Bible to even imply that reading anything outside of the Bible is wrong. In fact, I would suggest that ultimately it is that thinking which is anti-biblical. There are numerous Christian authors from the earliest times in the Christian Church up until now that have written on a wide variety of topics that can be of enormous benefit for a greater understanding of the Bible and just what it means to be a follower of Christ.

No man is an island, we are meant to live, worship and be in fellowship with other believers. This includes learning from them and their experiences, which can be of great help to us. We simply cannot dismiss other believers' written experiences and insights into Scripture and our relationship with God because they aren't written in the Bible. Besides, there is no difference between a book a theologian writes on a subject and a sermon given by a pastor.

 

[handy]

It might be interesting for you to know that even the New Testament writers read things other than the Scriptures.

Jude includes quotes from two works, "The Assumption of Moses" and "1 Enoch" in Jude 9 and Jude 14-15.

When Paul was preaching to the people of Athens, he said, "As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" (Acts 17:28) This quote, "We are his offspring." is from the Greek poet Aratus. Also, the famous quote, "Bad company corrupts good morals" is not original to the Scriptures...Paul is quoting the Greek playwright Menander in 1 Corinthians 15:33. He was also quoting the Cretan poet, Epimenides in Titus 1:12 when he wrote, "“Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.â€

Obviously Jude and Paul read these other works in order to quote from them. There is nothing in the Bible that states that we cannot or are not to read from other sources. And, being that these Greek and Cretan poet's and writer's words found their way into Scripture shows that even non-Christians can stumble across truth.

What is important is that we use the Bible as the light to shine upon everything to determine what is truth and what is fallacy, or just plain fiction.

 

[God's_gift]

reading the bible gives us wisdom , reading other books gives us knowledge ;)....

 

[farouk]

We do indeed need to feed on the Word, day by day.

But Paul quoted poetry about the Cretans. (He must have been familiar with it and read it.)

 

[Christ_empowered]

Just read good books. I've read a number of the so-called "Classics." I know, kind of pretentious. But, seriously: reading classic, good, deep books makes good use of time and money and makes you think. A lot.

There's a book...David Denby, I think...about his take on certain classics in a college course. I ignored some of his commentary because he's obviously not Christian and has a very educated, Baby Boomer outlook on things, but still: good stuff. If not that book, there are lists of classic books used at various colleges you could check out. St.John's--the ones in Annapolis and Santa Fe--make an entire 4 year curriculum out of reading the "Great Books." I think they post some of their reading lists online.

 

[thethinkingrebel]

I suggest buying a kindle, you can download almost any book you want, often cheaper than hard copy, and noone but you knows what you're reading, oh, did i mention you can almost every bible translation on there? and that some are even free (kjv, hcsb, esv to name a few)

 

[Mike S]

I think you should read extensively. There are tremendous things to learn about the world we live in, and about human nature. One of my favorite authors is Dostoevsky, who wrote very movingly about religious themes in the secular world.

Trust your faith to help you discern what is worth reading and what isn't. You can't live your life isolated from the rest of the world.

 

[Bob Carabbio]

God's WORD is whatever God says.

"And that God is angry when we go to anyone other than him or sources other than him."

What I'll say is THIS:

Reading the Bible is the FIRST thing you SHOULD DO as a Christian. Get familiar with it, and what it says about things. And from that Familiarity with God's Word, then read other stuff - JUDGING ITS RELIABILITY from your understanding of the Bible itself.

When God CONVICTED me about reading the Bible, I'd already been through it several times in earlier years, and read it another three times that summer, and only after that did I sense a "Release" to read other materials too - and listen to recorded sermons.

Just because an author's name is on a book DOESN'T MEAN that you're going to "Another source" The Bible's "Books" were written by "Other people" too.

Your friend is obviously a "Bibliolater" who's probably also out of balance about other things. When he unloads on you, Smile sweetly, and just ignore him. He probably learned that foolishness in HIS church.

God's word is WHAT HE SAID, and THAT can be found in many places - but the Bible is the standard by which it all must be judged.

NOTE: The BIBLE is the standard - NOT what this or that Denomination SAYS that it says/means.

