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Acts 19:11-22
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
I’ve never seen a book burning. It seems today to be totally out of favor. We don’t burn books. In fact we can hardly ban books. We can’t ban inappropriate books from elementary school libraries without a Supreme Court fight. Sad. Children should not have access to some books – even those which are appropriate for adults. In fact, in Jewish history, young boys and girls were not allowed to read the Song of Solomon until they were 30 years old – or so the legend goes (see this article).
But there is history of burning things deemed evil. Think of draft cards in the 60’s. Or the American flag during protests in the Middle East. Or effigies burned in Europe and sometimes in the United States. Some who protest the burning of books would gladly burn the edicts or policy papers that would ban them.
I think of Luther’s response to the Papal Bull that excommunicated him, calling him a heretic. He burned the document Exsurge Domine on December 10, 1520 it publicly, along with books of canon law and Church-supported theological writings.
This nor the book burning recorded here were acts of censorship. These were acts of repudiation. They were not saying, “You cannot read these books,” per se. But they were saying, “We won’t read these books any longer. We repudiate our practice of magic arts and divest ourselves of all that was involved in that practice. These people had a profound change of heart. They were dramatically converted. I’m reminded of Saul on the road to Damascus.
A couple in another city threw away their phallic shaped idol. A man in another city destroyed his “soft porn” DVDs. A couple in Arkansas abandoned their séances. A young man threw away and burned his Playboy magazines. There are times we must act to repudiate that which dishonors God and sustains a life apart from Christ. Perhaps there is something in your closet that needs to be burned or tossed. Do it now.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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