How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

People will claim, “We obey the Bible.” We follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, showing forth a spirit much like his. Yet, this couldn’t be further from the Truth.

One important act of Jesus Christ was his journey into the Wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, where isolation connected him to Reality. No phones. No computers. No people. No Religion. No Church. Nothing but the Wilderness to appease the senses, in a lonely, but necessary environment where Humans can return to their origin. We also find this act in the Old Testament, where people spent time in isolation, deluging in Creation.

Today, we are living in much different times. The Christian ideal comes from a Building, Group, and an overwhelming schedule of Religious responsibilities. By the end of a work week, we’ve not only given a majority of our time to our employment, we are also inundated with Church, fundraisers, out of town meetings, and a host of other activities that can leave us empty in understanding and truth.

Can you imagine spending 40 days in the Wilderness, alone? What would happen to us and our ideas about life and faith if we were to totally disconnect from our daily woes, while connecting with only what G-d can create? Many wouldn’t be able to get through the first day, as the addictions of Society beckon the heart with great power to come back for more. We would realize how shallow our faith really is, and how in bondage we really are even though we claim liberty in our faith.

Instead, we run back to our buildings, our comforts, and our manmade inventions. Our phones have become the “Lifeline”, our jobs have become our “Security”, and the modern Society we live in is nothing more than a “Noose” around our neck. We don’t take the time to stop everything, put the brakes on, and find a mountain where we can experience the Wilderness to the point of a life changing experience.

How can we be the Children of "Light", when we don't even understand the basic element of where we came from; Dirt?

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

I think that wilderness experiences can be metaphorical. In my case, God moved me across the country, away from all my friends and family, away from my happy church bubble, and a job that I loved, to a place where I only knew my (ex-)husband, and he spent every waking hour playing video games.

For years I asked over and over again "Why, God, Why?" until finally he told me:

Deuteronomy 8:2-3
New International Version (NIV)
2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

And you needed to learn all that? And that was the best way God knew of to teach you? :hmmm

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

The way I view wilderness experiences is that it wasn't God's will necessarily, but that He is there and we have to trust the journey.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Ehh...I don't know that I looked at it that way. I don't know that I subscribe to the "God makes these things happen" as much as I believe that he uses the things that happen to teach and strengthen us.

I don't think that I ever would have had the courage to question the things that I had been taught, if I hadn't felt I had nothing left to lose.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Hello friend,

You are a good thinker.

Paul went into the wilderness also.

Suppose that the isolation is to connect with GOD.
GOD does it in the city also.


Pss.4
[3] But know that the LORD
has set apart
him who is godly for himself......


The devil (??) takes a back seat.

Isa.45
[7] I form the light and I create darkness.
I make peace and (I) create evil:
I the LORD (? Father or Son) do all of these things.

Regards...

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Hello NotforSale,

Tell us more about your own 40 day wilderness experience. What was it like? What did you learn from it? Thanks!

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Probably 40 days of grumbling

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Beware the wilderness. Satan will surely meet you there.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

That is on the BAD side.
What may it be on the GOOD side.

Regards,

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

So has NFS started his 40 dayer yet?

Just wondering.

God is probably shaking His head and saying to Michael, NFS is always complaining but now he can only speak to the geeko's and lizards.

At least we will all be blessed when NFS comes back from his journey.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

The title and the content don't align. They don't have anything to do with each other.

If I told my wife, kids, and my job I'm taking off for 40 days and nights, I would come back family-less, homeless, jobless, financially ruined and out of the will of God, no matter how much I claimed it was from the Holy Spirit.

Christians can be sons and daughters of light without literally doing exactly what Christ did after His baptism.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Darkness comes in many forms, VS. When people lack understanding, they are in darkness. You look at today's Generation, where everyone is "Connected". This covers people in illusion and fantasy, where relationships end with a "Text Message" and the next Video Game.

Disconnecting for over a month would be life changing in so many ways.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

I do spend quite a bit of time in the wilderness, but not 40 days. Unfortunately, I'm a slave to the "System", so I try my best to make the most of my free time. I also live in the Northwest, where solitude is almost at my back door. I cycle (ride bicycles), averaging over 5000 miles a year, and most of that riding is alone. I use this time to try and reconnect with the basics of life.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

I agree. There are many metaphorical concepts in Scripture. But can you imagine being "Disconnected" for 40 days? I believe the heart would be cleansed of many things, and many ideas.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Why wouldn't it be "G-d's Will"? Nothing compares to Creation and it's many wonders of Reality.

