The not-bible

I recently found myself in a thrift store, asked to go there by someone else to pick something up for them. The something they wanted was an old book on the history of England. I got that book and because I was already there I looked through the other books, looking for nothing in particular, just scanning the spines of books, glancing at titles.

For myself I got two books that day. One, a ‘bible’ that I picked up only because I had heard a few things about it and it had recently been recommended to me, I got it knowing I did not want this book that held the description of being a Bible but in reality is far from being the Holy Scriptures. This not-Bible that I got found its way into my hands and home for the simple purpose of giving me the chance to glance through it, to be able to say that I have seen it.

And I have now looked through it.

I have seen it.

And I can honestly say that I won’t be reading it much more than the approximately fifteen minutes I have now put into skimming it. I can also say that I will not be passing this not-bible on to anyone else.

It’s really a shame that this particular copy holds heresy instead of Scripture because it’s a very nice copy. It has what appears to be a leather cover that feels nice in the hands. It’s just the right size to rest nicely in your hands as you read it…not that I did much of that. Upon close inspection I was surprised to discover that what feels like a nicely made not-bible actually has glued in pages rather than sewed in. Not that that matters for this particular copy. Because this particular copy will never be put to use by anyone. At least it won’t be past what little looking at it I might do.

You see this not-bible is soon to meet its destruction. I cannot in good conscience allow this book of heresies to fall into anyone else’s hands. I may or may not look at it a bit further than I have already but if so it will only be for research purposes.

As I looked through this not-bible for the sole purpose of forming my own opinion, or rather, for seeing why this not-bible is loved by many professing believers while being described as a heresy. A quick internet search on this not-bible returned numerous results that gave more wrongs in the text than I cared to count.

In doing a very quick, maybe fifteen minutes, search on this not-bible, bringing my total time spent on exploring it to thirty minutes at most, I discovered that this particular not-bible is linked to a very popular fiction book that holds the title of being ‘Christian’. A book that is also heresy.

That book is endorsed by the author of this not-bible. The book was recommended to me, time and again, years ago. I did finally start to read it but did not get all that far into it before setting it aside. At the time I didn’t know why, exactly, that I set that book aside, all I knew was that it just felt wrong. Now I understand. It was pure heresy.

And today I held a book in my hand that many call the bible. I flipped the pages in it. I read verses here and there. I remembered hearing this not-bible referred to as Scripture.

This is not Scripture.

This is some sort of twisted writing that took Scripture and perverted it.

But in those few minutes that I put into looking through this not-bible I begin to think hard about something. You see, I could clearly see how someone that didn’t know the truth about this book, and worse didn’t know the Truth of Scripture, could be misled into thinking that this was just another version of the Bible.

From time to time I go into ‘Christian’ bookstores. Most of those times I simply walk the aisle, looking at what’s there. Generally I leave feeling much the way I do when I visit a physical ‘church’ building. Feeling as if they come so close but miss the mark by so much. How can all the books, movies, music, and everything else in those stores come so close, quoting Scripture, making stories or whatever from it, but be so very, very, wrong?

That is how I felt as I held this not-bible in my hand. I even found myself liking one ‘verse’ in it. It read good, it made a good point. There was nothing wrong with that verse. That is, there is nothing wrong with it if it didn’t hold the label of being Scripture. If it was simply something that the author wrote as he wrote of Scripture, that particular few sentences would have actually been very good. If I had written those sentences here, in my writings, as a description of a certain part of Scripture or to make a certain point, it would have been good. It would have read good and would have been fine.

But because it is in a book that is sold as a Bible but isn’t one…it’s very, very wrong.

I’m going to guess that there are other parts of this book that might…might…read the same way. But because this not-bible takes a man’s thoughts and labels them as Scripture…there is nothing right about this book. It’s heresy pure and simple. And that’s long before we even get to the fact that this particular book also changes and perverts Scripture.

I saw somewhere that someone says this book….labeled as a Bible…mocks Scripture. Whatever it does…it does not share the Truth of Scripture. And it is a book that should never have been labeled as Bible.

And as I flipped through it, scanning here and there, I began to think of all the people that hold this not-bible in their hands, believing that they are holding Scripture. I thought of the times I have gone into those ‘Christian’ bookstores and looked at the Bibles for sale, the times I have bought Bibles from those same stores. I thought of how I perused the different versions available. Which version did I want? The King James? The NASB? The ESV? Those are about the only versions I would consider but there are many more available to choose from. The NIV? The NKJV? The… well, you get the idea.

It’s like walking through one of those candy stores portrayed in movies or children’s books, the shelves lined with glass jars filled with bright colored treats. Jelly beans or gum balls? Lemon drops or peppermint sticks? All you have to do is choose your preferred flavor.

The flavor in this case isn’t candy but Bibles. And there are plenty to choose from. A person really needs to be well informed to pick out a Bible today. I remember watching a show as a kid. The kids in the show wanted to buy a Bible for their preacher as a gift, maybe for his birthday. Whatever the occasion they settled on a Bible. This show was set in the 1800’s and the kids shopped for that Bible much differently than we would shop today. They perused a catalog. I don’t recall how many options they had available but I do recall that as they discussed options they never once discussed versions. All their options were limited to size, cover, color, and little else. And there were precious few of those.

