Biblical Anthropology: Everything Together (5)
Continuing our review of Biblical Anthropology, the next topic we looked at was Creativity and Communication. We talked about evaluating art, enjoying art, and using our creativity in an extravagant way to glorify God.
We also talked about how the world wants to control art, technology and communication. It’s much easier to control a digital world than the real world. It’s easier to control people when their business and their relationships are online. In this scenario, it’s easier to make the lie look real.
There have been many more interesting developments since that study, so perhaps it’s easier to see now than it was then. There has been a continued focus on getting businesses online, with ways to monitor not only their clients but also their employees. These technologies may have some good uses, but there is a lot of interest in using them to gain more control over others.
But in the end, we thank God for the gift of art and technology and words, communication. We want to use these things for the good of our community and for the glory of God.
Next we talked about the environment – another challenging topic! We drew these four principles from the Bible:
- We care for creation for the glory of God.
- We care for creation to benefit people (quality and length of life).
- We care for creation through local responsibility.
- We care for creation through our general obedience to God.
We can say that we care for creation from the point of view of God’s truth and justice. Because frankly, more and more often, powerful voices are not using truth, and are using non-biblical views of justice. And we have to admit that, in the end, there are a whole lot of people making a lot of money through their narrative of environmentalism. Which is often a narrative of fear.
I’ve been thinking about the idea of fear lately – controlling people through a crisis, or a “crisis”. Earlier I talked about the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In one scene, there is a financial crisis, and the financial institutions are in trouble. A rich man in town named Mr. Potter, “Old Man Potter”, offers to help everyone, giving them part of the money that the banks cannot currently provide. By doing this, he basically takes control of these institutions.
The main character, George Bailey, manages a small loan company, and is trying to convince a group of scared and anxious customers that they shouldn’t simply go to Potter for help. I love what he says:
Can’t you understand what’s happening here? Don’t you see what’s happening? Potter isn’t selling. Potter’s buying! And why? Because we’re panicky and he’s not. That’s why. He’s picking up some bargains. Now we can get through this thing all right. We’ve got to stick together!
It’s a Wonderful Life
Pretty good advice!
Stay tuned for the conclusion next time…