Digital Sins in a Digital Generation

Koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Department of Liberal Education

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

Ever thought why Christ the Messiah did not come directly after Adam and Eve sinned? Why not at the time of the Flood in 2523 BCE. Why not directly after the cross? Or in the days of John the Revelator? Why are we now 1982 years after the cross? And still on this earth? Why did God drag out, it seems, history over six millennia?

For me the answer lies in the manifestation of variety of sins. Every generation saw the invention of new sins. Every generation tried to outsmart the previous one in inventing new sins. Our generation has never been for 5000 years, and it was God’s intention to allow sin to be manifested and its results made clear in every generation and it took 5800 years. Then knowledge increased as Daniel 12 predicted and that is where we find ourselves today: the Digital Generation.

But, just as all other generations before were inventing sins, so our Digital Generation is inventing digital sins.

In every generation it was the objective of God to prove that the remnant and faithful could overcome the newly invented sins of that particular generation and still be believers. That is true about or Digital Generation as well. God wants to demonstrate to the unfallen worlds the disasters that result from Digital Sins and also how people can overcome these sins in this generation.

To live in a technocratic world that is more powerful than previous generations is not a blessing per se. It is a responsibility and brings us with the same choices to make as 5800 years before. The Bible as God’s Revelation is still the standard of living and choice. It is not suddenly a book for those days and it can only “meant” no longer “means” as one Loma Linda Professor said at a conference at Avondale College in 2011. Just because the people of the Bible lived in more or less similar conditions as those of people for 5800 years before the so-called “Enlightenment” and Industrial Revolution, does not mean that we are more advanced and they are less. Knowledge increased, because the Bible predicted it. It was weighed and measured by the Upper Hand for this time and only this time. And with a reason. If we, as God’s people, can overcome these digital sins, then God can proof to the universe that there is no sin under the whole heaven that can captivate His faithful.

So instead of been wrapped up by technological advances and the latest fads and games and programs, we should keep perspective and faith. The ‘don’t touch rule` of 5800 years also is relevant to the Digital Generation. Image and Text has not changed different from that of 5800 years before. Ezechiel 16 is a complaint that people in the Exile period were making images of gold of men and these female prostitutes had intercourse with them. Image and imagination running wild. Is this not what we have in games, what we have in films, what we have in movies, in books, magazines, fashion, trends, smartphones and virtual images with touch screens? The only things that changed are that virtual images can now be sent globally immediately. They influence more people to the worse than before.

Is it not still the appeal to the senses of 5800 years before that is navigating sins of the Digital Generation? Has Satan modified his onslaught to cater for the Digital Generation? In what way? Most of the mass murderers in the USA and Norway became that way due to an overdosis of virtual imaging. The brain could no longer stay normal and was affected. The text messages of the games in game-rooms are breathing militancy from A to Z. There are no innocent games. So it seems. What is existing is just linked spectrum. Do A and you will see nothing wrong in doing B and do B you will feel comfortable with C and finally Z is the murder or suicide. The images are so fast that there is no time to make moral and adult decisions to safeguard the health of your brain. Welcome to the Digital Generation and welcome to Digital Sins. God calls us out of Digital Babylon and asks us not to be partakers of her digital sins.