Episode 220 Show Notes
Should Christians Resist Advances in Technology?
From the Show
As communicative technology advances, is it necessary to be physically present in Church?
I think of the picture in Life magazine, right after victory in World War Two, and you've got the sailor picking up a woman on the street in New York City, Times Square, and swinging her around. When a wonderful event happens and an announcement is given, you hear it over the loudspeaker or you see it on TV, and you get the news, it can be so great that you just grab any person on the street and hug them. Why? Because it's a shared event. The event, the announcement makes a community of people who feel bound together by that announcement. And that's exactly what happens when we go to hear the king stand on the balcony and give his announcement. It turns atomistic individuals into a church, into a body, and that body is not just invisible, it's visible in this world. You go to a particular place to be with that body. There was an ancient heresy known as Gnosticism that said, basically, physical things don't matter. It's only our inner spirit that matters. And I think there are a lot of Gnostics in America today, people who think that basically, you can do all your “spirituality” online, it can all be digital because our bodies don't matter. But, you look again and again to the role of the body in the New Testament, Paul, for example, saying in Romans 12, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice,” it's not just our souls that are saved, it's our bodies. And so we have to bodily show up and be part of the body of Christ, that is a visible local community. — Michael Horton
Questions in this Episode
1. Can you expound on how baptism is a comfort and assurance to believers that they are in fact raised to new life?
2. It seems like in every generation the church changes because of technological advances. As we continue to advance our technology making it less necessary to go to a building and be part of a church, what do you think we lose? Why should we hold on to going to church to be physically present?
3. In 1st John 5, are we supposed to be keeping Christ's commandments or God's commandments? Are they the same? Does this refer to the ten commandments or something else?
4. Can you explain the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22?
Resources
How to Fight Off the Devil’s Desperate Attacks
Triumph of The Lamb by Dennis Johnson
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