By Alan Dowd, byFaith Online.
Amid the constant distractions generated by iPhones and tablets, the contrived urgency of text messaging, the selfie narcissism of Facebook and Instagram, the torrent of Twitter tweets, and the tidal wave of online pornography, it’s easy to dismiss today’s technologies as beneath God’s purposes and out of bounds for His children.
But instead of surrendering the new frontiers of technology to an unbelieving world, we should follow the example set in Scripture and use the technologies at our disposal for Kingdom work — but wisely.
#goodnews
First things first: God’s people have always used technology to share His word, do their work, and change the world. Consider some of the highlights:
- Noah built a great seagoing ship to preserve the human race, which means he lived out one of the main definitions of technology: “a manner of accomplishing a task, especially using technical processes, methods or knowledge.”
- David used a sling — the high-tech, standoff weapon of his time — to slay Goliath.
- Solomon used stonecutters, carpenters, silversmiths, and surveyors — the very best Israel had to offer in technology — to build the temple.
- Luke was a physician, doubtless with training in the best Greek and Roman medicine of the day. The New Testament records times when Paul and Luke — a preacher and a doctor — worked together to heal the sick.
- Paul relied on transportation technologies to travel all around the Mediterranean. He drafted scores of letters and fired them off to the church. If he were in ministry today, he would be hopping on planes, Skype-casting, tweeting, and blogging.
- The church and its enduring mission to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth were transformed by the printing press — and again by the telegraph and telephone, and again by radio and television, and again by satellites and fax machines, and again by computers and the Internet.
In short, those who went before us did not reject technology or refuse to take advantage of it just because someone else misused it.