{"id":40101,"date":"2015-10-29T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=40101"},"modified":"2017-10-22T13:14:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T20:14:26","slug":"new-reformation-has-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/new-reformation-has-begun\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Reformation has Begun (Are you part of it?)"},"content":{"rendered":"
October 31 is not just Halloween. It is also “Reformation Day<\/a>,” which commemorates the day on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenburg and sparked off the Reformation in 1517.<\/p>\n I have often thought that I would have liked to live back then. They were amazing times. There was not only great upheaval and changes within the church and theology, but these changes also took place along with the Renaissance<\/a>, the scientific revolution<\/a>, and eventually, the Enlightenment<\/a>.<\/p>\n These were times of\u00a0great advances in science, medicine, engineering, art, music, and theology.\u00a0Imagine living during the time of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, and Calvin!<\/p>\n Well, guess what?<\/p>\n You are!<\/strong><\/p>\n You and I are currently living in the middle of a new Renaissance! A new Enlightenment! A new Reformation!<\/strong><\/p>\n Imagine how exciting it would have been to live in the days when the “New World” had been discovered and Spain, Portugal, France, and England were racing each other to place colonies on this new land to the West.<\/p>\n Well, in case you missed it, there is a race right now to put human colonies on the moon and on Mars. China, Russia, and Europe are racing to put a colony on the moon<\/a>,\u00a0while MarsOne, NASA, and SpaceX are racing each other to put human colonies on Mars by 2030<\/a>. That’s fifteen years away.<\/p>\n Then there are the advances in Quantum Physics. The discoveries of\u00a0Quantum Physics are unraveling much of what we think we know about time, matter, energy, and space. For example, it appears that\u00a0reality does not exist\u00a0unless you are actually looking at it.<\/a>\u00a0Furthermore, it appears that quantum particles can communicate with themselves in their past, so that events in the present can ripple back in time<\/a>. Recent studies from just last week have proved quantum entanglement, that two entangled electrons can communicate with each other instantaneously, no matter how far apart from each other they are<\/a>. Believe it or not, these sorts of discoveries will eventually trickle down into theology, requiring us to rethink much about creation, prayer, the afterlife, the flow of time, and numerous related subjects.<\/p>\n But that’s not all…<\/p>\n The advances toward Artificial Intelligence<\/a> and discovering life on other planets<\/a> threaten to undo and change everything we think we know about ourselves and about how we came to exist. For example, if life is found on another planet (and scientists are certain they will find it), what will this mean for our understanding of Genesis 1:16<\/a> that God “made the stars also”? If we are able to develop Artificial Intelligence that rapidly becomes smarter than humans, what will this do to our understanding of Genesis 1:26-27 about humans being made in the image of God?<\/p>\n The changes in theology are not all just potential<\/em> future changes, however.<\/p>\n The Christian theological world is already full of upheaval. There is an earthquake going on right now in theology surrounding the issues of justification, the violence of God, the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, and what it means to be the church–the people of God in this world<\/a>.<\/p>\n We are living in exciting times. Times that future people will look back upon and say, “Wow! Can you imagine living in the early 21st century? There was so much going on! So many changes! Because of what happened then, the world has never been the same!”<\/p>\n If history is any guide (and it usually is) the current Renaissance, Revolution, Reformation, Enlightenment will be accompanied by several factors.<\/p>\n Below, I have listed some factors that will contribute to the New Reformation along with some changes that we will see as a result.<\/p>\n This will be some sort of humanitarian crisis or a tipping point among world governments. It might be a financial collapse. It might be a medical disaster (the Black Plague helped kindle the Renaissance). It might be a war. It might be a drought and famine. It might be all of these combined.<\/p>\n I don’t say any of this to scare you. There is not much that can be done about it. I am just saying that usually, these sorts of disasters and catastrophes help spur the human race on toward a new level of understanding and unity, which make further advances easier.<\/p>\n Second, however, as I look around at what the World Wide Web is ushering in, I think that this new Reformation will not come from the leaders and those in power, but will come from below. The internet has given everyone a voice. The gatekeepers no longer have the power to silence the masses.<\/p>\n Now with blogs, podcasts, YouTube, etc., anybody can make their voice heard. So the new Reformation will be led, not by a few key voices at the top of the hierarchy, but by a large number of voices near the bottom. This Reformation will be launched from the “uneducated.” From the “unschooled.” From the blogs and podcasts of the non-professionals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The New Reformation is Here<\/h2>\n
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A few things to expect in the next few decades<\/h2>\n
1. Disaster<\/h3>\n
First, on the negative side, it is quite likely that there will be some sort of rampant disease, catastrophe, or war which will serve as the final catalyst for the future changes.<\/p>\n
2. Voices from Below<\/h3>\n