Christian Books Vs The Bible

The issue i raise in the conversation in the video i made, is one of the most relevant issues in modern christianity but its one of the least discussed, so lets bring it into the light!



Phil

what is your point? all this proves is that the believer must look to the Holy Spirit to guide them to the right books to read and not assume that because the word Christian is used that the book or store is christian.

on both sides of the argument in this video a lack of comprehension and application is evident as the bible only cartoon figure forgets that people are to teach others and that God does use authors to help others learn.

the parable of the wheat and tares woud apply here, and the believer must be aware that even in christian books/stores there will be tares among the wheat. inthe christian life one cannot walk around blind and assuming they need to be on guard as scripture warns us that satan is like a lion... and chrisianbooks/stores is just another opportunity for such to take place..

my point is, on what do you depend as your source of knowledge. If you take a big step back and look at the BIGGER picture, christian books are actaully making people read the bible LESS not more. This is bad, but it is a subtle thing, and must be brought into the light and exposed

Do you have any evidence for that?

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"Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us."
(+Desmond Tutu)

Bring it into the light? Where have you been hiding? Christian books have been written since day one. In the fact the Bible is made up of 'Christian books'. And besides, exactly which Bible did you have in mind?

Least discussed. Try jumping into the GT threads sometime - lots of 'books' are discussed.

I didn't listen to all the video - I get the general grist after the first 30 seconds. You are arguing that a literal interpretation of the Bible is the only interpretation - right?

My comment is - the Bible has only been interpreted 'literally' in the last 200 odd years to accommodate fundamentalism. I no longer subscribe to the racism, sexism and intolerance breed by such a narrow view of God.

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Not all those who wander are lost

You're way off track here, friend. Watch the whole vid or just read Valuecard's second post for the "gist."

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It seems to me that Christians have always been reading books besides the Bible, and to believe that the ONLY book we should read is the Bible is simply ridiculous.

I've read the Bible a ton, memorized bits and pieces of it, but certain parts of my understanding of the Bible's contents could not be advanced until I read other books. As I mature as a thinker and a human being, my reading of the Bible is more productive and more accurate.

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I've been 'off track' for years.

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Not all those who wander are lost

Well I dont know if you will class this as evidence, but firstly I am speaking from personal experience. When i stopped reading christian books i found that the amount of scripture increased dramatically. I also have a handful of friends who have had the same experience. It is something that is hard for me to prove online, but it is easy to observe if you spend enough time around christians and christianity. Take this hypothetical. Lets take a group of faithful christians from say 150 years ago, in a time before they had a christian bookstores in most towns (like we do in many places in the west today). And contrast this to a group of faithful christians today in modern day west, who have access to the libraries of christian books. Assuming each group spend roughly an EQUIVALENT amount of "quiet time" with God each day/ week etc. The first group (the old timers), basically only one book to study (due to lack of acess to other christian books), whereas the modern group has to divide their quiet time between the bible and between christian books. In this reasonable analogy, obviously christian books result in the modern group reading the bible less than the older group.

I could ramble on, but I think ive made my point.

Strange. Personally, my reading of other books has had ZERO impact on the amount of time I read the Bible. However, my reading of other books has greatly enhanced the QUALITY of my reading of the Bible.

You say poTAYto, I say poTAHto.

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