Faith Comes By Hearing is focused on recording and distributing the Bible in what we refer to as one’s “heart language.” Dictionary.com lists 17 definitions for “heart”. The first two are biological, but the next three are:

• the center of the total personality
• the center of emotion
• capacity for sympathy; feeling affection; spirit, courage, or enthusiasm

When the right information is in someone’s heart language, a transformation can occur.  This truth hit home to me in a big way a few years ago and has stayed with me ever since.

I had received a Christian prayer in an email from a pastor friend. The prayer used the word “spirit” instead of God, Lord or Holy Spirit—words I am used to when referencing Jesus. To me it seemed very new age and not very Christian. I asked the pastor about it, who told me it was a prayer from a Christian Native American tribe. In hindsight, the prayer was in their heart language—it used the words that spoke best to their hearts. To me the language seemed foreign and potentially blasphemous, but to the tribe it could not have been more holy.

Audio Bibles in Heart Languages change people's lives forever

I realized, then, that if they were only allowed to hear or read the Bible in my language, with my cultural subjectivity injected, they would not be able to connect with the truth in it. Some people love the King James Version of the Bible because it is what they have heard their whole lives and the language to which they connect. I prefer more modern language because I am a more recent Christian and also because I have read the Bible all the way through in a more modern version than the King James..

On January 9, 2009, an article appeared in one of France’s leading newspapers, Le Monde, in which Henry Tourneux, who has been associated with development projects in Africa for many years, tells of how development efforts have failed because they did not take the language of the people into account.  In one example, a family planning program translated contraception as “close the road to children”.  As you can imagine, the message was not well received.  They could have used a metaphor well-known to the culture such as “space out sorghum plants in the field”.  Henry Tourneux has many such examples, which is why he is trying to get language recognized as a key issue in development.

At Bible.is we believe that if we are going to reach people around the world with our Audio Bible app and text Bible app, it needs to do more than just translate the written and spoken Word. In fact, it is vital that we speak to them in their heart language. This is why our recording professionals are indigenous to the culture where we distribute our Audio Bibles and Bible app.

At Faith Comes by Hearing we have been giving the Bible away in print and audio for over 35 years. As we release our Bible apps for iPhone, Facebook, and Android in more and more languages, we will be reaching out in the native heart language of our listeners. This will help them better understand and relate to the Bible, and ultimately the Word of God.