Books we should not read!!!

[Ed the Ned]

Could anyone give names of Books we should not read and why? Please guys I know there can be heated debate about authors and books so please try and give an honest assessment from your point of view and don't attack the person.

 

[walter]

Could anyone give names of Books we should not read and why? Please guys I know there can be heated debate about authors and books so please try and give an honest assessment from your point of view and don't attack the person.

I think we're treading on very dangerous ground when we declare books off limits. I resent when someone implies I am not adult enough, smart enough and spiritually grounded enough to have the sense to know when crap is crap.

 

[Ed the Ned]

Thanks Walter, the reason I asked the question is that there are a lot of books out there that claim to be Christian, yet tend to move into almost an anti gospel sentiment. You yourself might be great at discerning what is true and what is not, yet younger Christians can get caught in the trap of being lead away from the gospel and the true understanding of Christianity. Is it not then better to be aware of the trppings in these books?

 

[turnorburn]

Any book that doesn't lift up Jesus, take the Seven Day Adventist, they have Ellen G. White. Very well established religions just because they've been around for years doesn't mean anything, we are to
test the spirits.


turnorburn

 

[walter]

I agree wholeheartedly with both of you. I like to teach young christians to quickly learn to check for themselves as long as they have some faith filled people to talk with about what they read. I think it is just as dangerous for young christians to take the word of fellow christians on what is acceptable and what isn't because as we all know just because it has the christian label doesn't make it true. In my experience the "christian" world is just as full of hogwash as the "world" is.

Robert Tilton, Benny Hinn, John Hagee being just a few examples. I caution young christians to be more careful of what "christian" books they read. The world is too smug and condescending when they try to mislead us so to me anyway, their methods are obvious. I like to read them sometimes anyway just so I am up to date on their latest propaganda.

 

[Free]

Young Christians should avoid anything put out by the Watchtower, or by Mormonism, or anything that has overly spiritual tones to it. Also, many titles about the "search for Jesus" or the "historical Jesus" are actually Gnostic and should be avoided. New Christians should definitely avoid anything by "Bishop" John Shelby Spong.

I don't know of any book names offhand that should be avoided but I could give names of ones to read. If in doubt, one should ask a mature Christian they trust--stable; not "out there" in their beliefs. If names of books are really what you want, we could generate a rather long list.

 

[animal]

Yes. Let's shelter children and make sure they have no opinion on anything but what we allow them to read and see.

 

[jasoncran]

so animal if i write a book on say why christian should hate the jew, is that sheltering the child from reading that, as no library or publisher would ever allow that hate. But i know that you are going to say that's different, there's a scripture that says we must guard our hearts, and yes to a point you are right, but some people are weak in the faith and aren't ready to handle the heavy contraversial stuff without walking away from the Lord.

jason

 

[Free]

:gah Firstly, no one mentioned children. Secondly, only a fool of a parent would let their child read absolutely anything.

 

[animal]

:gah Firstly, no one mentioned children. Secondly, only a fool of a parent would let their child read absolutely anything.

Young (or New) Christians for the most part are children.

And we weren't talking about absolutely anything. We can ignore pornagraphy, violence, and most of the old testament. We know we should keep these things away from children.

And, Jason, children are very impressionable which is why we are there to give guidance. Shielding their eyes from beliefs and practices that are different than ours is socially idiotic and likely to even backfire.

 

[Free]

:gah Firstly, no one mentioned children. Secondly, only a fool of a parent would let their child read absolutely anything.

Young (or New) Christians for the most part are children.

And we weren't talking about absolutely anything. We can ignore pornagraphy, violence, and most of the old testament. We know we should keep these things away from children.

Why those things and not the others? On what basis are you differentiating?

 

[Tissue]

I don't think there is any book that should be declared strictly off-limits for a mature believer. Whether that mature believer is 12 or 82.

 

[Armor of God]

The short answer is yes, there are some books we shouldn't read. For example, I would not read a book full of sexually explicit material, no matter how "good" the rest of the story.

In terms of theology, the question becomes "new" Christian verses someone who has had a long standing relationship with Christ Jesus. Until someone who has recently become a Christ follower gains a firm understanding of the tenants of faith, it would only serve to confuse them to read books by Mormons, Jehovahs Witness, and the other cults that masquerade as Christian.

Once a Christian becomes a believer I think it's important to study alternate religions and cults in order to understand their fallacy and have a basis to disprove their false doctrine.

 

[scootover7]

I agree with up to the point about old testament. There are some things in the old testament that i think people should take more seriously. For example the clean and unclean foods. I'm not say we have to be health nuts but be reasonable. If pork products , shrimp or any of those unclean foods hurt your stomach then stop eating it. I am certain that you can fight diseases in your body by eating more healthier. Why would God put it in the Bible if it wasn't meant to be there. I know what some of you are going to say we are not under the law but under grace. I know people that say the stories and the ten commandments apply to the bible in the old testament but nothing else. I know one author that people should read I know this post say not read but an author that all christians should read is by Dr. Ted Broer. Explain to me why people in the bible lived a long time then? because most of them ate healthy. As far as books we should not read anything pornographic, dungeons and dragons like books, witchcraft books are just some. Bascially i hear people say that they don't believe the whole bible and we are like a pastor i heard one say people who treat the bible like a smorageboard picking which scriptures we wanna follow. aren't we suppose to follow the whole bible the best we can and not just the parts we want to do? that is why i believe that the new and old testament still apply today.

