A pastor in North Carolina is planning a good old fashioned book burning Halloween party, just like in the days of yore. Only this party has a twist, the book at the top of the list to be burned is . . . the Bible. Fox has the report:

Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are “satanic” and “perversions” of God’s word.

On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will set fire to other versions of the scripture, as well as music and books by Christian authors.

“We are burning books that we believe to be Satanic,” Pastor Grizzard said.

“I believe the King James versionis God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God… for English-speaking people.”

Man, nothing better then when a bunch of folks get together to burn books, whether they be Nazi’s, Communists or Christians, a good time is guaranteed by all. I find this idea that a book, especially one that pertains to explain the will of God, can be “Satanic”. I had a friend (I use the term lightly) when I was a kid who thought I was just evil because my friends and I used to play D&D a lot. He swore that if you threw those books in the fire you would hear that Devil scream.

The insane part about the premise of this whole event is that “Pastor” Marc Grizzard couldn’t be more mistaken in his belief that the King James Version is the only true word and that all others are just perversions. While I happen to believe that the King James version is perhaps the best attempt that we have, even it is corrupted beyond what most people realize. Some of the corruption happened as Hebrew and Greek were translated to Latin, mostly innocent translation errors. Some of it was intentionally tampered with by those who wanted to intentionally change the meanings of various verses, but however you look at it, the KJV is not the pure, unadulterated version of the Bible. Even the books (after the 4 Gospels) are arranged by size, not any other specific order.

It’s fine to believe that the KJV of the Bible is the way to go, but I’m not quite sure hosting a book burning party really sends any good message. If you don’t like other books, or other translations, fine, don’t use them. However, the implication here is that any other Christian who reads a different version is “satanic” and not worthy of association, which is just not a very Christian attitude to take.

Atheists . . . flame away.

Here is the video report:


Book Burning Time