Why You Need a Hard Copy of the Bible |

We live in the electronic age. Almost everything is digital and instantaneous. Whenever I see someone who is 25 or younger and I ask them a question for which they have no immediate answer they quickly pull out their phone. I can’t tell you how many times in the last few years I have seen preachers and youth ministers preach and teach without a bound copy of the Bible with them. It is all tablets and touch screens. And while I am thankful for the blessings such technology affords I would like to make an argument as to why everyone needs an actual paper copy of the “good book.”

1. Not everyone you meet is going to have technology. If you go on a mission trip or if you do any evangelism at all you will soon find there are many people who can’t afford your iPhone. You need not make them feel inadequate because they don’t have an electronic copy like you do. You need to be able to give them a copy of the Bible if they don’t already have one. You need to have enough knowledge of your Bible that you can sit down and open it up and know where to find things. You should know where the 66 books are individually and in what order. You should even know passages and texts and where they are found on a specific page because you have turned to them so often in your own Bible.

2. Technology is not always dependable. If you don’t have the Bible on paper you are going to be out of luck when apps shut down or your device is out of power. I am just waiting to see the first preacher attempt to read or teach a lesson when his tablet/phone shuts down on him. He will really need a Bible and a copy of his notes in that moment – that or a perfect memory. And believe me: when he is in a bind I don’t want him to “wing it.” I want to be taught the Word. That’s what I came to hear.

3. Tablets, phones, and screens can turn us into robots. If you don’t believe me then please let me ask you how many hours your kids have played video games this summer. I am thankful for Paperless Hymnal, Powerpoint presentations, and other computer operated programs that can enhance the worship. But sometimes I think they are a crutch. When our paperless hymnal malfunctions the song leader becomes a soloist. Is God out of luck on our worship to Him because the screen went black? In many churches, every passage is now up on the screen. This is a blessing and yet it makes me wonder if anyone is opening their Bible anymore? One of the most discouraging things a preacher can ever hear is silence when he asks the congregation to turn to a passage. Pages flipping will cause your preacher to preach even better! Don’t come to worship to be an audience. The church is supposed to be performing the worship to the only true Audience and object of worship which is in heaven.

4. I am afraid the day is coming when people won’t leave behind a worn-out Bible. I was at a funeral this week and the preacher referenced the departed one’s used Bible. She had notes and passages that she had underlined. This told us all a great deal about who she really was spiritually. While computers have programs where you can take notes and mark digital Bibles I believe it is not the same. Not the same as one’s personal touch – their feelings and their emotions and their memories of how certain passages changed their life. I have a Bible I have preached out of for the last 20 years, it has been rebound and it is falling apart. But there are markings in it that have enhanced personal, spiritual growth that collectively help me to understand texts and passages with the cumulative knowledge of the past 20 years of study. I just cannot get that from a screen.

There was a day when members of the church were known as walking Bibles. That day has long since passed. But I know a few people who still do meet that description. And for me it is no coincidence that most of them don’t even own a computer.

“Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments.” – 2 Timothy 4:13

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