Does the Book Contain Ideas That Are Not Biblical?

              Needless to say, this question refers to all the other books and not the bible. Yes, unfortunately some of the books exist out there do.

Did you ever start to do something and you had this very strong feeling you shouldn’t do it? Later you found out that if you had, you might have been injured or even killed. That was God protecting you. The same applies to studying God’s word.

God knows the content of every book ever written. If the book is not inspired by him, you will feel God telling you to leave it alone. I remember I once saw a book in a Christian catalog that I really wanted to read so I ordered it. When the book arrived I started to feel apprehensive but decided to read it anyway. By the time I had read about 10 pages I was shaking and felt frightened. I realized God didn’t want me to read that book so I threw it in the trash. A few weeks later I was talking with a friend and he told me about the book and I realized why God didn’t want me to read it. It was one of those books that exploit the scriptures and tries to get you to send them money. Listen to God, He knows best.

There are many books out there that are very good and help you understand the bible, but they also contain information on that person's particular discipline. Again, you have to understand what is truth and what is discipline. If you pray, God will help you. I find that when I run across something that God wants me to ignore, my heart will jump when I read it. I simple take that particular piece of information and deposit it in my mental trash can.

Finding information on a particular discipline in a book does not indicate that God did not inspire the writer to write the book. God does not have a dictation machine. He does not dictate word for word what a writer should write. God knows He can help you get past this information when you read the book. What God does inspire is the book itself. Paul used language the Gentiles could understand, that did not preclude the letters he wrote from pertaining to the Jews as well.

Let me say this. This workbook is about understanding the bible and in order to do that you can’t let these disciplines (isms) get in the way. Disciplines are not necessarily a bad thing. If you belong to a church, you are exposed to isms. All churches have at least one. Your pastor preaches isms, your teacher teaches isms, and your Sunday School books are full of isms. A Discipline (ism) is simply the rules and regulations contained in the bible that your organization believes a Christian should follow and the way they understand that particular part of the bible.

3 John warns us about men who call themselves preachers and they stand in the pulpit and tell lies, preach heresy. This is why we as Christians are obligated to learn to understand the bible ourselves. Preachers sometimes get engrossed in their preaching and will misquote a scripture. After the service get them alone and show them their misquote. You will find they will admit their mistake. If a preacher is preaching a lie, stop them!

I went to a church once and the pastor was preaching on Genesis 4. When he came to the part where Cain went to the land of Nod and took a wife, he said she was a product of evolution. He said there were people in the world that God didn’t create, they were part of evolution. Before I knew what I was doing I was on my feet telling him that was not in the bible. I stopped him in his tracks.

Every Christian should know enough about the bible to stop heresy when they hear it. These people are out there and they are deceiving people every week. They spread lies about mistakes in the scriptures (there are none) and they mock God to their congregations.

We must trust God to lead us in our studies and help us to use these books as aids in understanding the bible.