A heads up to all our friends in Sudbury! Or to those who are just curious! —-
Lord willing we’ll be in Sudbury on Sunday, at Lansing Avenue Baptist Chapel. The service is at 10am, and you can find the other details on their website.
I’ll be sharing a few glimpses about what has been going on for the past few years in Mexico, and also sharing a message from God’s Word which I hope you’ll find super helpful.
After the service we’ll be available for a Q&A time, which will include a discussion of how the COVID-19 situation has affected our ministry.
As we have worked through various topics related to Biblical Anthropology, we’ve had many many tricky topics to touch on. But this may be the most controversial one up to this point. One reason is that so many biblical ideas – and not so biblical ideas – are in churches themselves.
So before we start, I would like to explain a couple of things, and give you a bit of a road map to explain where we’re going.
These days, many of us are more and more aware of global issues. In my case, over the past few years, I’ve been very interested in the three countries of North America: Mexico, the USA, and Canada.
Some things that I talked about when I did this series originally were more specific to Mexico. Other things were more common to all countries in the world. You may find that some things have been common in other countries, and are now entering yours.
Talking about the topic of justice, those three countries in particular are quite different. But in a global culture, we need to see how some of the same ideas are developing in different areas. And so you’ll excuse me if I may talk about things that apply in varying degrees to different countries.
When we talk about justice, we may need to learn some new vocabulary and new ideas. But as usual, we’ll start by laying some foundations. And, as always, it’s most helpful if you’ve read all the previous posts in the series.
And I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll have questions, to say the least, about this topic. Because we have all been affected by the currents of ideas that are in the world around us. And I am certainly open to hearing your questions and concerns.
You will notice that, as you think about these ideas, you’ll start to see the applications all around you!
And I hope that, as we learn, we would understand how to “do justice”, as Micah 6:8 says.
But let’s start here:
You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20
This is a fascinating summary in the Law of Moses. You see, when we “do justice”, we are imitating God Himself. The “Song of Moses” in Revelation 15:3 says, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!”
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
Psalm 33:3-5
God loves “righteousness and justice”. A study of Greek and Hebrew will show how these ideas are closely related – you might say equity, rights, the right, and so on. And sometimes, in fact, the same word can be translated in different ways. So we will be talking about justice and rights, that is, righteousness. More specifically, how we administer justice on earth, through the authorities that God has given us.
So here’s our plan for the next while. We’re going to look at the topic of justice from 7 different perspectives, 7 points of view. As we go, we’ll also try to look at how the world of today is trying to twist and distort these 7 things. And we’ll start with another look at something that we’ve discussed before – that ever controversial topic of – truth.
To all our friends in Southern Ontario! If you would like to come and see us and hear about what’s been happening in Mexico, come this Sunday to Garside Bible Church in Hamilton. 🙂
The service is at 10:30am, and Lord willing I’ll be preaching and sharing a few pics. Shari and Nathanael will be with me, to answer all your burning questions after the service. 😀
You’ll notice that in our Biblical Anthropology series, I haven’t given detailed answers on each topic – this would be a much, much longer series if I attempted that. Instead, I’ve touched on a lot of topics to start us thinking – hopefully applying God’s Word to our situation.
And we need to keep going back to the basics. As we discuss technology, including that device you may have in your pocket, we start at the beginning.
We recognize that truth comes from God. We recognize that we depend on Him. We know that our purpose comes from Him.
We also know that we live in a fallen world, and that Satan is active here. We know that there is salvation in Jesus Christ alone, and that He is our true hope. We also know that we must share this truth with those around us. As we have said, we have a purpose in this life.
As we get down to practical application, I have appreciated what Tim Challies has written on this topic in his book The Next Story. Although a few years old now, it has some great principles that apply to all our modern times.
One of the useful tips in the book is that we “talk to” our devices and ask questions. These are questions designed to help us accept (or not) new technology with open eyes, and guard our hearts while we use it.
I encourage you to get the book for yourself, but here’s a brief summary of some questions to meditate on in the mean time. (These are paraphrases, since I’m translating my notes from Spanish.)
Why were you created? In other words, what was the original purpose of this device/application/etc? For example, PowerPoint was created for businesses. How might this affect its use in religious contexts?
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Whose problem is it? Maybe the manufacturer believes we have a problem that we don’t really have. Or maybe this device solves a problem that the manufacturer has, but not a problem we have!
What new problems do you bring with you? Remember, we’re talking to our devices here. Even if the technology solves one problem, it may create several other problems. We need to think about that before we adopt it in everyday life.
What are you doing to my heart? Why do I really want this device (keep in mind that there may be many reasons, both good and bad)? Is this a potential idol in my life? Or does it increase the power of an idol in my life?
