Just what is wrong with an eBible?

Countless times, I have ‘bumped’ into preachers on TV who have something negative to say about an e-bible.

Some have even gone ahead to ban use of e-bibles during church service.

These preachers claim that an e-bible is not inspired because its container, the smartphone, Tablet or laptop has other apps that may not be spiritual. They claim that it is the paper bible that is inspired.

The bible was not written on paper from the beginning; the word was transferred from stone tablets. I am sure there were also people that might have said in that day that the paper bible was not inspired because it was not written on stone tablets.

That brings us to the contentious issue; is it the medium or the words that are inspired in the bible?

Let’s take the Windows Phone Bible for example. It has 10 versions of the bible in 13 languages in one place. If you can’t understand the story in King James version, you have the liberty to switch to NIV or Young Literal Translation.

If you want it in romantic French, it is there. For those who grew up in Zimbabwe, there is Shona and Ndebele. And for the Ngonis, they can always read the bible in Zulu. Other apps have one in Chichewa as well.

If you have problems with your sight, you do not need reading glasses, with an e-book, you can blow up the letters anyway you want. If I may ask, can you do that with a paper bible?

With the e-bible, you can bookmark verses and passages that interest you. Later on you can go to that location and read that content.

The search tool is very powerful on the e-book. You can search bible books, names and sentences. This makes it very easy to locate content.

Because the smartphone has other apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or WhatsApp, one can evangelise easily. Let’s say you found a verse that is very interesting, you can share the same with friends on WhatsApp or Twitter.

If you are in church, the phone and apps other than the bible app can be muted. In that way the entire gadget is nothing but the bible.

That said, I have to say that there are people that love the smell and feel of paper. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is when such people start to indoctrinate others that paper is the only way to redemption.

Stone age is past us, this is Facebook generation. In this age, distance is no longer a barrier. Churches now evangelize social media. And there is nothing wrong with an e-bible.