Ok – that might be a bit of a stretch, saying that the printed Bible will actually become extinct. I mean, that’s crazy to even suggest such a thing, isn’t it?
Or is it?
Those of you who’ve been reading my blog here at SMSEO over the past year or so know that
a) I’m a Christian and
b) I’ve owned an iPhone since the first generation hit the scene in 2007.
I say so you will hopefully keep what I’m about to say in its proper perspective.
5 reasons why I see the printed Word of God (The Bible) becoming extinct
1) Bible iPhone apps keep bookmarks
I go to a Bible study every Thursday morning where, after talking for a bit and enjoying our coffee and biscuits, we typically begin our study with this question:
Does anyone know where we left off last week?
We’ll have our printed Bibles out and start thumbing through pages. We all know what book we are studying, and we typically know what chapter we left off in.
But we debate a bit as to what scripture exactly we left off on.
So I started using my YouVersion iPhone app to bookmark where we left off. Now, when we start every Thursday morning, I’m able to instantly tell the group exactly what scripture we read last, and what scripture we start with.
My Bible app allows us to start faster, read more scripture, and take more time for discussions – instead of spending time debating where we left off.
2) Bible apps give instant access to multiple Bible versions
Have you ever been in church or in a Bible study where someone asked what some other versions might say? It sometimes helps the study and discussion to know what the other Biblical versions say in order to get a better understanding of scripture.
With my Bible app, I’m able to instantly open up hundreds (I think hundreds… pretty close to it) versions of any piece of scripture – and do it in near real time.
3) Hold your bibles (or your iPhone, Android phone, iPad, etc…) up and let’s make our confession
I notice this trend in my church where when the Pastor tells us to “Let’s hold up our Bibles and make our confession!”, I notice that a lot of smartphones and devices go up in the air.
Devices ranging from the iPhone, to Android phones, to The Kindle – I’m starting to see all types of devices go up in the air instead of the printed Bible.
4) Sharing scripture through social media
This one is obvious, but I have to mention it because I see it happen more and more often – I see my friends sharing scripture from a particular app through Facebook and Twitter.
Because the scripture is shared on Facebook through an app like YouVersion implies the obvious – the person doing the sharing was reading the Bible on their YouVersion iPhone or iPad app.
Let me ask you this – if you are reading a printed Bible, how in the world are you going to share a piece of scripture with your friends? I guess you could physically go to Facebook and type it out. But why do that when you can simply click a “Share” button and instantly let your friends know about what you’re reading.
It makes sense, and it’s happen more and more often.
5) Devices like The Kindle gives you instant access to the Bible and nearly every printed commentary known to man
When it comes to devices like Amazon’s Kindle, you can not only have instant access to the Bible, and every translation ever printed, but you can also accompany your digital Bible with just about every commentary ever written in history.
All of this information is at your finger tips, and accessible in near real time.
So those are just 5 examples that I’ve seen that tell me that the printed Bible might become extinct, or at least experience a dramatic decrease in use – which would also lead to decreases in Bible sales and production.
What do you think about this?