I have a relative that owns a couple of reprints of 1800’s catalogs. In writing this I was able to look through those catalogs. One of them had a single page offering different Bibles. The other had maybe three pages. These catalog reprints were roughly 8.5x11 inches in size, each page had multiple options in them. But even at that…there were precious few options available at that time.

I imagine a person in the time of those catalogs would have made their choice based off price first, then, possibly, version, and last size and extras. But that is what I imagine they might have based their choice on. In reality it would have been fairly hard to choose, or so it would seem, because many of the Bibles listed had no pictures and the one’s that did were black and white drawings that, I’m sure, didn’t come close to what the Bibles truly were. How can you know what a Bible…what anything…will feel like in your hand if you can’t touch it? How can you know if the type is big enough for you to read if you can’t look at it?

Today if we wish to buy a brand new Bible we have so many options that they are confusing. Not only must we pick the overall size of the Bible but we must pick the type set. We must choose between paperback and hardcover, leather, bonded leather, vinyl, or any number of other options. I have even seen Bibles made of wool and what appears to be plastic blocks. And once we have narrowed down the size and style of cover we want on our Bible we must decide between color options. Want leather? Okay…which leather? Calfskin? Goatskin? Red? Brown? Black? Want paperback? What picture do you want on it?

The options are made either harder or easier depending on whether or not you understand the different versions or care about which version you own. For those that will only use the King James version…there decisions just got easier. Same with someone looking for an ESV or an NIV.

I recently ordered two different Bibles for two different people. I knew before I placed the orders exactly what I wanted. Price was a factor as was the style of Bible each one needed in their particular circumstances. Because of my reasons for buying the Bibles my options were narrowed to about three. I wanted a particular version…the ESV…and I wanted a particular style of that version. That particular style was the only reason I was buying those Bibles. That left me to choose between hardcover and imitation leather. The situations of the people I was buying them for had me ordering one of each. My options were easy but only because I well knew what I was looking for.

But what if someone walked into a ‘Christian’ bookstore without knowing what they wanted? How confusing would Bible shopping be? What if they didn’t understand the different versions?

One must know the different versions to know which one they want to buy. I can’t imagine buying a Bible without understanding the differences in versions. Can you imagine being a new ‘Christian’ and trying to buy your very first Bible? Which version would you pick? What would your criteria be? What if you were barely proficient in reading English? Or what if you had a learning disability that made reading difficult? What if you were buying for a child or an elderly person?

I can well imagine how overwhelming it would be to buy a Bible without understanding the differences in versions. But even if you do know and understand all the different versions, even if you walked in, like I did when I bought those two Bibles…admittedly I ordered them online but the concept is the same…and knew what version you were looking for, knew what kind of cover you wanted, but nothing else.

If we buy a Bible with any commentary at all we must either buy one blindly or we must know and understand the beliefs of the person or people writing the comments. What about illustrations? Bible maps? Concordance? Student Bible? Study Bible?

The list is endless.

I once knew someone that lived overseas. This college educated American spoke often of the limited options in products where they lived and said that walking into a store in America to buy toothpaste was overwhelming. They said that where they lived when you went to buy toothpaste, there might be two or three tubes on the shelf and all of them would be the same brand and flavor. So there was only one option for toothpaste. There was no choosing.

In America, choosing toothpaste is done among multiple brands, each brand having many flavors and textures. Not to mention things like whitening agents and formulas for sensitive teeth.

Bibles are the same way.

I think of the uninformed person walking into a store…or website…and trying to buy a Bible. They may well think that all versions are the same. They pick them up or read the description. They choose one based off whatever catches their fancy.

If they come home with an accurate version…any reading they do in that Bible will be edifying and educating.

But what if they go home with the not-bible? What if the book they hold in their hands was sold to them as a Bible but is nothing more than a twisted perversion of the Scriptures? What if they read that book, cover to cover, study it, learn from it? What if they base everything they understand about the Lord off a book that instead of speaking of eternal life says they can have a whole life? What if they learn from the pages of that book, while believing it to be Scripture, the things that book teaches. When that book changes everlasting life to whole life? When that book makes the eternal sound like it is nothing but life here on earth…what are they gaining from that not-bible?

What if they put their full faith, their full understanding of Scripture into that twisted perversion of Scripture and base everything on that book?

A book that could lead them straight to hell.

There is a movie where an older man is instructing boys on the Bible. In that movie this man takes those boys to a cemetery and has them get very close to the headstones. The man then whispers things to the boys as if he is the person in the grave. The things he whispers to them are questions about why they weren’t told about hell.

What if a person puts their full faith in this not-bible, fully believing it to be the Scriptures, and they never know otherwise? When these scriptures are heresy, filled with lies and changes…can the ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ of this not-bible even be called the God and Christ of the Scriptures? Does that person stand a chance at salvation when the not-bible they are putting their entire faith in isn’t the Scriptures?

If they are deluded about the Bible, or not-bible, that they use…are they deluded about their salvation?