The Mix - Technology

I I want you to just do this question on tables. If you don't know each other, just say hello, so I'll give you a little bit more than a minute, introduce yourself. And then as quick as possible, that's what I'm asking. Look around. Just look around this building, look at yourself, and name all the technology you can in a minute.

Go for it. Okay. You should have named enough technology. Now just do this question on your tables. Again, just discuss it.

It shouldn't take too long. Are the are those things that you just named, are they good bad or neutral? Okay. Let's, let's get a definition of technology so we know quite what we're talking about. So the those have just come in.

We're talking about the Bible and Technology with thinking through what the Bible says. Here's the, Oxford dictionary definition of technology. It says the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. I think it's a pretty dull, a rather, limited definition of technology. So I've had a go, although I've nicked some lines from others.

Here's what I want to say technology is. I've done 2 because I couldn't put it all in 1. Technology is taking that from which is already there and manipulating it into something else for practical purposes. Slightly honing in what technology is or this first line is is a great line. I think from this book 12 12 ways your phone is changing you.

Technology is integrating mind and muscle. I really love that, and we're gonna see that the Bible suggests that as well. Technology is integrating mind and muscle, and then this is mine. It is the vision to see something that already is there, to be used for another for another purpose in order to ease a problem. Now when you start defining technology like that, it makes it a lot broader.

So we're not just talking about iPhones and that's why I wanted to to get what's technology in this room. We're not just talking about computers. We're talking about technology, and that includes everything that is made from something else. And so in this room, there's tons of technology, the room itself is technology. Your clothes are technology.

So technology, when we have that broader definition, which I think is right, can be a spade that you dig the ground with, 2 processing plants to make you know, paracetamels out of. That's technology, to the glass, to the water, the water you're drinking has so much technology in it because you've got rid of disease and all of that sort of stuff, from it. So Everything that is made is really technology, the seats, the table, as I say you're closed and so forth. The watches and all of that. And we're using technology.

We wouldn't have had a band, without technology. So technology is all kinds of things. And therefore, once you start defining it like that, you see that the Bible isn't some irrelevant book that doesn't deal with issues of the day. It's not some dusty old Bargevargita that just is entrapped in some kind of religious era that it was first written in. Actually, it really speaks as you expect the word of god too to the very things that touch our lives.

Because it has a lot to say about technology. Now in order to get an overview, and I'm just simply doing really an overview, of the what the Bible teaches about technology. I'm gonna take 5 major themes that you get in the Bible. It's a sort of summary of the bible, 5 major themes. And the first theme is creation.

We're gonna start right back in the beginning with creation. What do we learn about technology there? Well, we're told in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, so that's the first line of, the entire Bible in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. Now, what is interesting is that word create the word create or created is the word that explains exactly what god did just do. He made everything out of nothing.

So he wasn't using technology here. He made everything out of nothing. This is not god manipulating material that is already there This is god creating stuff that was never there. And so that's the word right at the beginning. Now, Of course he used his mind over matter, but he had to create the matter from his mind.

So it's completely out of nothing. So that's not really technology. Where it comes different as you read through the Bible is when god makes mankind. People. Because this is what we read.

There's a complete different word used here. Then the lord god formed. Do you see the difference? Formed a man from the dust of the ground. He formed from what was already made that he had already made.

He formed from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the lord god had planted. So there's another technological word. He had planted, a garden in the east in Eden and there. He put the man that he had formed.

So the first technological act in the Bible where technology modifies creation is the creation of mankind. And it's a wonderful thing because god had a vision when he looked at the dust that that dust could be something other than the dust, and he made this technical being called Adam. And Adam and Eve, of course, unlike the other creatures, in other words, god's image bearers, if you know the story, they would grow food, not just pick food, not just gather wild food, they would grow food, and they were to subdue the earth and they were to rule the earth. Not just respond to the environment like an animal might, but manipulate the environment for good, not just pick wild fruit, but grow it. So already, the design of man is technological.

