New age, occult & conspiracy theory books and the Christian

I'm struggling with what I should do with my paper back books on new age, occult, alien and conspiracy theories. I have to admit that I was drawn into the whole alien conspiracy thing over the last several years. But now have made a rededication back to the Lord. Man that was a bad time!

It's amazing to me how satan can trick some of us, me, into falling for his schemes, seminary degrees notwithstanding. Maybe it was because of a bad experience at my last church, but whatever it was, I did a u-turn away from the Lord. Anyway enough of that.

So I have an intensely earnest question about whether or not I should do the Acts 19.19 thing and "burn" all the books that 'sucked' me into a darker side of life that I will not go back to or will from now on help others to see how evil those teachings are.

I know there is nothing actually evil about the books just the stuff in them. I don't want to be too radical about it and maybe I could use them as reference materials. Or am I trying to justify keeping them?

So what advice would one pilgrim give to another?

mm.

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JT (alabama24)

My advice to you is that if these books were a trap for you, then you should get rid of them. Since I am not aware of exactly what the content is, I can't give you an authoritative advice about how to discard the books. My first suggestion would be to give the books to a trusted pastor/elder/mentor who can use discernment with what to do with those resources. Depending on the content, the books may be donated to a seminary library.

Paul-C

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304616#Comment_304616

My advice to you is that if these books were a trap for you, then you should get rid of them. Since I am not aware of exactly what the content is, I can't give you an authoritative advice about how to discard the books. My first suggestion would be to give the books to a trusted pastor/elder/mentor who can use discernment with what to do with those resources. Depending on the content, the books may be donated to a seminary library.

+1 I think that's sound advice from alabama24.

Praiser

I would definitely pray about it and see how the Lord leads you in discarding them. Since you are posting this, the Holy Spirit must be convicting you that they need to be removed. It is apparent that Acts 19 is shouting at you. I can say that obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit always brings freedom and peace. Do what you must do in obedience and move on. I wouldn't even post here what you decide to do...it is really between you and your heavenly Father.

Rich DeRuiter

So what advice would one pilgrim give to another?

I like what Alabama24 said, and want to reaffirm that message: discern what to do in community with other believers. There's no reason to be a lone ranger here, and it may be a way to help others too. Conspiracy theories tend to isolate people from society in general, creating an 'in group' of people in the know (modern gnosticism--sort of). Going to the church (the people; not primarily the structure) is another way of breaking with the whole conspiracy theory strategy.

Just burning them won't do you much good, but I understand your reluctance in giving or selling them to others as well.

In the end, you need to know your conscience and act in keeping with it. If, after discussion and prayer with fellow believers, you can't find peace in keeping them, giving them away, or selling them, burn them, shred them, or both. No book is worth the battle of a troubled conscience. I'd also suggest doing that with a few trusted fellow believers, and make it a time of discussion, confession and rededication.

As a volunteer firefighter, I'd discourage the use of volatile accelerants like gasoline, paint thinner,, etc.

Matthew C Jones

So what advice would one pilgrim give to another?

I think you have received excellent advice. I can't tell you what action you should take and not everyone will agree with it. A few things I would consider are:

If the books were damaging to you, they could very well hurt others too.
There is nothing intrinsically evil about playing with a yo-yo. But if it distracts you from the Lord, it becomes unprofitable.
There are too many great books to spend our time reading good books.
There has to be a reason Acts 19:19 mentions the value of the books that were burned. I can hear Judas objecting, "Let's sell the books and give money to the poor." But whoever directed the book burning, (Paul ? the Holy Spirit?) did not consider the value a reason to stop the burning.
There is something to be said for donating them to a seminary but that raises a lot more questions.

I commend you for caring and pray for your closer walk with the Lord.

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel, 1922

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
- Refrain:
  Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
  Look full in His wonderful face,
  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
  In the light of His glory and grace.
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
O’er us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conqu’rors we are!
His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

Kevin

If you don't mind, what are the names of the books you are referring to?

Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304728#Comment_304728

I guess it would all depend what YOU plan on doing with your past experience. I personally have a great interest in apologetics, so I have no problem keeping a Qu'ran, a JW New World Translation and a Book of Mormon in the house, as they are useful to me in debates, research etc. This is also why I encourage Logos to get into publishing them, not to approve, but to provide useful resources for use by teachers, apologists etc.

