RBV: Isaiah 8:20

CGG Weekly published a version of this essay, “A Christian’s Information Filter, on December 21, 2012.

“To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
—Isaiah 8:20

We live in the Information Age. The Internet hums and thrums in and out of our lives many hours every day, bringing us data on a million subjects, major, minor, serious, absurd, useful, and useless. We have access to more timely information than we know what to do with.

It is becoming harder to remember what it was like before this incessant glut of information flooded the world. Children and young adults have lived their entire lives “plugged in” to the digital universe—facts and figures and fun at their fingertips anytime, day or night. To them, using all the new gadgets and gizmos is as natural as running and jumping. Today’s technology is intuitive to them, almost organic and simple.

Even so, it was not very long ago when we were doing things with pencil and paper. Less than forty years ago, most of us still used rotary phones and real card catalogs. Many older folks have a difficult time transitioning from analog to digital. Some refuse to conform at all, conceding only when they have to and only as much as they have to (some may have given up the corded phone but refuse to touch a cell phone). While the computing and communications industry giants urge us to purchase the newest and fastest technologies, not everyone is so eager to join the information revolution.

And it is no wonder: The level of information inundation is already higher than most people can handle. While the human brain is far superior to any computing device ever made or imagined, because it is part of a conscious, critical, organic entity, it easily overloads. Unlike a computer, which stores all data as strings of ones and zeros, the human mind is aware to some extent of the value, ramifications, and usefulness of the information it receives. People make judgments—sometimes consciously, but probably more often unconsciously—about what goes into their minds, which affects them positively or negatively over time.

Speaking of good, helpful information—particularly, God’s instruction—Solomon advises us on this in Proverbs 4:20-23:

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

Other proverbs bring out a similar thought, along with its opposite:

• “The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked” (Proverbs 10:11).
• “The words of the wicked are, ‘Lie in wait for blood,’ but the mouth of the upright will deliver them” (Proverbs 12:6).
• “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21).

The principle derived from such scriptures is that good words—good information, truth—have a beneficial effect while bad words cause problems. The Bible, then, supports the well-known catchphrase, “Garbage in, garbage out.” We must ensure that the information we allow into our minds is true and good while filtering out and rejecting the false. This has probably never been more critical for Christians to do than in this information-heavy age of the world.

Gatekeeping our minds is vital because God requires us to make moral and ethical choices daily, and we make such decisions based on the information we have at hand—or, more correctly, in our minds. If we make a decision—a judgment—based on faulty data, it is probable that our decision will itself be flawed. If we constantly hear from the world that 2 + 2 = 5, and we have allowed that information to pass uncritically into our minds and thus into our daily life, then it will not be long before 2 x 2 = 10 and fifteen apples make a dozen.

Such a flawed judgment happens nearly every time a mass murder occurs. Hearing of this terrible and tragic event, the nation pours out its sympathy and its desire for justice. In the aftermath, the news outlets endlessly debate the Second Amendment to the Constitution and strict gun-control laws. Social media overflows with advocates on both sides of the issue stridently pushing their views on their “friends.”

It is clear that the American Constitution gives citizens the right to own and bear arms. A cursory reading of the arguments made at the time of the Constitutional Convention shows that the Second Amendment was specifically included in the Bill of Rights to allow citizens to fight against, and if successful, overthrow a tyrannical government. The Founders believed that an armed citizenry was the best deterrent against overreaching federal power. Of course, citizens could also own firearms for hunting, shooting, and collecting.

Into this fray, many members of God’s church plunge, almost all of them on the side of gun and self-defense rights. American Christians have the right and freedom to own guns, and many use them for hunting and shooting. There is no problem with that.

However, some church members have no qualms about owning guns for self-defense, and it is at this point that some serious moral questions arise. If a Christian has a weapon for self-defense, and he and/or his family were attacked, would he use it and would he be justified in doing so? How would God judge his actions, whether he killed the attacker or not? Is killing in self-defense willful murder? Unpremeditated murder? Voluntary manslaughter? Involuntary manslaughter?

Perhaps to answer these questions for ourselves, we first need to ask, “Have we ever truly considered what God thinks on the matter, or have we just absorbed what the world says about it?” On questions like these, we need to filter out all of the world’s chatter on the subject and find out what information God has provided to us in His Word that reveals His mind on it. If we fail to do this, can we be sure that we have reached a godly decision? As God says in Isaiah 8:20, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” There we will find true words to steer us right.