And the design of man is for technology in order to manipulate the environment to subdue the earth to do god's work. So mankind is a technological being and he's given a technological job, really. Let's just try and summarize this so we know where we're going. Made by god, that's what people are, made by the god of technology, in the image of the god of technology to use technology to subdue the earth for the glory of god. Technology modifies what is already there.

It modifies creation. It reorders the raw material. And the use of technology was always in god's plan. You know, if you would I'd love to do more on this, but if you go to the end of the Bible, you see God fulfilling what he originally planned, which was a garden city. So in the beginning in Genesis, we just have a garden at the end of Revelation where we see god's plan fulfilled despite human sin and so forth, we see that there's a garden city in Revelation 22 shows us that it is a garden city.

So god's plan for mankind was to subdue the earth and to go from garden to garden city. And in order to do that, you need technology. So there's our first theme, first major theme, creation, creation helps us to begin to understand, technology. And when we understand that theme and we believe that theme, I want to say that it changes our view of how we work in the world and how we see other people. It changes our view of the world.

So important this, so important because you're going to see Christianity is different so different from other ideologies and religions. And on this 1 theme, it shows how very clearly different it is. So let's go back to, a working definition. Technology is integrating mind and muscle It is the vision to see something that already is there to be used for another purpose in order to ease the problem. So as I say, there are many, many belief systems.

There are many, many religions that think differently about the world and about technology and about people, many, many theories. It wasn't long ago that it was very popular to smash Christian thinking of creation. Now it still is, but it became very, very popular a few, few years ago. Mahatma Gandhi, the great, Hindu religious, and political leader, he didn't like Christianity on the whole business of using technology. He or even though he did use the spinning wheel and he tried to get that involved.

He thought that the Christian teaching of Genesis about subduing the world was was a bad thing. Prince Charles. Some of you may remember got on the bandwagon and criticized Christian thinking, in in saying that, yes, that Genesis in subduing the earth is the reason why we have so much pollution, so much waste, so much environmental problem. So it was very popular just to criticize this, but we'll deal with environmental problems in a minute perhaps, but at least they were admitting this in their criticisms that the Bible does teach that we use technology to subdue, subdue. And actually, that is vital.

That is vital. Now, we could give illustration of the illustration of this, and if you wanna read a book, and you wanna get it delivered quickly on Amazon. This is a book. It's quite a big book, but it's called the book that made our world how the Bible created the soul of Western civilization by a bloke called Vishnu Magglewaddy. Yeah.

Great name. He's an Indian. He's a terrific, a terrific writer. This is a terrific book. And he is saying to the western world us, are you nuts as only someone from outside could say?

Are are you seriously nutty? Have you lost your mind? This is what he's shouting at us. You are giving up on the thing that made you great, the Bible. You wanna live in a land that's never had the Bible.

And then he gives story after story of why, the Bible has had good effect and this teaching in particular of creation, in god creating us to use technology to subdue the earth. He gives the illustration of, of a woman carrying water. He says in Indian villages now, there'll be women that might spend 5, 6 7 hours a day carrying water on their heads, and it's often very bad water. And they they and it's always women and children. And they're carrying water on their heads all that time.

And he asks the question basically, why? I mean, a wheelbarrow isn't that hard to make, is it? Why can't the men at least make a wheelbarrow for their women? So that they could carry more water easier with a wheelbarrow. Why?

Why why don't they have a pipe It's got nothing to do with finance. It's not got to do with money. It's to do with the world view. And he makes this point that the trouble with Hinduism and Buddhism and, non Christian religions and philosophies is that people are cheap, women are cheap. Why would you have a wheelbarrow when the women can do it for you?

He's saying that is not a Christian understanding of why god created us to subdue the world and invent things like wheelbarrows and pipes. In fact, here's a quote, a culture will not invest in wheelbarrows or pumps. If its decision makers feel there is a surplus of time and women or manpower. Only a society with a theological climate that value as human dignity begins using technology as a force for human emancipation and empowerment. Do you see that?

You've only got to look at the Egyptians who built the pyramids with all of their skill of technology to build the pyramids. Why didn't they use that for their own people? Well, because they had slaves, and the slaves could build the pyramids, and they didn't care. So technology was only used to build a a great big coffin for the rich, but not to liberate people. Not to subdue the earth so that you could, help people.

