I guess that would be “L minus 17” if we were NASA, right? Anyway, 17 days to go!
This is just a reminder, because I know that I have some old email addresses for some of you, and of course our newsletter was quickly out of date when we changed to an “in-person” tour.
I’ve emailed as many of you as I could who receive our newsletter, and who will be in the area we’ll be in (I don’t think we’ll be able to make it over to the Thunder Bay/Kenora side this time 🙁 ). In that email, there’s also an up-to-date link with our schedule. The same link was in the recent snail mail we sent out, if you’re in Ontario.
So if you want to connect, contact us and we’ll see what we can do! We’re looking forward to this rare opportunity to see many of you. 🙂
In general news, our plans are slowly coming together. Lord willing we’ll be starting out in Southern Ontario, and heading north from there. Time is always far too short, but we’re looking forward to our time with you.
The Tower of Babel was an example of technology used to rebel against God. In some ways, it was the opposite of a new project – the Tabernacle. Read this carefully, with technology in mind (as we defined it last time).
You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.
Exodus 28:3
Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
Exodus 35:30
As we think about this, remember the three keywords from the first part of our Biblical Anthropology study. Truth – we know the truth through the Bible. Dependence – we depend on the creation, on other people. But most importantly, all of creation depends on God. And – Purpose. Purpose in life comes from God.
And remember, yes, there is purpose in life – in this life, in the world. God Himself became man, and so we know that all of time and space has a real and eternal purpose.
And as we see how knowledge, engineering, art, and science permitted the Israelites to build the Tabernacle, we recognize that technology has a purpose and an eternal significance.
Another example? When Jesus wanted to give us a way to remember His death on the cross, what did He use? The results of human technology. Wine and bread.
And the cross? Human technology.
Good technology is the use of our knowledge of God’s creation the fulfill the Mandate of Creation to glorify God and to bring others to Him.
We use technology for His glory. And we all use technology in some way. But we should be using it to help others and to glorify God. In our workplace. In our home. And if you’re in school, learn as much as you can about the creation so that you can maximize your use of it!
Think about the sound system in a church. A hospital. Highways. Antibiotics. A violin. A toilet. Soap. The internet. All of these things can be used for a good purpose.
Joy Ridderhof was a missionary in Honduras In the 1930s. But she became ill and had to leave, assuming that she would be back in a few weeks. But her health didn’t improve sufficiently.
She remembered a poor widow that she had left behind. The widow didn’t know how to read, and couldn’t even memorize a verse of the Bible. How could Joy help her now? And others like her?
Then she remembered how people in the village listened to music on their record players.
What if… what if she recorded her own voice, and sent it to her friend back in Honduras? And she did just that. And before too long, people all over Central America were asking for Bible recordings from Joy.
Later, a group of native Americans asked for recordings in their language. It looked like she would need some help!
Eventually, Joy started an organization. The Gospel Recordings Network, or GRN, now has recordings in over 6000 languages.
Here is a woman who used technology to glorify God all around the world.
So there is no doubt that we can cooperate with God to use technology for good things – to help others, and bring them to Him.
But this raises some questions. For example, is technology completely neutral? Or, maybe we should say, is an item made using technology neutral? Ready to be used equally for good or evil? Should we only evaluate whether a use of technology is directly sinful or not, or should we evaluate these new discoveries and applications in themselves?
It was a big question in the last century. If you can make a bomb that can destroy a city – should you? Or should you even continue to pursue knowledge that would allow you to do it (instead of pursuing other knowledge)? Because, after all, someone will figure it out if you don’t – what if it’s your enemy? Is the bomb bad in itself? What If it’s used as a deterrent?
And similar questions must be applied as we approach new technologies – and we will get to artificial intelligence, transhumanism, CRISPR and genetics…
As we continue our study of Biblical Anthropology, and specifically technology, we’re going to see how humans used technology, starting with the early days of our race.
Again, and we talked about this last time, very often when we talk about “technology” today we’re thinking about electronics and digital information. But on a basic level, technology for us as humans is simply the application of our knowledge in order to use God’s creation.
Abel used technology to construct his altar. His brother Cain used technology to build a city. Noah used technology to build the Ark. But let’s pause at a very interesting story in Genesis chapter 11. This is something that happened 42 or 43 centuries ago, a little after the Flood…
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Genesis 11:1-3
There you are – technology. They are applying their knowledge. What are they going to do now?
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:4
Now, when Abel built his altar, it was for God’s glory. These people are building for their own glory. And what’s the problem with what they’re doing?
Quite simple – they’re planning to disobey God’s command to fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). No, they want to all stay together. Their plan is to glorify themselves, and create their own purpose (in contradiction of the Creator’s purpose).