 

[turnorburn]

Yes. Let's shelter children and make sure they have no opinion on anything but what we allow them to read and see.

That's a low blow animal, I read books about the Old Testament people like Samson, Noah and his Ark today neither of them drink nor smoke, unlike their daddy that drank and smoked, one owns his own business. I've heard it said the way you train your children has a lot to do with the way they are raised, wait a minute..

Proverbs 22 6:Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

turnorburn

 

[Ed the Ned]

Once a Christian becomes a believer I think it's important to study alternate religions and cults in order to understand their fallacy and have a basis to disprove their false doctrine.

I agree with your statement AoG, but I still think it is dangerous for a mature Christian to be exposed to certain books and material that has come from a supposed Christian sorce. I will use a simple example I read recently.
Here are two verses from the bible:
1 Timothy 1 vs 15: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"
Luke 5 vs 32 "I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance"

Now heres a statement from Robert Schuller, someone I thought was a man of God, yet today I am very sceptical of anything that comes from his mouth.

"I don't think anything has been done in in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more distructive to human personality and hence, counter productive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition."

The problem is that in order forme to repent I need to acknowledge I am a sinner, Yet Robert Schuller is saying that telling somebody they are a sinner and they need to repent is unchristian like and is counter productive to evangelism.

I took this example from a book that was written in 1985, can you imagine how this has grown in the church, and how the emerging church with its heresies have infultrated the christian teaching in many of the churches around the world. Our modern society is re-inventing Christ to suit human needs and human philosophy. We need to wake up and expose these teachings.

 

[Dymo]

Jurassic Park.

 

[GodspromisesRyes]

ok i have a book that i believe we should not read and i will state why. But firstly i would like to say that i am weary about even saying which book because sometimes that stirs peoples flesh to go out and do the exact oppostie out of curiousity but fear is not of God so i am asking the Lord to please help people to not go in their flesh and get this book to seek it out.

The book i believe no one should read is the screwtape letters by c.s.lewis.

I had heard much about this book and so when i saw it at a discount store i bought it and was very excited to see what it was about because it has great renown(i know shutter to think of why that may be) the book begins with a statement by c.s.lewis in which he mentions in veiled terms that he will not disclose what method he used to get the converstaions in this book(implying first it is not a good method to use, and secondly that they are real conversations and not made up)the book is about three demons and the conversations they have back and forth about how to deiceve people and keep them decieved. they speak together about the people they are working on and how to keep them in chains and they speak of what the people begin to do in differnt cases that begins to free them from these demons and the plans and actions these demons take to recapture these people.


When i read this book the first day i got it, i only got maybe 20 pages in and i began to feel dizzy, like the room was spinning, i was off balance i felt like i was going to pass out or fall asleep right there, i did not know what was going on. i prayed against this not really knowing what it was but suspecting it may be the book but not sure about it. i went and layed down to take a nap because i really couldnt function. i prayed before i slept against whatever this was. When i slept i had a dream of three small scorpions one bigger than the other two but all pretty small. when i woke up i remembered this verse
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Jesus called devils serpents and scorpions so i knew that these were demons in my dream- 3 of them just like in the book 3 of them. So i prayed agains tit and rebuked them and then went outside with the book and burnt the whole book in my back yard area and when it was burnt up i felt just fine again. but it was a very old dry brittle book that should have went up like a match but i had to keep relighting it because that thing would not burn easily it kept going out. now i have burnt a bit of books since i was saved and very rarely does such a dry old book fail to go up in flames but eventually it did and pi prayed against those spirits and was fine. i do not believe this is a safe book to read and i believe it is possible that it was recieved to lewis by nefarious means.

 

[wavy]

You should be able to read any books that you're interested in reading. The trick is to keep an open mind; always question what you read, but don't avoid anything you read just because it disagrees with you.


Finis,
Eric

 

[Fembot]

I do agree with wavy and animal to a certain extent. I wouldn't only say don't read this book son, I would teach him how to use his own judgement. I'd say why they shouldn't read certain books and explain how they may cause them to stumble. In the end, teenagers are rebellious, they may do it behind your back. But at least they will be armed with knowledge to know when it's time to shut it and throw it away.

Thanks Godspromise for your warning. It happened to me with Dante's Inferno. I'd say the Twilight series about vampires should not be read by Christians. Has anyone noticed the popularity of vampire series aimed at youth? I have paid attention and found them to be sacrilegious.

But of course, if I made up my mind not to open these books at all, I would not have been able to use my own discernment. Yes we need to show children how to live as Christians. But they also need to learn how to use their own judgment so as to not be followers their whole life.