Bible in the trash

  • Thread starter Thread starter bmagana
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
B

bmagana

Guest
Today, i wanted to find something on the Bible, in the drawer next to me was a new testament that i never really paid to much attention to, i just knew it was there, it was closer to me and i didn’t feel like going to the backroom and get my usual Bible, when i got to the passage i wanted to read, i found it to be completely different than what i was expecting to find, i then noticed it was a “Gideons New Testament” book, realizing this was a protestan bible i got upset and i threw it in the trash, was i wrong for trashing the book? did i commited a sin?
thank you and God Bless.
 
I don’t think the KJV is a Bible that should be thrown in the trash. That’s a bit excessive, since 100% of its contents are in the Douay Rheims/NAB/ RSV-CE Bibles. It is simply incomplete.
 
Wow. I’m a protestant, and I wouldn’t trash a Catholic Bible. I’d probably pick it up and read a bit, out of curiosity (have, actually, and quite enjoyed the book of Tobit).
 
Hey, I happened also to have found one of those Gideon’s bibles. But I didn’t throw it away, when I feel like it I compare and contrast with my Christian Community Bible. Truth be told though, that was a year ago but I decided to keep it (and now don’t know where Ive put it! 👍)

MJ
 
:eek:That was a bit extreme. In Protestant Bibles, the anti-Catholicism cames out not in the word of God (which hardly varies from Catholic translations in the vast majority of cases) but in the commentary.
If you’ve ever referred to the parallel texts on bible.cc/, you’ll notice that they’ve included some Protestant notes. Some real ‘anti-Romanist’ howlers come out in the 19th century commentaries: the modern Protestant commentators are way more balanced and ecumenical.
So I hope someone salvaged that Bible from where you left it. The next person to read it could be a sceptic or a Protestant who is lead to the Catholic faith through God’s word. Personally, if my Latin were a bit better and I could procure a copy, I would stick to the Vulgate (I think the edition I got was published by Anglicans: it’s Jerome’s text, but missing the Deuterocanonical books). But God reaches each of us in our own situations. And if he impacts someone through the incomplete Canon of a Protestant Bible, that’s a start.🙂
 
It still contains the word of God. The Gideon bible is a fair translation, it’s not perfect but then no translation is perfect. The founder of the movement for the free Gideon bible had very honourable intentions - to have bibles available in case of need when, for example, when travelling, hence the Gideon’s found in nearly all hotel rooms throughout the world (up till recent times anyway) … also found in nursing homes and so on.

I don’t think it’s fair to label something ‘Protestant’ and then feel free to disrespect it.

You might have dropped it in at the local charity shop, or if it were in bad condition you could have respectfully burned it.
 
bmagana said:
realizing this was a protestan bible i got upset and i threw it in the trash, was i wrong for trashing the book? did i commited a sin?
thank you and God Bless.
Click to expand...
I’ve encountered the Catholic argument that King James (the man) was actually a Catholic. (So what does the CCC teach about trashing a Bible, eh? :rolleyes:) The Gideon’s Bible I own also got rescued from a dumpster (at the place where I have a storage cubicle), but until I lost my RC RSV1 (complete with the Apocrypha, which as a new Christian, I read along with all the other books), that RSV was my main bible for the first 23 years of my walk with the LORD. Never would it have occurred to me to toss the RSV just bec. it was a Catholic version. (Even if I were to encounter something like the Book of Mormon, I’d either return it to the Mormon center on campus, or else donate it to the used book shop.)

Frankly, I’m not convinced that your post’s contents is genuine, but if it is, I’d say, the only kind of book worthy of being trashed or burnt is pornography/erotica or a volume spewing Satanism. Otherwise, all books are potential documents of history (if nothing more). I’d strongly suggest you do a thorough reading of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and pay heed to the German Jewish writer’s warning that “Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.” (Heinrich Heine) Tossing books in the trash is the first step in that direction.
 
