BURNING BIBLES

 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord which He had spoken to him.

… So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, …and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king.

Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

 Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. (Jeremiah 36: 4, 21-24)

An English teacher friend gave me an old 1979 reprinting of Fahrenheit 451.  I opened it last night before the game and finished it this morning.

I really needed to read that book.

In the back of the book comments, author Ray Bradbury talked about how critics, publishers, producers, and representatives of different interest groups pushed him to censor, reword, and otherwise politically correct his work.  Bradbury recounted the many letters he had received and then replied:

How do I react to all of the above?.... By sending rejection slips to each and every one. By ticketing the assembly of idiots to the far reaches of hell.

The point is obvious.  There is more than one way to burn a book.

THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO BURN A BOOK.

And there’s more than one way to burn a Bible.

In Jeremiah chapter 36, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned an original copy of the book of Jeremiah.  He burned it because the words were unpleasant, convicting, disruptive, and true.   

The king of Judah was supposed to defend God’s people, God’s temple, and the truth entrusted to the people and the church (temple).  Instead he used his position to attack and try to silence the truth of God.

But he didn’t just burn the book. 

The king first attacked the book with the weapons of a scholar.

And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife (Jeremiah 36: 23)

Which is how most Bibles burn.

Read the most popular textbooks, listen to a few seminary lectures, pay attention to the most popular preachers on tv, and you realize pretty quickly that the kings of contemporary Christian theology are attacking the text that is the foundation of the Kingdom they’re supposed to defend.

They slice at the divinity of Jesus.  They stab at the Resurrection.  They cut the throats of Moses and the prophets and cast whatever is left into the fire of “re-interpretation in light of our current social realities.” 

And we just let them. 

Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. (Jeremiah 36: 24)

They may not literally snatch away our Bibles and cast them into bonfires, but there’s more than one way to burn a book.

If we let them cut God out of the Bible, if we lounge by the fire while they revise away miracles and moral absolutes, if we brush lint from our clean clerical robes while they disparage every inconvenient truth the Holy Spirit ever spoke and reduce Jesus to a skinned, deboned, demarrowed, scarified, melted, rendered down, and destroyed^* motivational speaker----- then what do we have left of the Scriptures BUT ASHES?

The Word of God is bread and life.  These ashes cannot sustain us. 

He feeds on ashes;

A deceived heart has turned him aside;

And he cannot deliver his soul,

Nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”  (Isaiah 44: 20)

So, how should the church react to all of the above? 

By rejecting the rejection of God’s Word. 

Read it yourself.  Feed yourself of the fullness of God’s Word.  Struggle through the uncomfortable parts.  Cringe at the disturbing parts.  Talk about  it.   Build fellowship around wrestling with the Bible as Truth.   And when someone tries to make you believe that your faith is in vain, listen carefully.  Nod politely. 

And tell them to kick rocks.

Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. ---- Jesus (John 6: 61-63)

---Rev. Anderson T. Graves II   (email:  atgravestwo2@aol.com )

Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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*Paraphrased from the 1979 author comments in Fahrenheit 451 ,p. 176.