Did you know that books in the United States can have the same title, even though they are different books with different authors and different content? In other words, titles cannot be copyrighted. Therefore, two or more books can have the same title. That was a little factoid I didn’t know.
Here’s how I found this out. I was recommended a book that would help me in my journey to know Christ better. I purchased it and then opened it up in Audible which is an audiobook service from Amazon. I had a four-hour trip to the East Coast and I was so looking forward to the new book. At the beginning of the flight, I settled into the reading. As I’ve got my eyes closed and I’m listening, there comes a string of profanity that would make a sailor blush…my apologies to my mariner friends out there. What’s more, it got worse so I turned it off. I looked at the title again wondering what went wrong. The title was right and I’m thinking why would my friend recommend such a book? Then it hit me…RIGHT TITLE, WRONG AUTHOR.
We can all find a spiritual application to my story. But, here’s what hit me like a ton of bricks: The title on the outside is not as important as the content on the inside AND the content on the inside is not as important as the author. In the world we live in, truths and half-truths float around all of us. Some that look accurate but they’re not. This is especially true in the area of religion and spirituality. Cults capitalize on looking much like Christianity, but deny the truth of the Scriptures and especially the true nature of the author, God Himself. The first part of 2 Timothy 3:16 says All Scripture is God-breathed. 2 Peter 2:21 says For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The point? Make sure truth comes from the right author before you buy into it. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”