Berean2
Let’s get this clear, i didn’t come here to write lies, this is a book written by protestants, that means, words are flipped around or missing, this book no longer is the word of God, it’s as corrupted as it is useless, and therefore subject to immediate disposal IMO.
The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible the the FULL truth, God wouldn’t have it any other way for you, there is only ONE bible, and this one definitively isn’t the right one, sorry but sometimes things are this black and white specially in these matters, no middle ground here people, we have a duty to call out deceit in any way, shape or form.
I was starting to have 2nd thoughts about trashing the book and feeling bad about it, but, i now stand firm in my decision, thanks everybody for their opinion.
God bless.
 
bmagana said:
but, i now stand firm in my decision, thanks everybody for their opinion.
God bless.
Click to expand...
So what does that mean, your going to let the word of God go to the garbage pit ? You say “God Bless” …How do you know the Holy Spirit can’t use that Gideon’s bible if you gave it to a thrift shop or shelter ? The gospel message is still there whether you fell it is incomplete…His word won’t return void…YOU have a prideful attitude to what YOU feel is incomplete…I had a few scriptures I read in a Chick tract that the Holy Spirit used to bring about a radical conversion experience in my life…
 
bmagana said:
Berean2 Let’s get this clear, i didn’t come here to write lies, this is a book written by protestants, that means, words are flipped around or missing, this book no longer is the word of God, it’s as corrupted as it is useless, and therefore subject to immediate disposal IMO.
Click to expand...
Have you compared the original Greek (speaking now wrt the N.T., of course) with the KJV interp? If you haven’t (you can to your heart’s content @ the BlueLetter Bible site), you really can’t validly be making sweeping statements about “this book no longer is the word of God, it’s as corrupted as it is useless…” It’s fine if you don’t want to use it (I refuse to touch the NIV;)), but it’s intellectually untenable to make unfounded statements about it.
 
I wouldn’t trash anything. Book’s took time and effort to make and print, and are worth money. Would you throw away money? No. Stop being a baby. Who cares if it’s a Protestant bible?
 
Hi BMA,

At the very least you are guilty of disposing of property that is not yours.As for disposing of a bible, any bible, it should be done as reverently as possible. Ideally it could be burned or buried. It could also be taken apart, so that it is no longer recognizable as a bible.

Verbum
 
Berean2 said:
…and pay heed to the German Jewish writer’s warning that “Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.” (Heinrich Heine) Tossing books in the trash is the first step in that direction.
Click to expand...
Violation of Godwin’s Law. Or, in other words, you’ve used the reductio ad hitlerum logical fallacy.

This does lead to the more questions though: how DOES one dispose of a copy of the bible? Is it proper to burn it? To trash it? Bury it? I mean, when a bible has obviously surpassed it’s servicable lifespan, how does one get rid of it?

I, for one, see God’s word as the truth behind the text. The ink on the page is just that… ink on a page. It is not the Bible itself (as an object) which is sacred, but rather the truth contained therein. I have to agree with BMA that, (though I wouldn’t think of the Gideon bible in this manner) there ARE some translation which are horrendous and destructive to the faith. Because these are NOT loyal to God’s truth, they are totally worthy of disposal in my mind. A copy of the bible is only so good as it adheres to God’s truth.

I think it also important to note that the bible is to be reverenced for the truth it contains and not for itself as an object. We don’t want to fall into the same kind of bibolatry that the “sola scriptura” types take on by giving too much credit to the book and not enough credit to the truth which is given by the Holy Spirit
 
bmagana said:
Berean2
Let’s get this clear, i didn’t come here to write lies, this is a book written by protestants, that means, words are flipped around or missing, this book no longer is the word of God, it’s as corrupted as it is useless, and therefore subject to immediate disposal IMO.
The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible the the FULL truth, God wouldn’t have it any other way for you, there is only ONE bible, and this one definitively isn’t the right one, sorry but sometimes things are this black and white specially in these matters, no middle ground here people, we have a duty to call out deceit in any way, shape or form.
I was starting to have 2nd thoughts about trashing the book and feeling bad about it, but, i now stand firm in my decision, thanks everybody for their opinion.
God bless.
Click to expand...
If you believe the Gideon Bible is no longer the word of God then why are you on here asking if you committed a sin? If it’s as black and white as you claim then nothing should be troubling your conscience. Yet, all the same, you are here asking if you sinned.

My answer is that it still is the word of God and should be treated as such. Even if you don’t care for the translation that doesn’t mean somebody else doesn’t and that means you may have deprieved them of access to that word. I would think twice before throwing a Bible, any Bible in the trash can.

ChadS
 
If it contained a lot of heretical commentary, it would be appropriate to throw it away, or maybe even burn it. Sometimes the Gideon Bibles do have little things in the back where they take Scripture out of context, and say it supports things like “once saved always saved”. However, you could always cross their commentary out. I have a Gideon’s NT and it’s the New King James Version. The NKJV is a good translation, and the wording is actually nice sometimes. Plus, if a protestant wants to attack the Faith, they likely won’t have a problem debating with the NKJV.

