In the last issue we began to look at some of the revolutionary technology that is right at our doorstep. We’re specifically examining five forms of tech that will completely change the world (way more than people realize) over the next 10 to 20 years. To review, these five areas are: artificial intelligence, digital brain implants, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, and gene-editing.

There’s no shortage of doom and gloom warnings when such technologies are brought up, both from spiritually minded voices as well as naturalistic and scientific ones. All over, people are constantly warning about the end of the world, the mark of the beast, and other such dangers that these advancements will bring.

But our purposes here are different. Our desire and prayer is to give a healthy Kingdom perspective on this subject. This would certainly include areas for caution and sobriety; however, we believe there is a bright light shining through any dark clouds associated with these technologies. In fact, any darkness is only the birth pangs toward a new renaissance that, like the last one, will ignite reformation in the church and usher in a new depth of spiritual awakening throughout humanity.

In the coming months we’ll go through each of these five areas and look more intently at their place in the world. Our hope is to equip people not only with knowledge about these things, but hopefully the wisdom of heaven that knows how to properly steward such knowledge. For now, here is a little bit more of a primer for the journey. This is some food for thought that will become an ongoing nutritional snack of revelation along the way…

From Horses to Tesla

One way to understand this coming shift is by comparing it to the transition from horses to automobiles in the early 1900s. This shift will be much more dramatic, but the comparison can still communicate the heart of where we want to go in this series Birth Pangs and Renaissance. 

When the world moved from horseback to automobiles as the primary mode of traveling on land, there was a huge uproar and a lot of skepticism. People were worried about the dangers associated with these new “machines” that were suddenly taking us away from a more organic and simpler mode of life. These concerns have obviously proven legitimate, especially when you think about the millions who have died from the dangers involved in operating gas-guzzling (and now lithium-sucking) technology. When we moved from the slow pace of the horse-and-buggy to the faster speed of horsepower engines, there was a great sense of loss and a measure of anxiety over the fact that we were losing something of our humanity. This has certainly been the case with the overall faster pace of society over the decades and a growing lack of connection with the earth. Certainly the introduction of cars in place of horses has played a role in this disconnect. 

Yet despite all these concerns that came with the advent of the automobile, it only took about about 20 years before Henry Ford and his associates wiped out the horse market. Once Pandora’s gasoline box was opened, there was no going back. Today, you step into a car and don’t think twice about it. (Well maybe that’s not true for my philosophical introverts out there; but you get the point.) In the same manner, the technologies we’re discussing are on the way to becoming the new norm whether we like it or not. 

Now some people might read this and say that, in the end, the jump to cars was a mistake; that we might have been better off if we just kept ourselves to slow trots down dirt roads. But from a Kingdom perspective, I would disagree. Now there’s lots of other perspectives out there we could talk about. We could look at this from an economical standpoint, a cultural standpoint, a psychological standpoint, and more; but that’s not the purpose of this article. While not dismissing the value of these other categories, our focus is on the one perspective that should override everything else.

Tools in His Hand

From a kingdom vantage point, the use of cars has enabled us to fulfill the thing the world needs the most, which is the spreading of the Gospel. The spread of Jesus’s Kingdom is the true heartbeat and undercurrent behind human history. It is also the crescendo of where everything is headed. Though the enemy has used cars to kill lives, the Kingdom of heaven has used them to send messengers of light all across the planet in all kinds of different ways. This is because technology, before anything else, is a tool to advance the light of Christ.

Any minister of the Gospel who refused to use a car and stay on horseback would have completely fell out of touch with the world. You better believe Paul himself would have skipped sea travel if airplanes were available. The same goes with the use of the internet. Paul would have absolutely typed out some of his communications if that option were available. We can romanticize old methods travel and communication, but at the end of the day the apostles wanted to get the message out to as many people as possible. That was the point. They did not idolize the method but the Message. I think we can be fairly confident that Paul would have rejected any religious sentiment about only using certain types of travel or communication. That sentiment is the same as the “King James Only” mindset that won’t move on from wooden pews and organs, ever-resistant to the changes God has hardwired into His creation – including His new creation church.

Now this is not to say that using a scribe to slowly write on ancient parchment, or using an old ship to travel across continents didn’t come with a contemplative blessing. There was space to ponder and be aware of the presence of God in a way that we can easily lose today. Our faster modes of travel and communication certainly come with serious pitfalls. But this is not a cause to outright reject them. It’s an invitation to mature and live a life that can handle external speed with an internal rest. We see this reality mirrored in God Himself. God is not against speed. He compares himself to the fastest thing in the universe – light. And yet there is a perfect stillness of peace within the thunderous roar of his being. (Think Revelation 4 and 5 – a perfectly still “sea of glass” in the midst of really fast lightning.)

God Put the Ingredients in the Ground

We also need to recognize that God put the potential for these innovations into metals and other elements of the earth. Someone could argue that we could be mismanaging his creation with these technologies, but then you have to ask why he designed such things to function so perfectly when you put the ingredients together. There is something about computer chips, for instance, that works so perfectly that it seems the Lord always had it in mind for humanity to eventually harness electrons for these brilliant connective purposes.

(Now a rebuttal to this might be the invention of weapons of warfare. Such devices show that there are definitely ways we can mismanage God’s creation. Although, we could still argue there might be fun and non-lethal ways to use explosive devices; perhaps in a fully matured world such devices could be utilized safely. For instance, missiles could blow up threatening astroids, but never aimed at another human being made in the image of God.)

The main point here is that if someone is totally against the use of advanced technologies, I think they still would have to admit something: While far from perfect, cars are not evil – even though at one point, they were a dangerous and “advanced” technology. At worst, a level-headed critic might say that cars are a “necessary evil,” because there’s no way to live in this world by horseback anymore. Some technologies just have to be embraced.

And that leads us back to the fact that these technologies are here to stay. Pandora’s box is opened once again. There are many “horses” you may be using that are on their way out over the next 20 years. We are stepping into a world that will be filled with digital assistants, ridiculously fast computing, gene-editing, human-computer interfaces, and the like. Those who resist it would be like someone trying to Uber an Amish ride everywhere they go. It just won’t work.

So we can be against these things, or we can look for the benefits they might bring in the spreading of the Gospel. As we mentioned in Part One with the printing press, the church should be at the forefront of using technological gifts for the Kingdom. I believe this is the case with most of these technologies, if not all of them. (I also believe they provide an incredible opportunity for greater maturity as we disciple people who are thirsty for inner peace into a new dimension of contemplation and rest.)

Hopefully we have provided somewhat of a foundation to now have a measure of openness as we prepare to explore these different technologies. Our prayer is that the Lord would give His children both wide-eyed wonder and a resolute wisdom – innocent as doves and wise as serpents – as we see these innovations sweep the world in the days ahead.

And may the Gospel go forth faster than ever.