Could it be that you're going to wind up being a witness to others about the evils of the New Age etc.? Then you may wish to keep the books so that you can talk to them about their own literature.

But if not, by all means then destroy them, since the fact is that if they are evil, they ought not to be read by others either, ya know? I have certainly done that with some of the books of my pre-Christian days and early (less discerning) Christian life.

Just my .02! [H]

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304728#Comment_304728

Most of David Icke's books. Books on 'tapping the Source', Sitchin's works, books on zen, David Wilcock's Source Field Investigations, etc. There WERE over 45 books. You know I eventually tossed them. Funny thing I added them up to be close to $1300.00 Now I know what Acts 1918-20 feels like. And to be honest, for me it was the right thing to do. too much of a temptation to go back.

BillS

what advice would one pilgrim give to another?

[;)] [With apologies to any Hebrew brothers & sisters.] Then stay away from Hebrew. I'm not sure how humorous my Hebrew exegetical prof found it when I claimed that Hebrew is our best evidence of a UFO landing in the past. Think about it...

They start in the back & work toward the begnning.
Not only that, but the front cover is on the back of the book.
On every page, they start on the right & work backwards toward the left (even if they still work top to bottom).
Just for fun, have two characters for some consonants & use one of them only when that consonant ends a sentence. Or when that consonant ends a word. Or if it's in the middle of a word. Or if it's been exactly one fortnight since the last full moon. Or not.
Allow some consonants to be doubled by placing a dot in a secret location on the consonant.
But when other consonants get a dot, change the pronunciation of the consonant (sin/shin).
Omit all vowels in the language. After 2500 years or so, when people forget how to prounounce the language, invent some, but only as a pronunciation guide.
Have afterthoughts about vowels & let some consonants double as vowels under certain conditions. Make sure those conditions have exceptions.
And when one of those consonants ISN'T doubling as a vowell, raise up 2 schools of scholastic thought on how to pronounce it (vav or waw?).
For possessive pronouns, come up with prefixes & suffixes instead of words.
Let the prepositions (& most other words) mean anything you need them to, depending on the context.
And if all that weren't strange enough, it really gets strange when we get to the verbs. Every time we change tenses (which to confuse us they call moods), at minimum all the vowels change in the stem endings. By that logic, those in English who think bring should become brang (past tense) would be right.
Any time you want a new word, jam two (or more) other words together & change the vowels.
And if you're feeling feisty as you create a new word, get Western, construct a bar over/between the two words, & call it construct.

I could go on, but if all that isn't evidence of a UFO landing, I'm not sure what is... I'm just sayin'....[:D] [;)]

(Sorry George!)

DominicM

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304867#Comment_304867

@ BillS LOL

@ Milkman, no biggie, we all get detoured from time to time, the important thing is you realised and did something about it, I think disposing of them was the right thing to do.

Matthew C Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304867#Comment_304867

I could go on, but if all that isn't evidence of a UFO landing, I'm not sure what is... I'm just sayin'..

They start in the back & work toward the beginning. ~So does classical Japanese.
Not only that, but the front cover is on the back of the book. ~So is classical Japanese.
On every page, they start on the right & work backwards toward the left (even if they still work top to bottom). ~So does classical Japanese.
Just for fun, have two characters for some consonants & use one
of them only when that consonant ends a sentence. Or when that consonant
ends a word. Or if it's in the middle of a word. Or if it's been
exactly one fortnight since the last full moon. Or not. ~Uh Huh, Uh Huh, & Uh Huh, ~classical Japanese.
Allow some consonants to be doubled by placing a dot in a secret location on the consonant. ~So does classical Japanese, kinda....
But when other consonants get a dot, change the pronunciation of the consonant (sin/shin).
Omit all vowels in the language. After 2500 years or so, when people
forget how to prounounce the language, invent some, but only as a
pronunciation guide.
Have afterthoughts about vowels & let some consonants double as
vowels under certain conditions. Make sure those conditions have
exceptions. を
And when one of those consonants ISN'T doubling as a vowell, raise
up 2 schools of scholastic thought on how to pronounce it (vav or waw?). は
For possessive pronouns, come up with prefixes & suffixes instead of words. ~So does classical Japanese.
Let the prepositions (& most other words) mean anything you need them to, depending on the context. ~frequently in classical Japanese.
And if all that weren't strange enough, it really gets strange when
we get to the verbs. Every time we change tenses (which to confuse us
they call moods), at minimum all the vowels change in
the stem endings. By that logic, those in English who think bring should
become brang (past tense) would be right.
Any time you want a new word, jam two (or more) other words together & change the vowels. ~frequently in classical Japanese
And if you're feeling feisty as you create a new word, get Western,
construct a bar over/between the two words, & call it construct. ~Katakana

