We all owe a great debt to technology. We enjoy driving our cars, using the internet, making coffee in our kitchens, and having indoor plumbing. As we look back in history, we recognize that living in this century we stand on the shoulders of those who invented the printing press, sparked the industrial revolution, founded railways, created telephones, air conditioning, modern medicine and so much more.
The Protestant Reformation freed mankind from a somewhat magical or mystical view of the material world. Although not alone among Christian groups, Protestants asserted that God created the universe—earth, sun, and all the stars—an ordered universe. And they emphasized, more than other groups, that the operating principles of the created world around us could be discovered and these discoveries utilized to benefit mankind. And so along came Newton, Faraday, Boyle, Kepler, Planck and many others.
Most of these discoveries and the inventions they inspired have been of great benefit to humanity lifting untold millions from a baneful existence. We have seen enormous progress. Out of the reformation there also originated an emphasis on the equality of all people as created in the image of God. Western democracies were birthed. Freedom, responsibility, progress, and other democratic ideals were promoted.
Yet as people prospered, they became more and more estranged from the God who created them with the very innate abilities that produced progress. With progress has come hubris, the belief in our invincibility, and a greatly diminished awareness of our dependence on God. We seem to think that nothing can stop the progress of civilization if we bow to science and technology while scorning so-called primitive beliefs in God. Along with this blindness to the real source of our technical benefits has come a carelessness about ethics and the ten commandments that defines the dimensions of a good and righteous society.
However, as the wars of the twentieth century and the chaos of international relations in this new century have demonstrated, there are destructive elements at work. What elements? The innate tendency of humans towards selfishness, pride, independence, violence, lawlessness,—in a word, sin. Mankind is governed not by a bent towards doing what is good and right but towards whatever will gratify innate desires. “For all sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Good intentions are often diluted and often misdirected by the prevalent imperfections and even evils of society in general.
Jesus came to redeem us from this destructive and selfish bent. He came to establish the kingdom of God peopled by those of ethical character. The beatitudes and the teaching which follows in the Sermon on the Mount defines character. (Matthew chapters 5,6,7) Of course, we cannot embrace such a radical change or even recognize its need without a heart change, the new birth. Jesus confronted noted religious scholar, Nicodemus, with this need in John 3; “You must be born again.” Paul writes, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5).
Thus, the gospel of Jesus Christ, including his birth, what he taught, his miracles, his death on the cross for our sins, his resurrection and ascension to heaven, and his reigning rule is the only hope, not technology. Without a revival of gospel-transformation society is headed for dark days.
In earlier centuries, philosophers laughed at the horrific images described in Revelation as mere literary imaginings. “A great star blazing like a torch, fell from the sky…There came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a severe earthquake…Every island fled away…from the sky huge hailstones” (Rev. 8:10; 16:18,21). Then came 1945 and the detonation of atom bombs. As the nuclear arms race accelerated, any earthly catastrophe became possible. Currently our TV’s report on terrible storms, tsunamis, earthquakes, and the approach of meteorites. With the rise of the internet and global communication–but especially the break-neck advance of Artificial Intelligence–ominous scenarios are no longer science fiction. Imbedded microchips limiting buying and selling? One world government? The images of Revelation have become all too possible.
Meanwhile, we quite rightly value free speech, free markets, democracy, and benevolent technology. But we must not forget that the most important value is missing from this list of values.
What is missing is a commitment to God. We think we are so advanced, so intelligent yet we have neglected the basics. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10) George Grant in his essay, which has much to say about the rise of technology, has written, “Reverence rather than freedom is the matrix of nobility.”[1] But reverence is now as scarce as hen’s teeth.
The challenge of the Master continues. Let us find certainty and true freedom through a recovery of reverence and faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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[1] George Grant, Technology and Empire, 1969, Anansi, Toronto, p. 43
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