Josh, a listener in Bel Air, Maryland asks, dear Pastor John, today most people have an

iPhone or an iPad with a Bible app.

Is it okay to use a digital Bible and ESV app, you version, et cetera, during church?

And how about community group, small group?

Is there a specific context when a digital Bible is just not acceptable and just how important

are paper Bibles for Christians today?

So Pastor John, there's a mix of questions bound up here for you.

Yeah, that's right, and my answer is going to seem strange for those who remember me

saying in preaching how, back in the early days, few sounds were more pleasing to me as

I stood to preach than the swish of 500 Bibles and all the pages opening as I said, let's

turn to the text and everybody's Bible turns, you can even hear them and that's a beautiful

sound in the car creation and I don't think there's a similar sound for click, click,

click on your iPhone or your tablet.

But here's my answer, I hope it's okay because I do it.

My wife does it and my daughter does it at the church we're attending now.

So am I just biased and self-defensive now or is there a real warrant for that?

So it seems to me there are two issues here, in public use of digital Bibles.

Number one is, what is the word of God?

And the second one would be are there downsides and upsides to reading a digital Bible in public?

The answer to the first question is the word of God is not paper and ink.

But the words in their grammatical context, whether on paper or on a screen, so I don't

think, and the reason I say in their grammatical context is because words by themselves don't

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