When the founders of Bible Helps sent out their first publication in 1950, they could hardly have imagined the digital world we now live in. The newspaper route has been replaced by big news companies vying for online readers. Outdated encyclopedia sets collect dust on library shelves while students cite Wikipedia in their research papers. Utility companies urge us to go paperless. Is printing tracts and booklets still relevant in a digital age?
Here are some advantages of print text over digital text:
- A personal gift – A person can hand a tract or booklet to someone and say, “Here is something that was helpful to me. Maybe it will help you too.” The personal act of giving a tangible object is much more effective than an online search engine churning up articles.
- Better comprehension – Studies suggest that people learn and comprehend better when they read print rather than digital text. The tactile experience of holding a booklet and turning pages facilitates learning. Online reading tends to be superficial. Someone reading on paper can underline words and scribble notes in the margins.
- Accessibility – Even in a digital world, sometimes a booklet can intersect people’s lives in ways that a website cannot. One woman found a Bible Helps tract lying on a church pew and requested additional copies. Those who are incarcerated receive booklets and pass them on to others.
The gospel is spread through preaching, through face-to-face conversations, and through digital and print text. Print has never been the only way of spreading the gospel, but it continues to be one valuable way that Bible Helps shares the message of truth and hope with the world!
The newsletter above appeared with the printed publication of the new article “War-Makers or Peacemakers?” Following are the opening lines of this article on the seventh Beatitude:
The Colt Single Action Army revolver was developed by Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company in 1872. This revolver was the standard-issue sidearm of the U.S. Army for nearly two decades. Also called the “Six-Shooter,” it became the iconic gun of the Wild West, wielded by cowboys, sheriffs, and outlaws alike.
In 1874, a major arms dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio, marketed the Colt revolver by nicknaming it “The Peacemaker.” In 1852, Samuel Colt, founder of Colt’s Manufacturing Company, had written, “The good people of this world are very far from being satisfied with each other, and my arms are the best peacemakers.”
When Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” He was not referring to using a revolver to force others to be at peace with us.
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