Let us begin with a simple categorization. Technology is a form of wealth. Progress is a form of wealth. This helps us get our bearings as Christians, because we should now know what to watch out for. If we were to look up “technology” in a concordance, we would find that the Bible teaches us almost nothing about it. If we were to look up the idea of “progress,” we wouldn’t find anything on that either.
But if these are forms of wealth, then we know that they are good things, blessings from God, and we also learn that they are very dangerous things. The Bible does teach us what our orientation toward wealth should be — that of glad suspicion, or maybe, on our gloomy days, suspicious gladness.
God blesses nations with wealth, and in the same breath He tell us to watch our step.
“When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God” (Dt. 8:10-20).
There it is in a nutshell. God gives us the wealth that we will be tempted to put in place of Him. When God does this, we may show ourselves ingrates by turning away from Him, wealth in hand, or by throwing the wealth to the ground in front of Him. Both are forms of ingratitude, both are grotesque. The only obedient response is to accept that wealth as the gift of God that it is, and to keep it in its proper creaturely place.
Because it is a form of wealth, the bias contained within technological advancements is toward forgetting God. Because it is a form of wealth, cultural progress does veer toward disobedience. Jeshurun waxes fat and kicks. What else is new?
But although there is a bias toward sin in the possession of such blessings, it is important to emphasize that sin is not resident within the things themselves. In this respect, it is like the old covenant — God finds fault with the people (Heb. 8:7-8). There is no sin in immunizations, in iPhones, in Google searches, in air travel, or in lasik eye surgery. To the extent it is progress, it is the result of God’s kindness as mediated through our culture as fruit of the gospel. To whatever extent it is not a blessing, it is not progress. If it is progress, then we must thank God for it — He is the one who gives us the power to get wealth, and there is no appropriate or safe response to that wealth other than complete and simple gratitude.
At the same time, we must recognize that things are muddled up even further by those people who call themselves progressives, who have absolutely no standard to measure progress by, and hence no way of defining whether or not progress has occurred. They like it this way because shortly after their policies kick in, everything starts to look pretty regressive. But they can’t see that because they insist on standing backwards, facing up on the down escalator.
Now Americans are bottom line people, and we like to check how the Dow is doing, and what the GDP has been up to lately. And so here is the take away cash value to this particular point. Pragmatism doesn’t work. Focusing on the GDP alone is bad for the GDP. It does not profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul, and there is an additional sting when he then loses the world too. Whatever you worship in place of God is another thing you lose. Whatever you surrender gladly to Him is returned to you, pressed down, shaken, and running over. As an aside, it is not as though the Bible doesn’t teach these principles . . .
There is not one blessing that we enjoy that was not given to us by the hand of Jesus Christ. If we insist on ignoring His lordship, His blood, His authority, and His kindness, then the time is coming, and now is, when He will chastize us by taking it all away. If we seek first the Kingdom, then other things will be added. If we don’t acknowledge Him, worship Him, or bow down before Him, He takes away that which was blocking the view, which in our case is all our stuff.
I have been arguing for a new Christendom, and this is the financial argument for it. We cannot have the blessings of God if we hate the God who alone can give these blessings. This is not merchandizing the gospel. Let us not teeter along on the rim of some health and wealth nonsense, but at the same time, let us give the steely eye of rebuke to those Christian leftists who want to dance along the other rim of disease and poverty, once those progressive ideals have been suitably renamed.
We need to learn how to be motivated by those things which God uses to motivate us. Among other reasons, the prodigal son returned home in true repentance because he was famished (Luke 15:17). His stomach was part of the reason for his repentance (Prov. 16:26).
But shouldn’t we repent for the purest of motives? Doesn’t work that way. If we had pure motives, we wouldn’t be needing to repent. When God establishes the nations of the next Christendom, He considers our frame. He takes us by the hand, and teaches us that He is not mocked — a man reaps what he sows, and so do nations. If we do it God’s way, we live in His favor. If we refuse to live God’s way, we suffer the consequences. If we go this way, good things happen, and if we go that way, bad things happen. And to keep us from getting confused, God gave us a book explaining all that.
Some might object, thinking that this is just simplistic in the extreme. They want a more sophisticated religion than that — for a sophisticated, industrialized, advanced nation. Well, just between us girls, I am not sure we are all that sophisticated. For example, to stay with the subject of wealth and poverty, if the Pacific Ocean were red ink, we are currently in a bathysphere in the Mariana Trench somewhere. And it was our smart guys what decided to do that, you know?