The Medium may Change, The Message Stays the Same

I have heard this phrase, or something similar, a lot in a lot of different situations, usually talking about how how the church introduces new methods and mechanisms of sharing God's Word. However, I was thinking about it the other day in a different light. If you look at the news today you will be assaulted with story after story of violence, murder, hatred, immorality, sexuality, destruction, darkness, evil... It's crazy and overwhelming and it can feel like the world is falling very rapidly towards its destruction and death. It is easy to look at the world today and say we are getting so much worse day after day, year after year. I've made this assertion, I believe. While it may be true that our society is on a downfall, or that certain countries or groups are "getting worse," the more I think about it it seems that in the grand scheme of things, we are no worse than any other time.

I was thinking about the world in the time of Christ and something dawned on me. Society during that time was full of all of the same things that we are full of today. There was widespread hatred and racism permeating society. Destruction, sensless violence and murder were normal occurances. Homosexuality, sexual promescuity, adultry and prostitution were commonplace and widely accepted. Drunkenness, drug use, theft, pride, and idolatry: every single one of these were rampant in society. People participated in them. This is obvious from reading history and from the fact that the Bible addresses them all. People during that time faced the same struggles and participated in the same evils that we do today. People during that time looked at their world and talked about how it was on the downfall and how things were really bad, just as we do today.

If you look throughout the Bible you see the same thing in society all throughout history. Take the time if Noah for example. The world was so bad then that God literally destroyed everything, but what was on the arc and restarted, seeing how we haven't been destroyed yet I'm betting we aren't as bad off as the world was then, just a thought.

The point, though, is that throughout history, the message of Satan has stayed the same. It is only the medium through which he conveys that message that has changed. Pornography, Homosexuality, Any Form of Sexual Immorality, Racism, Hatred, Pride, Selfishness, Greed, Drunkenness, Idolatry, Lying, Theft, and everything else is nothing new. Satan has been pushing this message, these themes, these lies, since before the creation of the world, and He hasn't changed his message and goal now to somehow make it/make us worse. He has the same message and the same goal, he just uses new avenues to spread that message. The internet/digital media, guns (even assault rifles), synthetic drugs, television, and everything else that we have today that makes hearing and acting on the message of Satan are not what is evil (well for the most part, I can't actually think of a good use for bath salts and other synthetic drugs). They are simply modern mediums to allow Satan to more widely and effectively apply this message to the masses. However, it is the message that influences us to use these mediums for evil.

This is actually an incredibly hopeful and encouraging truth! What this means is that, if Satan's message hasn't changed, and the message is the influencer and the driver of action and behavior, God's message hasn't changed either. This is awesome! Rather than the message of Christ being an antiquated set of religious laws and standards that hold no bearing on our world or lives today, it is a radical dynamic, powerful message that has the ability to combat and single handedly destroy the message and influence of Satan. Today we use new mediums, internet, social/digital media, television, apps, and everything else to spread the message so that we are matching the culture and becoming "all things to all people" in order to save them, but that doesn't/can't change the core message of Christ. His message, His Word is ridiculously powerful, sharper than any double edged sword and able to obliterate the message of Satan.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." -- Romans 1:16

So as we look at the world today, it can seem dark and depressing, but take hope. This is nothing new. It is the plight, the downfall, the weakness, the Achilles Heel of Humanity that has been our bane since the dawn of time, but the hope, salvation, and Elixir of Life that redeems us and overpowers evil has also been present since before the dawn of time and is just as present and powerful today!
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." -- Ecclesiastes 1:9-10