So this theology is very important. He gives another illustration about Buddhist monks. He says, you wanna live in a society where there are these Buddhist and Hindu monks. He says the difference between the western monks, at least when they started, in the west, the Christian monks, and the and the Buddhist and the Hindu monks, is this creation. Both monks had a had a problem because they didn't have wives to carry their water or make their food.

But the western monks used technology. They worked technology to provide food not only for themselves, but for the poor. The eastern monks of the forced religion that didn't have this Bible view beg. He has this line. It's brilliant.

He says it's virtually impossible. To find a brahmin guru in traditional India who resembles the apostle Paul, a rabbi, who made tents for a living. He says the difference in theology is that 1 will make tents so that they can sell and care for people using technology. The other will not use technology but beg. The only technology they have is their little balls, begging balls.

It's amazing difference. Do you see the difference? Do you see how important this teaching is? So we need to get this. We're otherwise we're gonna have error If we're gonna think about, technology, here's an error.

Back to nature, no or little technology. That is not Christian theology. That is not what the Bible is teaching about technology. You'll hear people say, I gotta go back to nature. Bible says, no.

Right from the beginning. Don't. Go and subdue. Or we should have no or little technology. It's not the Bible teaching.

There's 1 last thing just before I move on to the next 1 is that, to the next theme or we're gonna sing a song, actually. Is just to show you how god sees technology as good. And that is when you go a little bit further on in the Bible, you'll see that god uses technology in worship, in the worship of him. So here we now are at the making of the tabernacle. And, all kinds of things are going on there, but just look at the verses that I underlined there in Genesis chapter 31 because it says I have filled him with the spirit of god.

So this man's filled with the spirit of god with wisdom and understanding with knowledge and with all kinds of skills, technological skills. And then there's all kinds of skills you know, artistic design, working in gold, working in silver, working in bronze, cutting and setting stone and wood, and in engaging all in all kinds of crafts. And then it goes on and says that he that god had given abilities to all the skilled workers to make everything that I have commanded you. In fact, this technological worship center, which was the tabernacle. So god is into technology.

It is for the good to subdue the world, and to also bring him glory. That's the first thing to know. We're gonna sing a song which is all about the lord Jesus and, him in Jerusalem. So let's stand and sing. Please sit down.

So creation is a big theme in the Bible, understanding technology. We need to understand that theme how important it is. And how it changes our outlook and how we look at people and how we look at manipulating that which is there for the good of subduing this world for the for the good of people. And, as I say, that book is really very, very helpful. On on all of that sort of stuff, when it comes to other cultures.

Okay, here's the second theme of the Bible, which is rebellion. So we have creation. The second theme is rebellion or the fall of mankind into sin. So you probably know the story in Genesis, chapter 3 when people diss disbelieve the word of god listened to the the lying snake, and they moved from being god's people in god's world to do god's work under god's word, to subdue the earth in that way. They moved from from god's way of subduing the earth to a rebellious plan, rebellious plans about subduing the earth and building their own world.

And so we're bound to see misuse of technology now. In fact, from now on in the Bible, every other, form or story about technology is in the fall. So it's always going to be tainted and even good things will will now be misused because we're in this this time of of rebellion. So where do we see, the, the first act of human technology? We've seen god using technology.

He creates out of nothing, then he uses that which is made to create this technological being man. Here, we see Adam and Eve doing the first act of technology. And It's interesting. They've sinned, they've disobeyed god, and they realize what they've done and guilt and shame comes in. And so here is the technology.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked and so they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. There's the technology words. They start sowing things together. In other words, they take that which is already made and manipulate it for another purpose. And that's the first use.

The first use of humans or the first time humans use technology is to cover up their guilt and their shame and hide from the god that created and made them. God's first use is lovely. He brings out from the dust. He uncovers from the dust. People for relationship.

