Have you ever felt guilty for listening to the Bible instead of reading it? In this episode, I try and answer whether or not it’s “cheating” to listen to the Bible on audio instead of reading it. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different modalities of Bible consumption. And at the end I share some of my picks for the best way to listen to God’s Word on audio.

Links

Watch Redeeming Productivity on our YouTube channelSign-up for the Redeeming Productivity Newsletter.2016 Study on Audio Learning Bible App by YouVersionStudy Bible by GTYDwell Audio Bible AppESV Hear the Word Audio BibleESV Daily Bible M’Cheyne Podcast

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Time Stamps

00:00:00 Introduction00:01:40 Is listening to the Bible on audio “cheating”?00:03:40 Where does this question come from?00:07:12 Reading the Bible at difference speeds00:11:01 Listening to the Bible is the historic norm.00:14:11 Dangers of listening to the Bible on audio.00:16:31 Make sure you’are actually listening.00:19:02 Only reading the Bible because you feel like you have to00:21:22 Advantages to listening to the Bible.00:23:21 The Bible is a book for life.00:25:50 Ways to listen to the Bible.00:27:52 Conclusion

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Redeeming Productivity Show.

This is the podcast that helps Christians get more done and get it done like Christians. And I’m your host Reagan Rose.

Well, guys, we have a excellent episode for you today. What are you talking about? The subject of listening to the Bible? So audio Bibles, when we talk about apps, we’re going to talk about audio books, websites, that kind of thing. But actually the main thing I want to dwell on is the question of, is it okay to listen to audio books, audio Bibles? Is it okay to, uh, to listen to the Bible instead of reading it? Is it cheating before we get into that?

I also just want to let you know that at the end of this episode, there’s going to be a little bit extra, a little bit of a Patreon exclusive. So if you are one of my Patreon supporters, there’ll be an extended clip from this episode that only you can hear. And if you’re not one of my Patreon supporters, consider signing up, it’s just patreon.com/redeemingprod. And for a few bucks a month, you get access to an exclusive feed. I’m trying to share more and more there. I actually have some goodies coming up soon. I’m gonna upgrade what I’m doing on Patreon and yeah, it also just helps support the show. So if you liked the show, you want to help me keep going, please check out my Patreon. And thank you to my Patreon supporters. You guys are the best, keep up the good work.

So, is listening to audio Bibles cheating? And I think that a lot of you—I’ve, I’ve actually kind of run this by a few people and asked them if they knew what I meant by asking that question. So I asked my wife, I said, “if I ask you if listening to the Bible on audio is cheating, do you know what I mean?“ She said, “yeah, I know what you mean.“ You kind of have the sense that you should be reading the Bible with your old hose, with your eyes. And if you don’t, then your kind of cheating yourself out of studying the Word of God…or something like that.

In fact, I think this is something a lot of people think about audio books or books on tape in general is that it’s not quite the same. I remember talking to, somebody was asking—this was years and years ago—they were asking for recommendation for where to get a good copy of an old book. And it was a specific title. And I linked to them that, “Hey, there’s actually an audio version of this on sale right now.“ And they came—I was trying to be helpful—but they came back and they actually mocked me. Th