There’s a lot more that we could talk about, and Lord willing we will talk about more related to technology in future posts. But these questions leave us with a lot to ponder before we go on.
As you think about technology over the next few days, I would encourage you to read (or re-read) the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. And meditate on your personal purpose, as a human being, and as a Christian. How do you focus your life? Why do you spend time and money on that which you spend time and money on? Think about what you actually did each hour for the last few days, and take a look at what’s going out of your bank account.
And may we learn to glorify the Lord, fulfilling our true purpose, with all of the devices and apps and everything else that we use – instead of trying to build our own towers to “make a name for ourselves”.
We’ve been so thankful to enjoy some time with our immediate family in Canada. And now, we’re looking forward to seeing more family, and many friends, as we tour in Ontario!
Trilliums in Ontario
If you’re in Ontario and don’t have our schedule, please contact us. We have a regularly updated schedule online. We will be sharing at least on three Sundays, and if it works out to see you personally and/or do a Bible study with your small group (I’ve been working on a study just for you! 😉 ), we would love to make it happen.
We’ll be starting out in Southern Ontario, and later in the month, we’ll be working our way north.
Thanks for your prayers as we travel! I hope you’re having a great summer. 🙂
Continuing our Biblical Anthropology series, we’ve been talking about some of the conflicting views on the future of humanity. Should we faze out the human race (antihumanism)? Create a new species (posthumanism)? Significantly augment the human race, using technology (transhumanism)? As we’ve seen, all of these have significant problems.
Today we’re going to take much of what we have already learned from God’s Word, and continue to apply it.
In 2013, Google started a new company with 1.5 million dollars, called Calico. Calico’s purpose is to resolve or eliminate death itself.
Each year, people spend a small fortune fighting against aging and death. And part of this quest can be a good and valuable use of creation. But we as Christians know that humans will never reach the goal of conquering death. It’s not Calico, but Christ who conquers death.
As I was originally preparing for this study at our church, I listened to a conversation between Professor Rosalind Picard of MIT, who is a Christian, and Professor Nick Bostrom of the University of Oxford, who is not a Christian. As I remember, Picard asked Bostrom if he would like to live together, and why. He stumbled and mumbled and really had no good response. How sad that people like Professor Bostrom is trying to learn about eternal life from technology, but he has no idea why he would really want eternal life!
And so the world asks, will humans learn to live forever? Or, perhaps, we face a more dystopian future, when artificial intelligence conquers the world.
There are two types of artificial intelligence (AI). There’s general, or strong AI, and there’s narrow or weak AI. For now, we’ll use the terms strong and weak.
Weak AI is what you have on your phone. That’s how Facebook knows what to try to sell you. That’s how your computer can recognize your face in a photo. It’s a type of learning that is automatic, focused and specific, in a certain context.
As with any technology, we should carefully decide if we should use it and how we should use it. And remember, AI is only doing what its programmer told it to do.
For example, autonomous cars are being developed with AI. And unless the trajectory changes, that’s coming in a big way to the car dealership near you. But these cars are only as good as their programming. And that brings us to a question. If the AI in your car needs to make a decision, should it prioritize the person in the car, or the person in the other car? Or should it try to save the maximum number of lives? Should it sacrifice 10 lives to save one? Or sacrifice 1 life to save 10?
And maybe you could add your own questions. But here’s a more basic one: Is the programmer following the wisdom of God’s Word, or inventing his or her own morality?
All that is weak AI. Strong AI actually doesn’t exist, but it’s the AI that we often see in futuristic movies. Vision in Avengers. He’s an intelligent being created by creatures. Or, of course, Data of Star Trek.
Strong AI is a general intelligence that can learn and function in many completely different contexts, and learn about new contexts, as human beings can.
Although we already have machines/programs/apps that can appear like and act like humans in a limited way, we are actually very far from strong AI.
And let’s say that we’re closer than we think, and that we actually create strong AI – an intelligent “being”. What won’t it have? It won’t have the imago dei. It was not created in God’s image. Strong AI will never replace humans.
But weak AI? We already use it all the time. In fact, it affects you whether you think you use it or not. In China, there are face recognition cameras everywhere. The government can always see what you’re doing and the government can decide if you’re behaving according to their standards. Do you have any cameras up in the country where you live? Just asking.
The fact is that today’s technology has the potential to give people with money and power more money and power than they have ever had in history. How do you think they will use that money and power? We need to think about these things in biblical categories.
And many of these topics do actually relate to that device that many of us may have in our pockets right now. A smartphone.
Next time we’ll look at some principles to help us apply some of what we’ve learned to that phone in our pocket – and other devices that we may come across.