The first use of adam and Eve in technology is to cover up and to hide and to go back to nature like an animal, like a beast. So it's interesting. Now, there are all kinds of pictures you can get if you put in fig leaf. I didn't realize that there's a whole company called leaf, which I I said I wouldn't put it in if I was a bloke. And, it's hard because Most of the pictures of Adam and Eve with the fig leaves, it isn't technology.

They haven't they really just picked up leaves and stuck it on 3 bits. Or 1 bit depending on what, you know, what you are. So I I found an original picture. I think these are brilliant. Look at them.

Look at that bloke. That's that's Adam. I mean, that's just wonderful, isn't it? And then she's got a load of sort of like, I don't know what they are. Kale leaves or something.

So there's the original thing. Now, what do we learn from from this then? From this first act of technology that people, people used. Well, here's the error. Technology is used to hide from god.

You wanna note that. Technology is used to hide from god. So if you know the story, that technology didn't work. It wasn't very good. God comes to their hiding place.

They needed more than an upgrade as well. They needed more technology from god. They needed animal skins to cover themselves up. Obviously, a picture of Christ, something has to die to cover your shame and your nakedness and your guilt. It's obviously pointing to Christ there right in the garden.

But maybe maybe there's just a hint that in the fallen world from now on, even good technology will always have a cost. There'll be consequences in this world to the environment. Maybe. Maybe that's there as well. Technology is used to hide from god.

We'll see more of that as we go on. So that's the first use of human techno humans use technology. Here's the second use in the Bible. This is, the story of Kain. So Kain is 1 of Adam and Kain goes and makes a city.

So that again is a technological place, a city. The story of Kain building the city. The story goes like this. If you don't know it, it's in, Genesis chapter 4, there's Kain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, and Kain kills his brother, Abel in a field Cain tries to cover up when god says where is your brother? He tries to say, I don't know.

I'm I'm my brother's keeper and all of that sort of stuff. That's where those phrases come. He tries to cover up his murderous ways, but god sees through that. And part of Cain's punishment is that he's pushed away from the place, from the field, from the land where he murdered his brother able. He's pushed out sent away from the land.

Again, it's very, you know, reminiscent of what happened with Adam and Eve. They disobeyed god in the garden. They're pushed out of the garden. Cain disobeyed god. He murders his brother.

He's pushed out of the land. Further east. As you go east, you go away from god. That's the picture in the Bible. And so he's sent away from the land as part of his judgment by god.

But then this is what happens. Just see what happens. He sent away from god as part of his judgment, Yeah. And this is what happens. Kain said to the lord, my punishment is more than I can bear.

Today, you are driving me from the land and I will be hidden from your presence. So it's he's cut off from the presence of god. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me. But the lord said to him, not so, anyone who kills Kain will suffer vengeance 7 times over. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put a mark on you to say that they mustn't kill you.

Yeah? Then the lord put a mark on Cain so that no 1 who found him would kill him. Now, do you notice in this story? I mean, there's lots to to do in this story, but there's no repentance of Cain. There's no repentance.

No sorry. He's just annoyed about or upset about his punishment. There's no sorry. I mean, how many eyes are in his sentences as well? It's all about him.

It's nothing to do with Abel or what he's done to his brother. So it's, I, I, no repentance, and then notice also even the the judgment of god on Caine, is gracious. It's a gracious judgment, and no 1 else is allowed to really bring that judgment upon Cain. But there's no pleading from Kain. But then here we go.

Here we this is a bit of story we need to get to. So Kain went out from the lord's presence and lived in the land of nod. I love that. The land of nod east of Eden. He's moving east, further east, further away from the presence of god.

Kain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Kain was then building a city and he named it after his son, Enum. Do you see what happens? Now what's going on here is he builds a city He's alienated from god, driven away from god into lonely wandering. What he should have done is to say, God, I can't take this judgment.

Would you have me back? How can how can you have me back? Is there a sacrifice Is there is there something like Abel did that would bring me back into your presence into a place of forgiveness where I could live a repentant life But no, he satisfies his own loneliness, his own alienation from god in technology. By building a city by making a noisy place where he won't feel his own loneliness and isolation an alienation from god that should have driven him back to god. The sense of loneliness should have said, I need you god.

