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“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! [2 Timothy 2:8-9, English Standard Version]”

In the Great Commission, Jesus urged his disciples to go to all nations and teach them the Gospel. The most obvious way to achieve the goal set before them was to preach face-to-face. However, within a few decades of Jesus’ ascension, the authors of the New Testament began using existing technologies, such as papyrus and parchment, to enhance their efforts in fulfilling the Great Commission. The Gospels and Epistles enabled the sharing of the Gospel across continents and centuries.

While technology advanced slowly over the next 15 centuries, two significant innovations transformed humanity's exchange of ideas in general, and God’s Word in particular: the transition from papyrus and parchment to paper, and the invention of movable-type printing presses. Please refer to my article that discusses the translation of the Bible into three major European languages within a century of Gutenberg’s invention.

Technological advancements have been accelerating at an increasingly rapid pace since the 15th century, and the 20th century saw numerous relevant innovations. Marconi made the first successful radio broadcast in 1897. Reel-to-reel tape was developed in the 1940s, cassette tapes were introduced in 1963, CDs were launched in 1982, and DVDs emerged in the late 1990s.

Radios were initially too costly for most people, much like books had been during the Middle Ages. However, with the invention of transistor radios in 1954 and Sony’s release of a relatively small and affordable handheld transistor radio in 1957, radio broadcasts became accessible to billions of listeners worldwide. I dedicated much of my career, from 1958 to 1994, to producing tapes and cassettes to broadcast the Gospel in Arabic. Shortwave radio stations allowed listeners hundreds and even thousands of miles away to receive messages in shops and, especially, in the privacy of their own homes.

Since my retirement, the pace of technological advancement has continued to accelerate. Miniaturization in digital media has progressed from tapes to compact discs to solid-state storage. SD cards were introduced in 1999, and every few years, the industry has materially improved their speed and capacity. Now, a single microSD card, measuring about ¼ square inch and only slightly thicker than a credit card, can hold a copy of the Bible, every sermon I ever broadcast, and every book and pamphlet I wrote.

Converting digital media into audio, video, and human-readable documents requires specialized software and established industry standards. One such standard is MP3. Perhaps the most famous product based on MP3 was Apple’s iPod, which enjoyed popularity from 2001 to 2022. Today, nearly every mobile phone and computer comes with built-in software that functions as a digital audio player. Nevertheless, many companies continue to produce affordable standalone MP3 players, which can be viewed as the 21st-century equivalent of the transistor radio.

This month, I was pleased to hear a report from a missionary who recently visited an Arabic-speaking country in the Middle East to assess whether his organization could distribute Bibles there. He met with many pastors from different denominations, showing them samples of Bibles and New Testaments using a solar MP3 player that contained an SD card loaded with the Arabic Bible (audio), sermons, and hymns. My sermons were included on the player. One pastor he spoke with was thrilled to hear my voice, as that pastor had grown up listening to my messages in that country.

It is challenging to predict further technological developments. However, we should remain open to utilizing these advancements as we address the challenge Paul describes in his epistle to the Romans: ‘How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” [Romans 10:14-15, ESV]’