 

[Navigator]

Reading other books is fine. You're not taking life lessons away from these books that contradict the Bible. I wonder if your friend is having problems and he/her is letting that spill on to you. That conversation seemed really strange to me.....:o

 

[felix]

When you read the Bible alone, you allow Holy Spirit to teach you or interpret those passages for you. If you start reading other books, you are essentially reading a man's interpretation rather than the book inspired by God.

I don't read commentaries and had never read any Christian book in my life.

I wouldn't say reading commentaries or any Christian book is wrong, but if you do that, you will blindly tune your mind to what is said on those books and they will be your teachers and not the scripture or Holy Spirit.

When you read scripture and scripture alone, when you face questions, events or anything in your life, the scripture verses will speak with you and guide you in times of trouble. God will even reveal truths by opening your spiritual eyes, not known before to anyone. If you read books from outside, you don't allow that to happen nor you have any requirement to ask God for help in understanding scripture.

EDIT: I believe you are referring to other "Christian" books... if not, are you suggesting that reading academic books are wrong? I don't think so.

 

[JuliusStClair]

Wow, a lot of people here had a lot of great things to say! I agree that the Bible is and should be first and foremost. It's amazing how, as you age and experience life, you go back and read scriptures that you've read countless times before and suddenly, you realize they have a whole new level of meaning. It's exciting and inspiring how this one Book never ever gets old. It's like the scriptures themselves are transformed through a constant renewing!

Secondly, I don't think anything, and I mean anything, should be COMPLETELY "off-limits." Yes, there are things out there that are perhaps best left alone, but I have personally found that reading "questionable" things, such as the Apocrypha, have actually helped me reconfirm my faith, because I went back to the Bible and compared what I read in the "questionable" material to the scriptures themselves, and now not only do I have a more cemented belief in the Bible and what it says, but I also now know what exactly is in the Apocrypha, so if anybody ever asks me about it, or tries to persuade me about something that is in it, I now have the knowledge (and scriptures, since I looked them up) to have a good response for them.

Another example: The Angelic Testament just came out. It is a fictional, Young Adult book (the first in a new series), that tells the Bible from an angel's point-of-view. While this book is obviously fictional, it helps make the Bible more fun for young adults and for people who might find the language in the Bible hard to stick with. Also, they might read about something they didn't know, or forgot, happened in the Bible, so then they might look it up in the Bible, and VOILA! an outside source has actually helped this person become closer and more familiar with the scriptures.

 

[Chris.]

Collaredfairy I believe it is very important to broaden your knowledge outside of your religion.

Whats the point of having a limited knowledge. You will find with broader reading you have more in common to say to other people. If you can talk to others more at their level you have an opportunity to share your faith. Thats the key to that whole bible. Sharing your faith is one of the main objectives.

Reading other things can also unlock things about the bible you would never know just by reading the bible alone.

Look at Jesus he didn't spend his whole life in the safe sin free synagogue haven, he spent part of it in the dirty areas where sin is to meet people (thats the thing you need to study your bible to understand this)

Studying your bible is extremely beneficial for you to have a good christian faith.

 

[FrMattCH]

Reading secular books is fine. If you don't you will miss out on the value of creative and critical thinking. However, there is a huge difference between Twain, Howard, Dickens, Verne and the like vs. porn and smut. Ask the Lord for guidance on these matters and trust what he says.

 

[Zom]

So if we're only supposed to read the Bible, I suppose that people who existed before the Middle Ages didn't read. Seems legit... >_>

I absolutely hate it when people try to enforce the idea that "the Bible is all we need." First and foremost, the Bible is a collection of books inspired by God. God is all that we need, not the Bible. As far as the Bible is concerned, it's just a way for us to learn more about who God is and what He asks of us.

Secondly, when people realize I'm a writer and aspiring author, I'm smothered with comments like, "that's great! I'm sure you'll glorify God with your writing!" While I do want to glorify God with what I write, I don't need to write so-called "Christian" books that mention Jesus on every page.

I also get the crowd that simultaneously claims to believe that my ability to write fiction is a gift from God, but that the Bible is the only book we should read. People who hold to such opinions are often very ignorant and, sadly, unintelligent.