But he made a plan himself to cover his loneliness. So here's another error about technology. Technology is, used often to stop or in his case his sense of aloneness and need for god. Technology, we use to fill our lives up to stop a sense of alienation and loneliness from god. That's another lesson that we learned.

So that's the second story of human technology. Let's move on to another 1. We come next again. It's in Genesis chapter 4. Genesis is just an amazing sealed bed of truths about everything.

You could take any subject and do this pattern, by the way, creation, rebellion, and then we'll see the others. And you get it all in Genesis. It's amazing. So we get this man Lamak. So things have moved on a little bit and here's, lamech.

And lamech, this is the third human use of technology It seems clear to me although we're filling in the gaps a little bit that he makes weapons. At least technology to protect himself. Here's the story. Lamack married 2 women. Yeah?

1 named Adder, and and another Zilla. Adder gave birth to Jabil. He was the father of those who lived in tents and raised life. Stock. His brother name was Jubal.

He was the father of all who played stringed instruments and pipes. Zillah also had a son Jubal Kain. Who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubulcane's sister was Nam. I don't know why we're told that.

Lamak said to his wives, so he gathered his wives round Probably while his son was playing the instrument. This is a technological family. They're inventing everything. They're manipulating that which is already made and making pipes and stringed instruments. You know, this this he's got his rock band there, he's got his fire there, he's got his forge going.

He's got tents up livestock, you know, technological, you know, breeding the best livestock and all of that. And he decides to gather his 2 wives and sit them down for a lesson that all wives need. ADA and Zillah listen to me. That's the first thing you start off if you have a wife. If you have 2, you have to say that loudly.

Wives of Lamack, you're my wife. Here my words. I've killed a man for wounding me. A young man for injuring me. If Kain is avenged 7 times, Lamach 77 times.

There you go. That's your lesson. You can go to bed now. I'll be in later. So there's there's Lamack.

Now, what's he doing here? It's a high-tech family They're inventing things, but what's his boast about? His boast is that he can defend himself better than god could defend Cain. Do you see that? I can defend myself way better than god can defend Kain.

He has no worries about god's laws in killing men. No worries about taking 2 wives. No worries about breaking anything to do with god and and killing the image of god, men. He has no worries about that because he can defend himself through his technology, and therefore he can defend any consequences of his sin. He can defend himself against.

You see that? So these forged tools of bronze and iron seem to be in the story to show us that this man He's got a pretty heavy fortress and defense system going on here with weapons. So here's another lesson of technology then. Another error. Technology seems to free us to sin and protect us from the consequences.

It seems to enable us to sin without anyone, you know, having the consequences of sin. Think about it. You can look at hard core pornography on your little phone, and it seems to say I can do that without any paying any of the consequences. You know, when I was a teenager, you if you wanted pornography, you had to go to the corner shop and nick it and it was quite hard. You usually had to have 3 blokes to do it.

You had to distract the man who was selling it And you had to have another bloke at least 1 to come and grab it because it was always top shelf as the bloke was out the back trying to get the very special thing I want for my mother's birthday and then you would chuck it out to the other bloke who would then run with it and then you would go and run up old Windsor I'm just saying this is what could happen. Old Windsor Hospital on the top of the roof look at it. So it was it was hard. And we, you know, people were often caught But here, in the comfort of my home, anywhere I like, I'm free to sin and I feel like I'm protected. That's an error as we'll see in a minute.

Okay. You gotta move on. Here's the next technology in the bible. Remember, we're thinking about rebellion, how people use technology to rebel against what god wants technology for. And this time, we have people made a tower.

It's the tower of Babor. Again, it's in Genesis and it's in Genesis chapter chapter 11. So let me pick up in some of the some of the story. So verse 3, they said to each other, these are people, these are humans now, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. There's the technology.

It's not just now mud. It's technology, it's bricks, and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone and bitumen from mortar. They, then they said, come let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for our selves. Otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

And I love this bit. But the lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were making. There's a sort of sense of like a parent coming down to look at the Lego that's been made Let me see or lying down and see how big the tower is. Let's just see how big it is. Oh, it reaches my nose.

