The Making of Many Books

Ec 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

This admonition is not a deterrent to scholarship. Solomon is not encouraging his son to shun books or diligent study. On the contrary, Solomon encourages scholarship and he would have his sons, and even his daughters to be faithful students of the Word of  God and the wisdom that it contains.

What Solomon is warning against is the overwhelming, and often  frivolous attempt at publishing an ocean of books and transcripts without the intention of applying the information they contain. The mere activity of book publication, even when those books contain good and Godly Truths, without its application the study of those things are wasteful and, as Solomon rightly states it, “a weariness to the flesh.”

Christendom is in a grave yard tail-spin downward. With all the writings the church has accumulated over the centuries they are no better off then when she was in her infancy; in fact they are far worse. Of all the faithful treatises, books, conference debates, mp3 lectures, Bible conventions, blogs, email and twitter subscriptions the church remains in bondage to the cold hard fact that she is void of any real power in the world. Identifying the problem is easy. To launch the solution is another matter entirely.

The production of Good and Theologically sound books is not the problem. The problem is that most of these books either re-state what Christendom already knows as to the woes of the church and culture, or they simply do not offer a concrete plan on how to approach the problems Christianity faces. Some even posit a political or economic answer to the theological problem the nation faces. Sadly those answers will never solve the dilemma of the nations since the root of every problem is religious.

But then there are those few gems. These are books written by men who understood what  Solomon was driving at. Solomon was a man focused upon wisdom. His study always resulted in application. His Proverbs were called the book of Wisdom because he approached the world from a theological presupposition and sought to apply that supposition to every area of life. Solomon’s doctrine was one of action. Without the application of the the Truth of God’s Word, God’s Word became a dead letter rather than a Living Truth.

Even with those few books that have sought to encourage God’s people to take action by fleshing out a plan of action, Christians have not used them as they were intended. The reasons for this vary, one of which is based upon a faulty eschatological understanding of scripture while another is simply the fact that many just don’t want to get into the real battle of Christian Reconstruction and cultural dominion. These have already settled it in their minds that the world’s problems are too great and complex to fix so they simply give up buy comforting  themselves that this is how it has to be. Yet, God has given us the tools for fixing the world.

2Co 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds…

Another reason for the demise of Biblical action may be attributed to the fact that of these action oriented books the saints have not been reading them with application in mind. Reading a book requires an active thought process specifically if one is reading to uncover strategies and tactics that the author is bringing out. This discipline should assist in the reader to then implement those logistics to the real world. To merely read with the intent to gain more knowledge without the application thereof is a idolatrous posture. To gain knowledge for knowledge sake is selfism. To acquire knowledge for the explicit purpose of applying it for the advancement of the Crown Rights of the Lord Christ, is true wisdom and the only acceptable form of scholarship.