Now it appears to me that Hebrew and Japanese have a lot more in common with each other than English. So I would consider English to be more alien than the others. Bible scholar Harold Willmington must agree. He wrote a book on the doctrine of the Bible and titled it, "That Manuscript From Outer Space."

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304867#Comment_304867

I could go on, but if all that isn't evidence of a UFO landing, I'm not sure what is... I'm just sayin'....

Appears language confusion at Tower of Babel quite effective; different groups write and talk in different directions.

Searching entire library for Babel found many results, including topic that has:

The word translated “confuse” is balal; it means also “to babble.” A preposition combined with a form of this root, ba-bal, meaning “in confusion” or “in babbling,” became the name for the location of the tower-building project. A popular etymology replaced the original meaning of the name.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (243). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

Contrasting Logos search is dumb speak that also has many results, including:

The Bible records several examples of dumbness. Zechariah was “struck dumb” by the angel Gabriel for not believing he would become the father of John the Baptist (Lk 1:18–22). That condition persisted at least nine months until the baby was born and named (Lk 1:62–64).

Inability to speak is usually associated with neurological diseases or severe structural deformities. When Jesus healed people who were thus afflicted, or “hearing-impaired” (Mt 9:32, 33; 12:22, 23; 15:30, 31; Mk 7:32–37; 9:17–27; Lk 11:14), observers were understandably astonished.

Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (643–644). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.

Keep Smiling [:)]

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304932#Comment_304932

Searching entire library for

KS4J, thanks for gently pointing us back on topic... [:)]

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304897#Comment_304897

Hi Matthew,

it appears to me that Hebrew and Japanese have a lot more in common with each other than English.

Hmmmmmmmmm...................... This explains a lot.

(Only kidding, & apologies for any offense unintentionally offered with what was intended solely as lighthearted humor.)

Blessings to you!

Matthew C Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304953#Comment_304953

(Only kidding, & apologies for any offense unintentionally offered with what was intended solely as lighthearted humor.)

It was enlightening to learn all that about Hebrew. How come none of my Intro to Hebrew textbooks lay it out that simply?

Another interesting parallel is the mythological origin of the Japanese Imperial bloodline being attributed to a deity coming down to Earth and becoming the first Emperor. Not quite an "alien" but similar to many accounts of origins.

This makes me wonder; is there any tradition for Hebrew being the language Adam and God conversed in?

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304958#Comment_304958

Our (eccentric and beloved) Hebrew teacher used to refer to Hebrew as the "mystic language of the angels", and told us we'd better get on with learning Hebrew as we should have to converse in it when we got to Heaven!

Matthew C Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304959#Comment_304959

Our (eccentric and beloved) Hebrew teacher used to refer to Hebrew as the "mystic language of the angels", and told us we'd better get on with learning Hebrew as we should have to converse in it when we got to Heaven!

That would explain why there will be silence in Heaven for half an hour. [O] We will all be catching up on our Hebrew studies.

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/305030#Comment_305030

That would explain why there will be silence in Heaven for half an hour. We will all be catching up on our Hebrew studies.

YOU all will. OUR generation of "Young Hebraists" have had it well andtruly drummed in! Actually he used to curse us in Hebrew for the terrible and frequent sin of "Grammatical improprieties". Tho he was a misogynist (tho he eventually amazed everyone by getting married...), he was somewhat gentler with us women, castigating us only as "Daughters of ignorance", whereas the men were regularly addressed as "Sons of Belial". We all loved him, and he was fond of us in a backhanded sort of way...

BillS

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304958#Comment_304958

How come none of my Intro to Hebrew textbooks lay it out that simply?

Hey... wrt Hebrew, if it's going to penetrate at all for me, it HAD to be simple... [;)]
LOL on the rest of the conversation... you all went where I would've (Hebrew in heaven---supposed that'll be part of our perfected language skills?)... Blessings to you all!