So they're sort of you know, it's that sort of approach, that that god is saying there. But do you see what's going on here? They are absolutely full on technological geniuses. They're inventing, making, but they're making themselves god. They're saying, we are god.

We get to heaven. We rule. That's what's going on here. And it's saying that as a collective, all of us together will reject the idea of god's use of technology, for the fulfilling of his word for the subduing of the world for the good of people, and we'll use it as a platform for our own fanciful human autonomy. So here's another lesson to learn.

Technology can make us think we are self made and we are gods. Technology can make us think we are self made and that we are gods. So technology is not only the result of human beings being made in the image of a technological god, who made us through technology. But it is also the result of human fallen rebellious people who want to make themselves god. It's interesting.

I heard some lectures by an American, speaker on technology last week, and it was very, very helpful. And, he he wants to say that technology is why I asked that question at the beginning is is not neutral. He says it's not neutral. He says it's it can be used for good and bad But I thought it was a really good point. It's not neutral.

He says because the trouble with neutral just sounds like, you know, it's just nothing. It's just people will use it for good or bad. He says, no, no, no, The Bible says it's dangerous. Do you see that? I I think that's good.

So if you think of it as neutral, it's got no power at all. If you think of it as dangerous, we're to use it like we use electricity but be very careful. It's dangerous. I I I really I really like that. And here's a Psalm I think that helps us with thinking about technology in a fallen world.

The idols, at Psalm a hundred and 35 verse 15 and verse 18, the idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. There's the technology word made by human hands. Those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them. In other words, it's dangerous. You make things and they become a god and you will be mastered by them rather than them mastering you.

You'll may be made like them. You'll be made like them. And it's true. I mean, just look at the mobile phone. Just look at people walking through Kingston.

There was a time where you could predict the way someone walked. You could walk. We're British, so we don't like touching anyone. You'd get a big crowd. Like, if you were all walking towards me and as a British person, I could get through this crowd without touching 1 of you.

Because I could predict the way you walked. Now the only problem with the crowd was when there was a drunk in the crowd. He was unpredictable. Because he's walking along. You think he's going straight and something, he's off like this.

And but you saw the drunk. The 1 drunk in the crowd, you saw him, and so you would vie along there, but he would be sort of suddenly going off like this. He always thinks he's funny and he's not. But net the trouble is everybody's drunk now. Everybody's on the phone.

No one's not even looking at the next step in front of them. So much so that we're talking about and countries have it that you've gotta have things on the ground to tell you there's a road coming up because no one's not even looking. So much so that double decker buses in London are smacking people's heads and breaking their feet because no one's looking because we're like drunk men. You try to predict, okay, that person there that's on their phone. Okay.

I'm gonna go around here. Oh, now they're moving this way. Now they're moving that way. In other words, you become like that which dominates you. And that's what this verse is saying.

So please remember that technology isn't neutral. It's dangerous. And therefore, we need to hear the word of god and how to use it and what the dangers are. So that we can use it for good. Also remember that a lot of technology is made by ungodly men that want to extract you from your money.

So don't just assume that it's not dangerous. Don't just assume that. If Steve Jobs was not a godly man. So we need to be aware of the stuff that he made to manipulate us. To pay money to his company.

I I think, in 1 of the as I can't remember which it was. I think it's towards the end of the book, of this book that we're recommending to read this week in our media fast 12 ways your phone is changing. It's an excellent book well worth a go. He suggests that people, there should be people in the church and again, it comes back to how church helps us, which we're again, we'll see in a minute. But he you should have people around you that don't have the latest technology.

You should have people around you that don't have that latest technology because they'll be able to see things you can't. So that that's quite an interesting point. So here's another warning, here's another error. Remember the first error I was telling you, it was to say no to technology back to the garden, back to nature. This is the other way.

Full on unreserved use of technology. It's dangerous. Be careful. With Atlas, sing another song, Okay. Are you ready?

I sing crown him with many crowns. We're coming up to redemption, so that should remind us of that. Let's stand and see.