- Joined
- May 13, 2025
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- 1,270
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- 1,679
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- 113
- Age
- 67
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- Charlestown, IN
- Website
- know-the-bible.com
- Gender
- Male
- Country
- United States
Ten seconds sounds spiritual if someone’s waving around a Bible in one hand and knows how to flex online with the other. Ten seconds will not display to you if they understood the verse in context. Five seconds will not display to you if they glazed over the difficult parts. Five seconds will not show you if the mindset they walked away with lines up with the rest of Scripture.
That is why soundbites can be dangerous. The algorithm is filled to overflow with sending you another mouth to listen to. Another declaration to believe. Another conviction to react. Before you know it you can listen to dozens of opinions about God and still never open up the Book that God actually gave us.
Soundbites are not inherently bad. Preachers can spit out a faithful sermon in one minute or less. The issue rises when we start to make the message our authority. They could be speaking truth. They could be speaking half truth. They could be using that one verse to fuel an agenda that God never gave them. If we are not willing to slow down and research the Scriptures for ourselves we will not know the difference.
In Acts 17: 11 we are told the Bereans heard the word with eager minds. But it goes on to say they SEARCHED the Scriptures daily to verify if what they were saying was true. Paul was spending word after word pouring into these men. The Bereans didn’t shut up their Bible because the speaker had a good way of saying things. They searched.
Listening is healthy. Preachers are good. Christians should listen to preachers. But we will only walk in safety as long as we go home and compare what we heard with the Bible. Don’t let a teachings safezone be “it’s biblical because Instagram agreed with me.” Don’t let your reason for a teaching being true because the speaker was nice. Don’t let your reasoning be because the thirty second soundbite made you feel heard.
Flip open the chapter. Read the verses leading up to it and following it. Ask who is speaking. Ask who they’re speaking to. Ask what the passage means. Compare it to the rest of Scripture and see if it matches up.
Second Timothy 2: 15 tells us to study to shew ourselves approved, that we may rightly DIVIDE the word of truth. First John 4: 1 says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.”
God didn’t say to listen to every preacher we come across. He told us to TEST them.
You can listen to sermon after sermon on your phone. You can listen to a preacher hourly all week. But your phone will never replace your Bible as your authority. Let that soundbite send you to the Bible. Instead of taking the Bible out of your hands. If they preaching is worth listening to they will welcome that test.
That is why soundbites can be dangerous. The algorithm is filled to overflow with sending you another mouth to listen to. Another declaration to believe. Another conviction to react. Before you know it you can listen to dozens of opinions about God and still never open up the Book that God actually gave us.
Soundbites are not inherently bad. Preachers can spit out a faithful sermon in one minute or less. The issue rises when we start to make the message our authority. They could be speaking truth. They could be speaking half truth. They could be using that one verse to fuel an agenda that God never gave them. If we are not willing to slow down and research the Scriptures for ourselves we will not know the difference.
In Acts 17: 11 we are told the Bereans heard the word with eager minds. But it goes on to say they SEARCHED the Scriptures daily to verify if what they were saying was true. Paul was spending word after word pouring into these men. The Bereans didn’t shut up their Bible because the speaker had a good way of saying things. They searched.
Listening is healthy. Preachers are good. Christians should listen to preachers. But we will only walk in safety as long as we go home and compare what we heard with the Bible. Don’t let a teachings safezone be “it’s biblical because Instagram agreed with me.” Don’t let your reason for a teaching being true because the speaker was nice. Don’t let your reasoning be because the thirty second soundbite made you feel heard.
Flip open the chapter. Read the verses leading up to it and following it. Ask who is speaking. Ask who they’re speaking to. Ask what the passage means. Compare it to the rest of Scripture and see if it matches up.
Second Timothy 2: 15 tells us to study to shew ourselves approved, that we may rightly DIVIDE the word of truth. First John 4: 1 says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.”
God didn’t say to listen to every preacher we come across. He told us to TEST them.
You can listen to sermon after sermon on your phone. You can listen to a preacher hourly all week. But your phone will never replace your Bible as your authority. Let that soundbite send you to the Bible. Instead of taking the Bible out of your hands. If they preaching is worth listening to they will welcome that test.
