As long as I can remember I’ve been a dreamer and a seeker. I’ve been trying to connect the dots, trying to put the puzzle together. It’s just the way I’m wired. I’m now sixty-one years old and I can say that, for the first time, a vague picture is starting to form. With this article I’m going to try to describe that picture . . .
Lie: Churches must be named.
Truth: Naming churches divides the body of Christ.
Where I live four churches lie within a quarter mile or less on the same street, each with its own designer sign. To get to my church I have to pass two of them. Something is wrong with this picture.
We’ve grown accustomed to the thousands of denominations that dot the landscape and even consider it normal. Most of the Christian church in America believes that our churches – to be a legitimate church – cannot exist unless . . .
Lie: Things I can’t sense do not exist, and if they do, it doesn’t matter.
Truth: Most of reality, even most of what is important, cannot be seen or sensed at all.
We see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. — I Corinthians 13:12
We experience so much today – our eyes are assaulted with images, our ears with sounds. We are drenched – overstimulated by a world of TV images, phone apps, YouTube, iTunes and more. The sheer volume of sights and sounds quickly overwhelm our senses. It’s no wonder we forget the unseen world when the seen-world fills our vision.
Lie: Passively looking at human images is harmless.
Truth: Passively looking at human images reduces our ability to relate to people.
Until the early 1800s the only images of the human face and form were reflections from reflective surfaces and portrait artwork. But George Eastman’s invention of roll film triggered a landslide that continues to build, even today.
It’s estimated here in 2018, that the average person in the western world sees hundreds, if not thousands of images every day, many of which are, or contain, images of human faces and bodies.[1] Since the advent of the Internet . . .
Lie: Evil is more powerful than good.
Truth: Good is much more powerful than evil.
God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it. He did not stop the crucifixion: He rose from the dead. — Dorothy Sayers, The Greatest Drama Ever Staged
Light overcomes darkness – every time; so also warmth overcomes cold, reason beats irrationality, and smiles and laughter win over frowns and frenzies. There’s a power in goodness that transcends and overcomes evil, but good power doesn’t look like ‘normal’ power because most don’t think of goodness as a kind of power. That’s because . . .
Success is usually measured in terms of enumeration – things that can be counted: bank balances, house square footage, annual income, tax dollars averted, etc. Success also inhabits the related domain of the numbered: number of subscribers, of customers, of widgets sold, number of congregants, Twitter followers, IQ score, etc. In one sense, there’s nothing wrong with this. After all, Jesus . . .
Lie: Passive use of the internet is harmless.
Truth: Passive use of the internet is participation in hidden, mass, personal data collection, analysis, and control and insidiously leads to idolatry.
At the time of this writing in 2018, the majority of people I see walking about carry their smartphone in hand. They’re either texting, surfing, watching, talking or just having it at the ready. And if it’s not in hand it’s not far from them. This obsession is well documented, both the good and the bad.
In Part 1 I laid out the highlights of our big data system structure and the four major components of this system of systems: the smart device the internet and wireless service providers the data collector/processor the control system This system of systems is unprecedented in history, and all of
Lie: Christians are sinners saved by grace.
Truth: Christians are saints who have sin.
This is a stark divide. Who are we – saints or sinners? We can’t possibly be both, can we? To get right to the heart of the matter, the real question is: do we have an un-eradicable, sinful nature carried over essentially unchanged from our state of unbelief? In other words, are we as Christians still essentially, in our hearts, sinful by nature? Can we get our theology straight on this?
Lie: The powerless are insignificant.
Truth: The powerless, teamed with God, overcome the powerful.
I’m sure that the giant Goliath mistakenly believed this same lie too as he sized up David. Goliath never considered that the reverse might be true. He couldn’t imagine that, in five minutes he would be dead. But such are the exploits of God who . . .
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