Is Book Burning Encouraged In The Bible?

A very interesting question was submitted by one of my readers in relation to the whole Koran burning controversy, specifically, my objection to the book burning despite a very personal, critical view of the Koran:

Bob,

I am hearing about Christians being condemnatory of burning any book. I am not sure, but that seems to conflict with the tone of Acts 19:19. I think that there are some books that should be burned.

RESPONSE:

You raise an interesting point with the Acts 19 passage.

“A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.”

In Acts, people were bringing their own books to be burned as a way of personally repenting from involvement with supernatural power that they now knew came from Satan, the deceiver, who counterfeits the miracles of God in hopes that people will be lost in a sea of confusion, thus making it easier to gain control of their souls.

I did something very similar to these ancients when I first became a Christian. Before giving my life to Jesus, I owned several occult type books, including, horoscopes, etc. I did not burn them but I tore them up and threw them away to renounce them. I did this privately and only with my own property.

That is a bit different than burning a book merely as a method of public protest, at least in our current culture where book burning tends to be equated with censorship. As a Christian, I always defend the free speech of others and in doing so, defend my right to counter their positions.

Serving as a campus minister at U.C. Santa Barbara and U.C .San Diego in the 1980’s was quite the interesting experience. All kinds of nut job cults made their way to our colleges sooner or later. From time to time, I was invited to sign petitions (often at the instigation of other Evangelical student organizations) to throw these “pressure groups” off campus. I refused, because I knew that if we did not protect freedom of speech for everybody, it would sooner or later come back to bite us on our own Bibles. After all, many people believe Christianity itself to be a cult. Sure, they’re wrong, but who will make those kinds of subjective, arbitrary decisions if we don’t simply allow all people to talk, no matter how false or dangerous we deem their words?

In some ways, I was a double edged sword, the guy who protected the rights of those who disagreed with him, but also the same pest who argued with them at their outdoor book tables while many others stood by and watched. This kind of free speech genuinely contrasts the love and truth of Jesus with the bondage and falsehood of pseudo-gods.

At the end of the day, rather than burning the Koran, I would prefer that people read and understand just exactly what is in the Koran. An honest, literal comprehension of this text may just be the best way to protect our country from those who would put its words on red alert.

For far more detail on this subject: