So, Your Church Library is Full of False Teachers?
The closure of the great majority of Christian bookstores in recent years has proven to be a blessing for the simple reason that access to the plethora of publications by false teachers has been reduced. Christian bookstores, coupled with Christian television, have been the main providers of false teaching for the church for over three decades. False teachers promoting false doctrine have long been the bread and butter for Christian media companies in America.
The prevalence of false prophets in Old Testament Israel was in one sense the judgment of God. To some degree the infiltration of big name “stars” in the church is our version of judgment beginning with the house of God. Instead of learning God’s Word from one’s local pastor, many Christians feed on the notable charlatan’s hip and trendy psychological offering of self-help mush.
On one trip to Southern California, I was introduced to another problem closely associated with the overall depravity in Christian media — the church library. In one church, I learned that the new pastor put the entire library of the church on the street curb. In another church, in the same week, I met a youth pastor who had just spent $15,000 on the beginnings of a truly excellent collection of books for a church library. Honestly, I was a bit gob smacked by both stories.
Whether one is ditching a good library or building a very good one, there is a worse scenario. What if your church library is filled with the very popular false teachers of our day? My dear reader, you already know their names. In fact, a simple survey of your current men’s and women’s book/Bible study will probably help you identify who I am writing about.
I have a small ministry of buying good used Christian books from local thrift stores. On occasion, I suddenly happen upon an inordinate number of the same titled books. These are never the books I am looking for to gift to young pastors, but a local church’s book study ends and all the participants donate their copies to charity.
In my mind I ask, “Why would you not study an excellent book that readers would never want to part with?” Instead of consuming the latest, popular publication, why not pick a book still in print after 400 or 500 years? May I ask where church pastors are when it comes to protecting their flocks from bad apple authors who sneak into church small groups and libraries?
If Christ’s sheep are feeding on theological garbage from the corrupt Christian media complex, then it is the pastor’s fault. There are still some excellent Christian publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States to which Christians should be directed. Christian Focus/Mentor/Christian Heritage, Banner of Truth, Reformation Heritage, Soli Deo Gloria, Presbyterian and Reformed, and Reformed Free Publishing remain one’s best choices for finding good books.
We must also ask who is in charge of your church’s library? If you have a dedicated woman who faithfully serves to add books and chase down the ones that have not been returned, thank her for her service before you relieve her of that ministry.
The person in charge of the church library should be your local church’s most recognized theologian. Theology matters. Theology, for better or worse, slips in through those books you are ignoring that your people are reading. If your church does not have a well-read theologian, then your next choice is the zealous apologist. This person, at a minimum, is aware of the heretics and cults.
It is grievous to me to be in a Christian thrift store and have books by Ellen White, Henri Nouwen, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, and other known heretics so prominently displayed. I have thought of asking the managers of these stores if they would like me to remove the garbage. If your church needs to have someone add or subtract books, please contact me. Purging your church’s library of heresy would be my delight.
My final encouragement is for you to consider your church library to be an arsenal in the spiritual warfare we are waging against the father of lies and his legions of deceivers. If the devil has infiltrated your church’s library, then you must perform a literary exorcism. If your church does not have a library, Satan already has the upper hand. What will you do when the prince of the power of the media bans Christians from the internet and the selling of “hate” literature by Christians? You will want those good books. For now, let us cast out the literary pop stars masquerading as people who care for souls.
It is imperative that you understand that the purging of a church library is spiritual warfare and you will most likely meet with fierce resistance in doing so. Therefore, pray for a pure library filled with good books and then get to work.
Pastor, consider profiling a book you found in the church library from a rogue angel of light and let your congregation know this is an important topic requiring some of your personal attention before you entrust the task to a worthy general who will be your purge man and who can explain why the popular authors no longer have a place in the sanctuary of sacred writings.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
August 18, 2021
