The Danger of Cutting Truth Out of Scripture

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Listen, Cut, Burn, Repeat — A Warning We Still Need

There’s an interesting story tucked away in the Old Testament about a prophet and a king. The prophet was Jeremiah, and the king was Jehoiakim. Jeremiah served during one of the most tumultuous times in all of Israel’s history, eventually leading to the nation’s destruction and captivity. He prophesied during the time when Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had been taken into captivity and when Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was fading fast. Jehoiakim was one of the final kings of Judah, helping it fade. How? By doing what so many people do in our own day.

He listened, cut, and burned.

The story begins with God directing Jeremiah to give a devastating prophecy that was a combination of all the prophecies God had directed him to give:

During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings.” (Jeremiah 36:1-3, NLT)

Jeremiah did as he was told. It was read to the people. To say it caused a stir would be an understatement. The king himself soon sent for it to be read in his presence. And how did he react to its words?

The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by. It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. (Jeremiah 36:21-23, NLT)

And that was that. He didn’t like what he heard, so he cut the words out and threw them into the fire.

He listened, cut, and burned.

It reminds me of what is often referred to as the “Jefferson Bible.” Thomas Jefferson, America’s third president, didn’t like certain aspects of the story of Jesus. Specifically, the miracles. So he took them out and reprinted the Scriptures without them. It ended up being a very thin volume.

Taking out what we don’t like will yield the same result. And it won’t simply be thin, but also impotent. We do not stand in judgment over the Word of God—it stands in judgment over us. The authority of the Christian faith is the Triune God, as revealed in Scripture, as conveyed in a heritage, as made real in experience, both corporate and personal. The order of that last sentence matters.

Personal experience matters, but it doesn’t matter as much as corporate experience—meaning the life and accumulated wisdom of the Church. The corporate experience matters, but it must answer to tradition—to thousands of years of corporate experiences, learnings, and insights. And while that tradition is critical, it stands under the ultimate authority—the revelation of the living, Triune God, who has spoken absolute truth to our lives.

Yet we live in a day that has inverted the order completely. Rather than begin with “the Triune God, as revealed in Scripture,” we begin with our personal experience. We pick and choose what we believe or disbelieve, accept or reject. And that which is rejected is simply excised from our life.

We listen, cut, and burn. 

But this doesn’t really remove God’s Word from our lives. “Your word, Lord, is eternal…” the psalmist writes (Psalm 119:89, NIV). Or as the prophet Isaiah penned, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8, NIV). And it not just endures, but it also stands in judgment. As the story continues:

After the king had burned the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah’s words, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said, “Get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned. Then say to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and empty it of people and animals. Now this is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the disasters I promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.’” 

So Jeremiah took another scroll and dictated again to his secretary, Baruch. He wrote everything that had been on the scroll King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. Only this time he added much more! (Jeremiah 36:27-32, NLT)

I am continually taken with how so much of the Bible is an unrelenting tale of our senseless and ceaseless rejection of God, which is then met with God’s simple plea to repent, be forgiven, and experience His blessing, lest we continue in our disobedience, be judged, and face disaster. You would think we would listen to God, and after listening to Him, embrace what He has to say with every fiber of our being, letting it be a lamp to guide our feet and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105). And from that, experience the rich life of blessing He desires for us. 

But no. Instead, ... we listen, cut and burn.

James Emery White

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Ognennaja

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.