Many technophobes experience a personal digital hell on a daily basis. But, fast forward 100 years to a fully digitized society. Physical newspapers and magazines have ceased to exist. Books are all nestled within the Applazon Cloud by monopolizing the rights when the conglomerate’s chief rival, Woogle-Mart, lost their bid to claim the proprietary rights to all text-based media. Ironically, even had Applazon not won that dispute, they still would have gotten much of the proceeds since the latter leases its digital systems space from the former.
Libraries containing books and bookstores are long since extinct. In the spirit of civic conservationism and minimalism, all previously printed books and periodicals have been recycled for use in things other than knowledge retention and sharing. In fact, most printing presses are mere statues in museums or have been parted out for other machines designed for other capitalistic ventures. Even those that do exist in private settings have no skilled persons to operate them.
“We are a digitized world, so there’s no reason to exhaust resources,” they say.
The Church has followed suit
With odd delight, Bibles and hymnals have been removed from pews and chairs. “We have digital versions that are easier to search up and serve to our congregations,” they say. “You know, there is an app for everything,” they say.
Yes, they say many things to justify the removal of the “old world” from which our elder generations were spiritually weened. “Digital is so much more engaging and it’s what the young generations respond to,” they say. God’s Word is loving and real. God’s Word permeates all boundaries and reaches–digitally–into every crevice of the soul.
Even as they uphold “tradition”, they steward in the coming of a digital hell. All relics of yesterday have been torn, banished, buried, stripped, and sentenced to decay. Digital technology has united in a way people could only dare to dream.
And then… Applazon pulls the plug on the Cloud.
Let there be Darkness
Absent of the written word, an emoji-driven world had allowed digital clouds to house and deliver every bit and byte of knowledge and Truth.
Yet, with Applazon’s Cloud removed from view, we’re cast into an unprecedented era of loss and deprivation. One that no human war or injustice had ever equaled. Not even all of them combined.
Gone is God’s Word. And gone is any note you’ve tapped into an app. All your shares have disappeared and so have all the superficial social connections you’d established on Fwitterbook, who had also leased its space from Applazon.
In the dark chaos, the sleeping International Eternal Shade (IES) start their work. Veiled within the darkness, they bastardize God’s word into the words of earthly gods. Phrases and accounts are adjusted to suit their greed, their lust, and their infinite power.
Factions of the IES had been firmly established throughout all major cities in the world. In the new digital darkness, they are charged with rounding up all potential rebellion leaders and influencers. It was easy to place them prior to the darkness. They knew right where to place themselves based upon the knowledge that Applazon had harvested from the world’s citizenry, who willingly shared their actions, behaviors, locations, and viewpoints for decades leading up to the great disconnect.
Wolves Feed (and Feast on) Our Young
In the dark disconnect, which outlasts a full generation, the Order of IES is deemed the lone source of rescue. IES feeds our young. And they do so in abundance. To weather the digital capital recession brought on by the great disconnect, they say, our great-great-grandchildren are provided food, shelter, and even luxuries beyond anything they had ever worked for. They receive it all freely and without debt burdens requiring repayment.
“It is all out of generosity and duty,” they say.
The precious souls accept it without question. Because they have no reason not to trust their keepers.
And when the Digital Power is Restored…
After more than a generation of dark disconnect, the Applazon Cloud suddenly reboots and reconnects. It happens just as the last soul that had been living at the onset takes a last breath. In the wake of the lifting darkness where light had chosen not to shine, the hearts of the world’s populace glow with ignorance and hubris.
Blissfully ignorant to what they know not, the youngest generation was fully molded by the newly installed Order of Reillumination. They do not have your old and worn Bible. The one that’s filled with notes, advice, references, and highlighted import. There’s no spiritual wisdom or guidance. “Legacy; schmegacy,” they say.
Lacking Truth, your sheep are guided by the new-age wolves. The lion whose mane is one of raging fire has seized control. Maniacal eyes reign over the lives of all who are left to exist without the social order that had once made us human.
The Heavenly gates close, never to reopen.
God’s Word on earth is fully extinct. Dead. Truth is no longer real, nor is it known and lived.
Welcome to the new digital Hell. The coming digital hell and the damnation of Earth’s tomorrow. I’d say, it’s the one we’re willingly constructing.
Feasting on Spiritual Desserts
Note: I tapped this post out in terror several weeks back after realizing I’ve grown dormant in my scriptural study and discipline. Though I’ve been diligent to do daily devotions on mobile apps, read projected scripture, and view videos posted throughout social media, it’s well short of ideal. The sad reality is that I have neglected my Bible. In many ways, I was feasting on spiritual desserts instead of being spiritually nourished. Please know, this is not a lament of sentimental loss. It’s fear of things that may become reality during the lives of my grandchildren and/or great-grandchildren.
With this fear in mind, last Sunday, on Father’s Day, I scrawled the following inside the front cover of my bible:
I can think of no greater misfortune than the sight of a Bible that is pristine in its condition, for it is God’s Word, Completely dismissed and unknown to the owner and to his heirs. Such a man has left his children nothing but rust, ashes, and ruin! This Bible has been read, marked, written in, and prayed over with earnestness and a mindset for those who will later open it with a desire to know God and to be known by him. Rooted in Love and a desire to pass on the greatest legacy possible. FOR HIS GLORY FOREVER & EVER