'We Can See His Glory in the Technologies': Why the Church Should Seek to Redeem the Tech World

From smartphones to self-driving cars to space travel, there is no doubt that the evolution of technology is moving at warp speed. Our cell phones not only act as a computer, but they can monitor your heart rate, sleep cycle, and oxygen levels. They are also the gateway to our social lives.

So what does God think of our relationship with technology?

Author Tony Reinke tells CBN News' "The Prayer Link," Christians should understand that technology ultimately serves the purpose of flourishing God's people and preparing the global Church to be what the Bible calls "the bride" of Jesus Christ. 

"The whole purpose for the universe is for the Son to get a bride," he explains. "That's why everything exists. That's why every atom exists, that's why every person on the  planet, every political ruler...every smartphone, every camera, all the electricity we have, the self-driving cars, all of it exists within this one single plan for God to give his Son a bride, the Church."

In his book, God, Technology, and the Christian Life, Reinke says technology and faith are not mutually exclusive. 

"For a century now, the Church's theologians have implied that faith and technology really don't belong in the same conversation," he shares. "Human innovation is 'Babel-like, it's worldly, it's tainted top-to-bottom by sin, and potentially very destructive'.... that's largely what Christians have done for a century, and now we are in the most technologically advanced society the world has ever seen and the Church does not know what to say."

Reinke says the Church even falls short in supporting Christians who work inside major tech centers. 

"What do we say about war-tech? What do we say about smartphones? What do we say about social media? What do we say about what it means to be a Christian in the society that God has given us today? It is so technologically rich," he added.

Peter Rex, CEO of Rex, says Big Tech needs an infusion of faith.

"Absent an orthodox belief in God, tech leaders are striving to become gods themselves," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Worst of all, the lack of faith encourages a moral vacuum in which tech itself is held up as a god. Absent the guardrails that come from religious tradition, is it any wonder tech is used to censor and suppress? Is it any surprise that many tech companies are responsible for violations of privacy, value extraction, and the promotion of vice?"

"Tech needs an infusion of faith. It could make the industry more humane and enlightened and morally grounded, helping lift up those it currently pushes down," he adds

Reinke suggests it is time to bring God back into the conversation. 

"He is so worthy of our worship because He has given us all these gifts that we need to use discretion, apply ethics, to think through Biblically how to flourish with those tools but ultimately He is incredibly generous in what He has given us," Reinke shares. 

"We have smartphones in hand, not because we somehow impose the smartphone on creation but because the 60 elements that make up our smartphones were in the created world from the beginning of time," he continues. "God is allowing us to cultivate and develop His creation so that we can see His glory in the technologies that we use every day."

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