The New Divinity

 

The Human race is experiencing chronic levels of loneliness, stress, and even mental illness. Suicide rates have increased to alarming levels, and experts are scratching their heads to understand why this is all happening. I believe the answer lies in technology. Specifically what I am going to call the “New Divinity.” 

Once upon a time we associated “All Knowing,” or Omniscience with God alone. Our Lord Almighty was the one who knew all. Then Adam and Eve partook of the Forbidden Fruit, knowing good from evil, and this brought them shame and fear, and stress, because humans are not meant to be the judges, God was suppose to be The Judge, with Him even saying, “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” (Genesis 3:22). This was first step of mankind trying to like be Lucifer, be like God, and the price was expulsion from Paradise, and Sin, which leads to death. However, we have not ceased in trying to take our Creator’s place, we now have taken another step, in addition to knowing good from evil, we have endeavored to now be All Knowing. The advent of the Internet, has allowed unfettered access to everything that can be known, and so that is a Omniscience of sorts that is again us trying to play God, and guess what the result has been? Stress, mental illness, loneliness, and a feeling of insatiability to that makes us feel on edge. We are experiencing the same symptoms Adam and Eve did, because we are trying to take God’s Place as the All Knowing One with the help of technology, we are subverting Christ in whom is all knowledge resides, “Christ, in whom all the storehouses of wisdom and knowledge are.” (Colossians 2:2-3). Naturally the strain of this attempt to take God’s place and know everything is tearing us down, and the effects are felt as we see more and more people going on killing sprees, and people getting chronic depression, stress levels that give them diseases much earlier in life, and a pervading loneliness because unlike The Holy Trinity who is God and Three who can talk among themselves, we are becoming lone islands of knowing it all, and this isolates and makes us even have enmity with others as we seek to be the more Omniscient one. 

We have bitten into the next apple of Satan, who tried to take God’s place, “All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you.

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!

You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”l” (Isaiah 14:11-14). We try to be judges like our ancestors, knowing good and evil with our laws, which are being manipulated by evil people and ensnaring innocent people. Now with the help of Internet we are trying to be All Knowing like God, with even AI (Artificial Intelligence) being a sort of God replacement so that we can get the answers we would go to Him for. And does any of this bring us peace? No, we have become more and more unsettled, and disturbed, because we The Created are trying to take the place of the Creator in our lives, and it is exhausting us spiritually, mentally, and physically. There is a reason there is greater peace opening a Book and learning from a scholar or the Bible, trusting the expertise, and not using the internet with its infinite rabbit holes. With the book we are disciple, a student, learning and testing what is said in peace, but the internet is a different ‘beast’ altogether, it keeps you in the Omniscient trap, bidding you to scroll more, open more videos, and keep assimilating more information not necessarily because you want to know it, rather because you want to be All Knowing, even if you cannot admit that. It is the reason you hear people saying, “it’s my truth,” because they believe they are Omniscient, that they are the new divinity of knowing all. 

So far we have sought to replace God with being judges of good and evil, the second is we seek Worship, those in Bands and celebrities are worshipped, and if you look at how they do replacing God The Trinity who alone should be worshipped, they end up on drugs, worn out, and turning into cruel people with little privacy. Now we have moved to Omniscience, to knowing all with the internet. What comes next is Omnipotence, which has been achieved to an extend with atomic power, which Oppenheimer seemed to realize he was opening a Pandora’s Box, indeed taking God’s place by splitting the Atom in order to destroy life rather than create it. 

If we look at all of these, Adam and Eve with Knowing Good and Evil, Worship as Kings and Rockstars, the Atomic power that is omnipotent, and now Omniscience by us with the internet being able to know almost anything; we have been steadily behaving as Lucifer, seeking to take God’s place, which makes us antigods and antichrists. We have been tricked into following in Satan’s footsteps, where we want to as he said in his pomp and in Eden “you will be like God,” (Isaiah 14:14, Genesis 3:5) but the cost is mental illness, endless stress, disease, restless souls, loneliness (playing God makes you lonely when you arn’t the True Triune God), and finally it makes us at odds with the Only One who can give rest to our souls, Jesus Christ, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.].” (Matthew 11:28). 

I am not saying the Internet, Judicial System, Music, or even Atomic Power must all be destroyed. I am saying that we have taken these tools to become gods, and the strain is more than we can bear. We are not meant to play God, but to love God, and each other, “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-30). Our souls and bodies cannot handle the strain of trying to be Judge of Good and Evil, Being Worshipped, All Powerful, and All Knowing. We were made for love, not these things, and it is these misguided ‘devotions’ that are destroying us. The answer is we have to turn back to the LORD God, let Him be judge, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” (Matthew 7:1), “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12), “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God,” (1 Corinthians 4:5), and “May Yahweh be the judge, and let him judge between me and you, and may he see and plead my case,” (1 Samuel 24:15), give worship only the The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, “Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only,” (Matthew 4:10), accept that only God is All powerful, “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty (All Powerful) reigns!,” (Revelation 19:6), and finally let God be All Knowing, “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20), “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure,” (Psalm 147:5), and “Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him (Lord God) who is perfect in knowledge,” (Job 37:16). 

Even with the Internet we see dimly, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely” (1 Corinthians 13:12), for much in science is theories, but God knows the total reality, giving us glimpses. I am not saying to boycott the internet, but to be mindful of getting into the trap of trying to be All Knowing. The Internet is a tool like anything else, but it can be a trap of the Evil One to tempt you into replacing God with yourself. Amen.