We moved to Alaska many years ago, where the wilderness was right out our back door. Bear, moose, caribou, and many other animals surrounded our place and the moose would bed down in our front yard.

My children tell me to this day, "That was the greatest experience of our life!"

Here is a picture of our home, where solitude and nature came hand in hand, and our lives were changed forever!

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Only if you were there! :pirate

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

The only "Satan" I saw were these...(this video was taken by where we lived in Alaska). These animals can decapitate a man with one swipe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGwUpM9QryU

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

:thumbsup

I actually did "unplug" for 40 days about 7 months ago: no t.v. (including news), no internet (except for business email), listened to only worship music, and doubled my prayer time daily. It's hard to put into words the new dimension of peace that I experienced during this time, and the deeper communion with the Lord. And I'm a person who prays and studies the Word every day. But just eliminating all the "noise" in my life made such a difference! I'm currently preparing to do this again.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

:thumbsup:thumbsup

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

When I was in college several years ago, I worked for the Center for Students with Disabilities. One day, in the office, I was speaking with my supervisor, and the conversation turned to God.

Not having a Bible with me, we used her PC and I taught her a Bible study on the Gospel using www.biblegateway.com.

She attended church with me that night and we baptized her in the name of Jesus Christ. She received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God did a deep healing upon her heart. It was beautiful.

Also during college, I made a friend with a Japanese student, who then reached out to me because she had a friend back in Japan who was studying the Bible, but because of the nature of Japan's religious culture (or lack thereof, especially when it comes to Christianity), she didn't have many people to fellowship or study with. So I began teaching her a Bible study through email. She eventually came to the US and we had a chance to meet.

Prior to that, i.e. before college, when I had first become a Christian, I was witnessing to people on a non-religious message board. I made a friend who lived half the country away. One day, a couple of years later, he reached out to me, depressed, lonely, needing God. I evangelized him through email. The Holy Spirit descended on him as he read one of my emails, and he began attending an Apostolic church, and was immersed in the name of Jesus Christ.

The point of the story? Technology does not have to be a distraction that causes a Christian to fall into darkness. It is a tool, like any other, that can be used for the glory of God.

Should people walk away from it time to time? Yes, if their inner man is in needed of renewing, spending time with the Lord is the only thing that will satisfy. But it does not mean that the Christian faith as a whole, i.e. "Christianity", is "shrouded in darkness" simply because many people in this country (or other parts of the developed world) are lost in a malaise of techno-burnout.

The truth is Christianity is alive and well and is a light to the world, and is flourishing all over the globe. The current greatest revivals are happening in parts of the world where no technological advances exist, where no telecommunications infrastructure has been implemented. Explosive revivals all through out the poorest communities of the world, without in-door plumbing or safe drinking water, let alone smart phones, are happening as we speak.

Estimates of hundreds of millions of people in the world have been baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, to the point that Pentecostalism is giving Catholicism a run for its money in traditionally Catholic strongholds (Central and South America, especially).

Where then is the darkness? Is it not in obvious, weak generalizations and un-informed presumptions made against an entire, worldwide, world dominant faith?

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Your post is the typical one that attempts to support technology and other modern forms of reaching out to people, but there are so many holes in your statement.

These people you reached out too; where are they today? Was the impact strong enough to sustain them for life? Just like Evangelists do, they say how many were "Baptized and Filled", but that's about it.

VS, I pastored for 20 years, building a Home Missions work from the ground up, and have been in the Apostolic Movement for 36 years, and the young people today are struggling in massive ways. There is another Thread on this forum right now, dealing with newly licensed ministers, finding that many do not currently teach any Bible Studies, yet they still are approved.

I recently spoke with a pastor who is trying to retire. The Church is paid for, there is a parsonage, and he was reaching out to find someone to take the Church. He would receive phone calls, but as soon as he told them that there was limited income, that was the end of it.

Like I said, you say much about people VS, but where is the commitment? Where is the "Follow Up"? Where is the depth and the real ability to accept sacrifice? It's been lost in a World of "Instant Gratification", where people can't put their IPhone down and find peace in the silence, and where they must face themselves in truth.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

:thumbsup

When we cut off the million voices trying to suppress our own, individual thoughts, the positive impact can be life changing.

So many people today don't even know who they are, and how can you love your neighbor if you don't love yourself?

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

NFS,

I am not disagreeing with any of the content of your posts, per se.

But look again at the title of your post versus your content. They don't match up. I know there is a techno-addiction in this country, even among saints. It IS sad and it IS negatively affecting the people of God.

