A friend once told me of her reason for not reading any books that would try to persuade her to believe one way or another. She said that you can find a book to support ANY viewpoint that you want it to support. Guess what...she was right!

As you walk into any bookstore, be it Christian or secular, surf the web, or flip through a publisher’s catalog you can find a gamut of books out there that are the embodiment of the world itself. The inexhaustible differences in books span a variety of themes, writing styles, genres, and periods of time–everything from A to Z, on any subject, in favor of or against, written well or poorly. An example of this was my visit to a bookstore one day. I happened to peruse through the books on nutrition and found dozens of books on every subject about nutrition you can imagine. It was staggering. If someone just came in off the street and had never studied the topic before, where would they start?

I, myself, am an avid book lover, and as a homeschooling mom, I sincerely believe we need to have a wide berth of exposure to many different types of literature. We ought to become a more literate nation and maintain a high degree of intellectual reading with the types of literary works that expand the mind, challenge one to think, and afford one a well-rounded educational experience. However, this is not the focal point of the issue I would like to raise here.

The problem comes when we put books, and most definitely the authors of those books, above God and His Word. Too often in today’s era, we have many who will compromise the Word of God trying to "fit" their opinions, beliefs, and arguments into some persuasive format in order to gain acceptance and popularity from a yielding audience without thought, form, or honor towards the absolute authority of God. Just because someone has a degree behind their name, are well-respected in the "Christian circles", or stands at a pulpit, does not mean that their authority and knowledge is always going to be godly or meet with God’s approval.

Even in writing this "persuasive" work, the challenge for me is not that you would take what I say verbatim, but instead that it would challenge you to check out what I’ve said against the Word of God. My goal is not for popularity’s sake, but for the salvation of your soul!

How, then, are we to judge a book’s accuracy, credibility, plausibility, integrity, and principles in regards to the Truth? Simply by this. Always, always, ALWAYS test it against Scripture, the ONLY source of infallible teaching that gives us the rules by which to live. If it doesn’t match up with Scripture then we should toss those teachings aside. The only true authority that should be recognized is the Lord God Himself. And remember, if you are going to Scripture to try to "prove" your book’s soundness, then it will very well be proven. Remember not to start with your premise outside of Scripture, but allow God to prove or disprove the premise by speaking to you through His Word first.

Another error quite often made and a trap I have countless times fallen into is placing a book which DOES support and follow after Scripture biblically on a par with the Bible. We must always remember that no matter how good a book seems to be, man wrote it and man is fallible. There is only one book that is infallible, wholly inspired by God, which is the Bible. Let us be careful not to place books that ARE biblical over and above the Word of God itself.

Consider books, books, books. I challenge you to test your written works against Scripture and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading and teaching through anyone who writes. Now, go search the Scriptures and see if the things I have written be so.