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:5-9
God had created humans with incredible abilities. But if they came together and gained knowledge at such a rapid rate, “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them”. That is, nothing evil. So God, in His mercy, divides the earth. He slows the progress of sin.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…
Romans 1:21-22
Dr. Peter Jones has called this “one-ism”. According to the world, the only thing that exists, or the only thing that is important, is the universe. We ignore the transcendent God and glorify ourselves, and the creation itself, as god; “…images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Instead of one-ism, two-ism knows the truth – that there is a Creation and a Creator. Two.
Or, instead of the word one-ism, we could say “scientism”. This is the belief that “science” is all that there is, or all that is important. Our knowledge, our technology, of this world. Science can resolve all of our problems and answer all of our questions eventually.
But thanks to God, and the imago dei, good technology is not lost completely. And in a sense, after the disaster of the Tower of Babel, we see technology redeemed many years later. Yahweh said to Moses: “…let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it” (Exodus 25:8-9).
God uses human technology – actually, a mix of human and divine technology – to glorify Himself. Humans return to using technology to glorify the Creator.
Within the limits given by God, people used their abilities and knowledge to build the tabernacle, and later the temple. Technology is always a cooperation between God and humans.
In fact, it’s interesting that when Samuel Morse (of the “Morse Code”) demonstrated the first long-distance telegram in the United States, the message that he sent was, “What God hath wrought!” – a quote from Numbers 23:23. All technology is cooperation with God in some sense.
Next time we’ll look at how we cooperate with God in technology, as we spend some more time in history.
(A continuation of the Biblical Anthropology series. Click the link to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).)
Here’s a question for you: What invention from the past 150 years has most transformed our culture?
Think about it for a minute. But I’ll give you my answer.
I think that one of them has to be the affordable, mass-produced automobile. And some people may say – what about the telephone? personal computer? television? the camera? nuclear energy? antibiotics? the internet? the microwave? Ah, I’ve got it – the tea bag!
All right, all of those were pretty important.
But remember, before the last century, human beings were moving at the speed of a horse – at the most. In fact, before telephones and telegrams, most messages could only move at horse speed.
But then, along came cars and improved roads designed for them. Things may have started slow, but in a very short time in world history, many families owned their own cars.
Cars were kind of like a semi-private home that you could take with you. Public transportation wasn’t quite as private, but it still provided you with amazing independence. It became very easy to leave your family and your community and be free from their protection. You could quickly get to a place where no one knew you, and escape again when these new people got to know you. 🙂
The world became smaller. But there was a problem – you couldn’t get mama’s cooking in this new town. Wherever you travelled, you wanted to know where you could eat. And so along came the fast-food chains – McDonald’s, Subway, Dominos. And now you would also want to shop in a familiar place – Walmart, Gap, Nike. How about something to drink? Coca-Cola, Corona.
Specialized institutions were better but farther away. Hospitals. Universities.
Modern transportation contributed to the destruction of families and communities by breaking centuries-old bonds. Modern transportation allowed us to visit families and friends who lived far away – and yet, it also encouraged us to live farther away. Modern transportation transformed the economy and allowed for massive global companies. Modern transportation made knowledge more available. Modern transportation allowed the rich access to almost anything.
And all that began in Canada with the first steam buggy in 1867. Well, really, the early 20th century, when car production exploded both in Canada and Mexico.
Technology has its benefits and consequences. And yet we rarely really evaluate the latter.
Technically, “technology” is not a thing, it’s knowledge. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as: “(the study and knowledge of) the practical, especially industrial, use of scientific discoveries…” You could say that we use technology to make things.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
…and then, God began to divide and organize. He used technology. And of course God used technology – or we could also use the word wisdom, to create everything in the first place – “the heavens and the earth”.
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
Proverbs 8:12
Down to verse 22:
The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
Proverbs 8:22-23
A little further down in the chapter:
When he established the heavens, I [wisdom] was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
Proverbs 8:27-31
Of course, the man and the woman themselves were technological marvels. As David says:
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:13-14
And God commanded the use of technology:
…fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Genesis 1:28
That’s from the Creation Mandate, and that’s what we should do. Use our knowledge to put the creation to good use.
But as we have already learned, humans are fallen creatures. And so we sometimes use technology for sinful purposes.
God’s creation itself is fallen and stained. But in Jesus Christ we see the ultimate triumph of technology. He took the form of a man. He died, but then conquered death. The resurrection is a technological triumph, a victory of knowledge, that only God could accomplish.
This will be a foundation for our future exploration. So let’s put it in just a few words as we finish for today:
God is the ultimate technician.
God commands us to use technology, and when we do, we imitate Him.
God triumphed over the limitations of human technology when He raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
That’s enough to chew on for today. But next time we’ll try to learn some things from technology in the Bible. You might be surprised at what we discover.
10 years ago today we were in the middle of a kids’ club in the community of Jesús María. Now, of course, many parents are delighted at the opportunity to drop off their kids and go be free for a while. However, there were some parents who stayed around – and we had a little Bible study just for them. For more, check out the post from this day in 2012.
So here they are, 10 years ago right now. Shari is in the picture if you can find her.