This does NOT, however, mean, that Christianity, i.e. a global religious movement with close to 2,000,000,000 constituents or over 1/4 the population of the entire planet is "shrouded in darkness" just because some small percentage of that 2 billion (mostly in the USA) are constantly distracted by the noise they allow into their lives.

Jesus warned His people a long time ago against the cares of the life choking the Word right out of someone. But He didn't disparage an entire religious group of His own followers and claim that all people everywhere who call upon His name are "shrouded in darkness" just because they don't go out into the wilderness on a regular basis to disconnect.

The title of your post is the issue. It is just another semi-veiled assault upon the faith you admit to quitting. Instead, you could have titled the post something like "The dangers of technology", or "How constant technological noise interferes with spiritual disciplines" or some other such thing, and posted identical content, and all would have been well.

But nope, you had to jump all over Christianity as a whole. So my point about reaching out to people through technology was to show how the very thing you say shrouds Christianity in darkness can be used as a tool by a child of light to bring the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to someone who otherwise really was shrouded in the darkness of their own sins.

So the onus is on you, through the content of your posts, to prove the thesis of your title. You have not done that at all.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

NFS,

If you are trying to say that the darkness that shrouds Christianity in part has to do with technology, I would disagree. Technology has only been around for the last 50 years or so;yet, there has never really been a time in the past 2000 years where Christianity has not been without darkness and conflict. The true kingdom of Christ has always suffered violence, and has been submerged in one conflict or another. Jesus told us it would be that way. The reason is because Jesus brought a kingdom that is not of this world, and there will always be conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.

So... I on one hand agree that technology is A problem, but it is not the WHOLE problem, as your initial post seems to imply.

I agree with your premise that unplugging from technology can bring about a tremendous difference and change in one's relationship with the Lord. Information overload in our society today is causing a wide range of problems, not just with one's spiritual relationship with the Lord, but with natural physical relationships too.

But the underlying problem remains that Christianity will always be involved in a conflict of some sort, just because following Christ as a true disciple will bring conflict with the world we live in, and that is the plain and simple truth of the matter.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

:thumbsup

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

Christianity as a whole? Uh, let me get this straight, you believe that 2 Billion people on Earth are Christians, or are Apostolic (Saved according to your Faith)? Sounds like you may be in Darkness, unless, you no longer adhere to the dogmas of being "Saved" via, One God (No Trinity), etc.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

I never said that Technology is the WHOLE problem.

I also addressed the problem of people not being able to cope with the Natural environment around them, which is a major difference from those of the past who had no choice, but to face the woes and blessings of Creation.

Drive instead of walking. Starting a fire instead of pushing a button. Flushing a toilet instead of digging a hole. Eating meat you've never slaughtered.

Many people today also don't know how to spend quality time, alone.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

The title of your post is the issue. It is just another semi-veiled assault upon the faith you admit to quitting. Instead, you could have titled the post something like "The dangers of technology", or "How constant technological noise interferes with spiritual disciplines" or some other such thing, and posted identical content, and all would have been well.

Who wrote the above post, you? If you did, I never said I have "Quit" Faith. I have Faith, just not in Religion.

Re: How Darkness Shrouds Christianity
 

We have close friends who have chosen to live off grid. They are some of the happiest people I know (but they were happy before they lived off grid too!)... Now they do have cell phones, but that is about it. No computers. No Tv. No running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing. They have an outhouse. They get their water from a local spring that pumps mountain spring water out of the ground. They use propane for heat. It has certainly been an adventure for them!

So, I like your premise about turning off technology when possible, and getting back outside, and in touch with the Creator of it all. It is what my husband and I do as much as possible. Our favorite thing together as a family is to be hiking, walking, fishing, and camping whenever we can. Sitting around a campfire are some of our family's best memories. Some of my best times with the Lord have been outside as I hike, walk, and sit on logs throughout my favorite hiking spots. I've also experienced the presence of Lord in special ways in my home too.

In reality, I believe the Lord wants to meet us whenever we are willing to meet with Him - wherever that may be. If you find you're closest with the Lord out doors, then by all means find that place of quiet time with Him. But don't condemn others who may not be able to pray outside. The Lord meets with those wherever hungry hearts are searching Him.

And again, placing the blame of the current woes that are plaguing Christianity on technology has taken your premise a bit too far, imo. My opinion is that "Christianity" has always been in some sort of turmoil or another, no matter what generation of history you study. It is just that today, technology adds another twist to the drama.