Communications Technology and the Gospel
Today we are in an amazing age of advanced technology and communications. It staggers the mind to thing that there has been more advances in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,000, and more in the last 10 years than in the last 100. Below is a brief historical perspective of communications advances throughout recorded history and since the time of Christ.

About 3,500 years ago, 1,500 years prior to the First Advent of Christ, the first official alphabet was developed by the Phoenicians, which was an improvement upon the prior written communication forms of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sumerian cuneiform.

At the first Advent of Christ, Twenty centuries ago, Jesus came declaring the Gospel and demonstrating the Kingdom

During the time of Christ, the most advanced method used by the roman emperor Tiberious was through signaling messages with metal mirrors to reflect the sun. Meanwhile, by the end of the first century, paper was invented in china. and became the preferred communications media over papyrus. More permanent documents were also being inscribed on copper or other metal plates and scrolls.

Much later, in 1450 Gutenberg invented the printing press with metal movable type and the age of print media was born.

Fast-forward about 400 years later to 1843, when Samuel Morse built the first long distance electric telegraph line; and 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell exhibited an electric telephone in Boston. and in 1889, when Almon Strowger patented the direct dial telephone.

Within the last 100 years,

1901-Guglielmo Marconi transmited radio signals from Cornwall to Newfoundland and by 1920 - Radio station KDKA based in Pittsburgh began the first broadcast.

1925-John Logie Baird transmited the first television signal. (full scale commercial television is first broadcast in 1947)

1947-Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young of Bell Labs propose a cell-based approach which led to “cellular phones.”

1976-The personal computer (PC) market was born.

1989 -Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau build the prototype of what became the World Wide Web

1992-Neil Papworth sent the first SMS (or text message).(Today, the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet.)

1994-Internet radio broadcasting was born. 

Within the last decade:

2004 -What would become the largest social networking site in the world, Facebook was launched. (now over 1.15 billion Facebook users and 23 percent of Facebook users login at least 5 times per day)

2005-YouTube, the video sharing site is launched.(YouTube currently hosts nearly 14 billion videos.)

2006-Messages are sent faster than ever via the microblogging site, Twitter. (Twitter currently has over 550 million accounts) At the recent Oscar event, (2014) host Ellen Degeneris incorporated her Samsung phone (much to Samsung’s delight) into a selfie moment with several celebrities that generated nearly 3 million re tweets. Source: (TechCrunch, 4th March 2014)

72% of all internet users are now active on social media. 71% of social media users access social media from a mobile device. Meaning they can access their world-wide connection of friends and family any time, day or night, from almost anywhere.
(*www.sociallystacked.com/2014/01/the-growth-of-social-media-in-2014-40- surprising-stats-infographic/#sthash.J70o1E6y.dpuf)

Social media has become an amazing conduit of influence for better or worse. Researchers have literally discovered that “If it rains in New York, people around the country become miserable,” vicariously sharing the depressing moment through their social media contact.

Of course, nothing takes God by surprise. Thousands of years ago the Lord spoke to the prophet Daniel of these days. “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12:4

The church would do well to recognize the significance of the incredible transformation happening now with communications technology, and the social networking phenomena.
With the current advances in social media and communications, we now have the tools before us for a time of unprecedented relational and communicational connection. I believe the church is being handed the very tools it needs in preparation for a great end-time harvest.