The Digital Age is slowly dying. And I am ready to move on. I want to go back to when everything was analog, and that includes my faith.
In the Digital Age, everything has been reduced to bits of information. “Data,” if you will. “Let’s look at the data” has become a catchphrase. If it doesn’t exist in Big Data, it doesn’t exist. When they delete someone’s existence from the internet, it’s called “un-personing” them.
But what really defines each of us as a person? Is it our “data?” Is someone born in the middle of the jungle just as much a person, even if Google doesn’t know they exist? No- it’s our spirit that defines us.
The truth is, God knows each and every one of us- He knew us before we were even made. He knows everything about us, because we are His creation.
Something interesting I’ve recently stumbled upon is that more and more songs we hear online are produced, written, and even sung entirely by computer programs, sometimes incorrectly labeled as “Artificial Intelligence.” Just recently, the #1 album on iTunes was produced completely by AI, and this caused quite a stir in the Christian artist scene.
Forrest Frank (who I’ve not really been aware of until recently) understands why this is a problem: “AI doesn’t have the Holy Spirit.” And he’s 100% correct. So the further question is, what spirit does it have, if it has one at all?
The Holy Spirit is not digital. He’s not even physical, especially in the electronic sense. You can’t “download” God, He doesn’t operate like that. God interacts with us on a spiritual level, and if we are born of the Spirit, we interact with God in the Spirit as well.
The Spirit, and how we walk in it, is real-time, in the moment. It’s not an app you can download, it can’t be copied or duplicated. You can’t decompile it, compress it, or separate it into parts.
On other words, faith is analog. It’s raw. It’s not a series of 1’s and 0’s.
How do you see your faith? Are you trying to decompile it into little manageable bits? Do you treat it like a formula that you can figure out if you have enough data? Is it something you can turn on or off as needed?
‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ‘
John 3:6-8
As Christians, we need to be able to unplug, step away from the digital world, and listen to the still, quiet voice of God. Without this, we won’t be able to hear God, we won’t be able to walk in the Spirit, we won’t be able to be like the Son.
God does not exist as a “ghost in the machine.” He is everywhere, all around us, and His nature permeates everything that was created, including the spiritual world. The Digital World is nothing but a distraction from reality where God is. The digital world doesn’t exist in physical reality, nor does it exist in the spiritual realm. It exists entirely in the minds of humans, manipulated and controlled by people.
Do not love the world, or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
-1 John 2:15
If I had to define “the world” based on 1 John 2:15 it would look a lot like the digital world. The reason I say this is because in the physical world, even in the broken parts, there is a hint of the Creator still visible. It was created by God.
But the digital world wasn’t “created” by God, it was created by man, for man. And as such, “the world” that John talks about is simply this: things that were created by men, for men. It’s the simplest definition I can think of.
Now, I know people might be upset that I’m condemning online ministry, or something of the sort, but that’s not my intention. We’re allowed to use the digital world, but we’re not supposed to love it. Because it’s not a substitute for what’s real. The people using it are real, of course- but the digital world itself isn’t reality. It cannot become reality, and it’s not a replacement for reality. And you cannot love something that isn’t real.
God very much wants us to live in reality because that’s where He resides- in the physical and spiritual realms. And He wants us to love Him, because He first loved us. That’s real. That’s analog.
That’s faith.