It’s one of those little pocket NTs, and I must say it’s actually been quite useful. There’s lots of room in the front and back, and I’ve taken all kinds of notes for Catholic apologetics purposes. I’ve even used it while praying the Rosary. So ultimately, God has turned it into an instrument of grace. If the Bible doesn’t contain huge amounts of heretical commentary (even if it does it may be useful to read their arguments), I would never throw a Bible away. If the translation is really that bad and biased, then you could keep it around to see from time to time how much they twist the Word of God for their own errors.
 
roveau said:
The founder of the movement for the free Gideon bible had very honourable intentions - to have bibles available in case of need when, for example, when travelling, hence the Gideon’s found in nearly all hotel rooms throughout the world (up till recent times anyway) … also found in nursing homes and so on.
Click to expand...
From the Constitution of The Gideons International:
Article 3.‑Membership. The membership shall consist of business and professional men, except clergymen, who believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God, believe in.the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, have received Him as their personal Saviour, endeavor to follow Him in their daily life, and who are members in good standing of an evangelical or Protestant church, congregation or assembly.
Click to expand...
In other words, Catholics are personae non gratae.
 
While traveling recently to a casino of all places, I looked for the gideon Bible in our room as a stopgap way to do my daily scripture reading and found it to be missing. When we left our room the next morning to go to a nearby town for Mass, I left a note for the maid, asking if one could be found and provided. Later, we returned to our room to change clothes and there was the Gideon Bible! I was so happy to be able to do my daily reading, even though I realized that this is not the complete Bible. It served the purpose and I recall very clearly that I read the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. I left it open on the desk at that chapter and left the maid a tip and note expressing my gratitude for the extra effort that enabled me to continue to grow in my faith. A Lutheran friend of mine recently found a Catholic New Testament in a dumpster (I did not ask!!) and she rescued it and presented it to me with a big smile as she knows how much I value the Word. It is a leather bound Challoner-Rheims Version translated from the Latin Vulgate published in 1941 and I am enjoying reading the scriptures in the beautiful flowery old English.

You made a mistake but God forgives, just ask! Don’t make the mistake of trying to justify what happened after the fact.
 
Berean2 said:
…I’d say, the only kind of book worthy of being trashed or burnt is pornography/erotica or a volume spewing Satanism. Otherwise, all books are potential documents of history (if nothing more). I’d strongly suggest you do a thorough reading of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and pay heed to the German Jewish writer’s warning that “Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.” (Heinrich Heine) Tossing books in the trash is the first step in that direction.
Click to expand...
:amen::clapping:

I agree with everything you said, even if we probably don’t agree on the Catholic Church or the Deuterocanonical books (which until very recently I referred to as ‘Apocrypha’).

Back in high school debating, I quoted those words on book-burning. I was immediately asked who Heinrich Heine was. No one in the room knew, and after my hasty explanation he was referred to as ‘the allegedly famous German’. It didn’t take book-burning to achieve that level of ignorance/apathy. The National Socialists would be proud. O tempora! O mores!:crying:
 
promethius said:
Violation of Godwin’s Law. Or, in other words, you’ve used the reductio ad hitlerum logical fallacy.
Click to expand...
Berean2 made no reference to Nazism. Heinrich Heine was a German Jew, but he was living in the early 19th century and was not commenting on German ultranationalism. Of course, his words gained an ironic and tragic significance when his works were consigned to the 'anti-German' bonfire in the '30s.
Anyway, references to Nazism are not all fallacious, and are often relevant. It’s just silly to dismiss arguments out of hand, regardless of individual merit, when they make such references. Remember, Mr Godwin’s only authority on the matter is that he is/was an editor on Wikipedia. ‘Godwin’s Law’ and ‘Reductio ad Hitlerum’ sound grand, but are actually an Internet in-joke and not part of formal logic.
 
promethius said:
Violation of Godwin’s Law. Or, in other words, you’ve used the reductio ad hitlerum logical fallacy.
Click to expand...
Nope, not at all. Heinrich Heine lived in the 19th century, and his prescient comment uncannily foreshadowed what later indeed happened in Germany. But needless to say, the same thing also happened earlier in history, that time not under a secular religion like Nazism, but under the auspices of a church.

Mentalities precede movements. It was the Roe vs. Wade mentality that preceded the euthanasia movement as well as the embryonic stem cell research movement. Do not for one moment think that evil springs up thru spontaneous generation: it has to have a breeding ground first, and that matrix is mindset.

Even Jesus Himself said as much when He condemned lusting after a woman as tantamount to adultery.

ZDon, thanx for seconding my thoughts. 👍 Evidently I logged in to reply here just as you posted your entry.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top