Techno Development

I can remember when my family got their first television, when I was a kid. Before that I used to sit and listen to programs on the radio. Danny Orlis stories, on Saturday mornings, were my favorite. For years and years the picture on the TV was black and white. Color TV and color movies were quite the invention. I learned to type on an electric typewriter at school. But at home we still had a manual typewriter. In my first car, a 1964 Chevy pickup, I installed the latest, greatest new sound system, an eight track tape player. A few years later it became hopelessly outdated so I updated to a cassette player, and then several more years later, a CD player. The centerpiece of my first prized home audio system was a belt-drive turntable. It played music off of a big round black vinyl disc with grooves in it.

I had been a pastor for over ten years before I got my first computer. It was so slow I would turn it on in the morning and go make a pot of coffee and come back to see if it had booted up yet. All it did for me was word processing. I suppose it could have run other programs, too, but I was slow to get on board. I don’t know that I ever got on the internet until about the turn of the millennium, when I came to work at Eagle Fern. I had heard about it, and everyone was incredibly excited about the newest revolution in techno electronics.

To make copies in the old days we used a spirit duplicator machine, or a mimeograph machine if you could afford it. The first copy machines were like an invention on par with the first printing press. Then came color copiers, fax machines, e-mail.

But, wow!! Technological development in the last ten years has been incredulous. Dial up internet went to high-speed internet, analog gave way to digital. Fiber optics move information at the speed of light. Search engines put information, images, and videos within the click of a mouse button. Much of it extremely helpful, but much of it morally destructive. Cell phones have replaced home phones. Texting has become the norm. High speed became 3G, then 4G. Laptops, wireless, skype, Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, broadband, paperless, google, high definition, self-publishing, blogs, twitter, video games, youtube, social networking, eCommerce, online banking, cloud computing – the development is like a tsunami. Not one wave, but wave after wave, after wave.

And most of us, particularly the younger generation, think that this is normal. That this is the way it’s always been. That this kind of invention and development is how the world has always progressed. Not so. This is unparalleled. And it is scary, too, if you think of all the ramifications upon our youth and young adults, all the hideous uses of this technology, all the driving forces behind this development, and all the potential for government and global control of commerce and enterprise.

Is this unparalleled development foreseen by the God of the universe? Was he aware that the incredible intelligence and creativity of the human mind, which He created, could lead humanity into a culture so dominated by electronic and technological advances? Did he foresee and foretell this very era?

Yes he did. Somewhat cryptic and ambiguous. But yes, God told us it was coming. In apocalyptic, symbolic visions, God revealed it to John, the apostle. Revelation 13:11-18 is that prophecy. And we would be wise to see it and to understand it, and to heed it. Not in fear and isolation, but in hope and in holiness.

“This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number.” (Revelation 13:18)