Posts made in May, 2015


Digital Bible, Digital Problems!

Digital Bible, Digital Problems!


Posted By on May 24, 2015

Digital Bible, Digital Problems! As a culture we are rapidly becoming a paperless society.  Almost all matters pertaining to business and leisure are being accomplished on personal Smart Phones, ipads, Tablets, Kindles, MP3, 4 Players, etc.  Many Christians are preferring to read their Bibles on state-of-the-art digital devices, thus eliminating books as part of their reading practices.  In fact, eliminating Bibles in book form has become ever-increasingly popular and considered convenient and vogue.  The thought of utilizing a paper Bible, is claimed by many evangelicals, to be cumbersome, superfluous, and time-consuming.  The negative effects upon biblical intelligence has been devastating, especially on the younger adults.  In this quick-paced, “Google it”, “I-want-it-now” generation, the technological industry has aided and abetted this devastation.   Ignorance of the most fundamental tenets of Christianity is on the rise, because  industry is continually inventing new and improved devices, designed to simplify the biblical reading and research experience.  Therefore, we are straying perilously further and further away from the Bible in book form. While auditing a theology class at one of the most prestigious seminaries in America, I observed the theology professor had strictly forbade all electronic devices from being utilized in his classroom and insisted only that Bibles in book-form be utilized.   Furthermore, whenever he referenced a text of Scripture, he would prompt his students to turn in their Bibles to the passage indicated.  As the professor turned the pages of his Bible, he overtly proceeded slowly and methodically, all the while audibly and sequentially calling out each book as he thumbed by them.  I wondered if others who watched this assumed he was acting a bit lofty and and arrogantly having eliminated computers as he educated these students to become familiar with the written Word of God.  I wondered if it appeared as pompous sarcasm, as if he flaunted his intellectual superiority over his fledgling students. However, it wasn’t very long before I determined that assumption would be erroneous.  It was my to joyful astonishment, that after careful observation, most of the students awkwardly fumbled through their Bibles.   I realized they didn’t know the general location of the books of the Bible and needed this professors wisdom and patience.  I was perplexed by this discovery and wondered, just how seminary students could be ignorant to the rudiments of the Bible?   But, concluded that they are victims of this current technological age, which produces every type of new-fangled gadget, designed to eradicate books and their attention span.  Their lacking of basic biblical knowledge is indeed a direct result of this ever-evolving generation.  Therefore, I could not fault them.  Unfortunately, too many of today’s students know...

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