By Camilla Smith

The New Bible

By Camilla Smith

As you can imagine in my job as a medical transcriptionist, I hear some pretty interesting things in the background behind the doctor who is dictating. Some of them are not pleasant. Some of them are just plain entertaining and many times I have chuckled out loud at some of the conversations taking place behind the scenes.

So today, I am typing along and I hear a computer training session going on in the background. There is apparently a massive computerization overhaul going on in this office (new health care system, I imagine) and people working in the office are being trained by those with superior computer intelligence (SCI).

The poor office worker. I suddenly heard the technician blurt out loudly, “This computer is your BIBLE!” Suffice it to say, she was not comprehending his tutorial.

A little later in the day, I was talking to my cousin and I mentioned this incident to her.  She subsequently tells me that she had called her daughter’s school the other day with a scheduling question, and they abruptly referred her to her academically-provided computer/notebook and said, “You need to search your computer—it is your BIBLE!” What did we ever do without SCI?

Apparently, computers are now the new “Bible.” Somebody forgot to tell me that, although I wish people today would spend as much time reading their actual Bibles (you know, the Scriptures, God’s Word), as they do with their little faces smashed into their phones and notebooks and their little stubby fingers on the keyboards. Good grief. I am afraid they may need antibiotics—they are infected by the Gigabyte obsessia virus or something.

I have never seen so many people lined up on a bench in a restaurant, staring mindlessly at their phones. I’m watching them and I’m thinking, “ Better close your mouth while you’re in that high-tech stupor—you’re starting to drool.” Peck, peck, peck…tap, tap, tap…text, text, text. Not to mention practically being ape-glued to their little pads and laptops, hoping to tune out the chaos, but unknowingly letting more and more of it in.

I don’t even carry a phone. I don’t own a notebook either. When I get finished typing at the end of the work day, I run as fast as I can from technology in any form. You guessed it…I go walking. Cranially speaking, walking puts my medical terminology-ridden brain into sleep mode. I revel in a little down time, focusing on nothing but invigorating Christian music, the great outdoors and the Creator of the great outdoors. Now that is therapeutic. I cannot turn the world off fast enough. My work inserts me into people’s chronic medical and psychosocial situations all day every day, so I need to remind myself that there is some sanity left on the planet, even if it is just nature. And then a wasp crawls into my ankle weights. Or a big cicada bug lands on my shoulder. Ewww.

But back to the matter at hand—Bibles. We know that technology is king, most likely because it is being wielded from the prince of this world, Satan. He has encapsulated our minds and our thoughts and cleverly pulls us in through these little gadgets we seem to be so attached to. Have you ever seen such manipulation by the evil one? I cannot even tune into a show about interior decorating these days without getting duped into watching what the world wants me to think is a normal “couple.” It is infuriating, isn’t it?  Slowly at first, but now rapidly, they are changing hearts and minds toward the dark side and the pace has become so vigorous that it is astounding. And it is all accomplished with technology.

However, even more sinister is the fact that there really is quickly becoming a new Bible, or at least the concept of a new Bible. There is a feverish movement to bring the old, antiquated Bible of ancient times into the future. Yes, that’s right. Let’s just update it! Let’s make it apply to today’s way of thinking. And then we’ll get world church leaders to say that you can just go ahead and live your life however you wish (wink, wink) and our loving God will look the other way. “He’s a really super nice God.” We’ll not talk about sin and redemption. We’ll not talk about repentance and wrath.   We’ll even rename some things to make them more palatable. We’ll call abortion “contraception.” We’ll call the day-after pill “emergency contraception.”

Homosexuality? Why that’s just an “alternative lifestyle.” We’ll just water it down until it all runs together in a big, messy quagmire, and then we’ll just drain it off like it never existed. It’s not pleasant, so let’s just be a “breath of fresh air” and keep it all pastel and sweet. We’ll just talk about the all-enveloping love of God and His mercy, and Jesus, the spellbinding storyteller. Didn’t He tell some great little stories? Very nice.   Pleasant. Love that. Pretty little package, isn’t it?

Well, it is not all pretty. What Jesus went through on the cross for our sin was not pretty. It was horrific and ugly. How do I know? The Bible tells me so. Not the computer version, the original version. The divinely-inspired version. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob version. That old, tattered, passed down through history, well-worn and well-loved Bible tells me what is right and what is wrong. The Bible also tells me in the book of Romans, that what was written then is to be a guideline for all time.

“For whatever was written in earlier times, was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

The Bible tells me that, yes, I will be forgiven for my sins, but I must humble myself and turn from my ways and repent. I cannot just expect God to overlook the things I do that are wrong in His eyes. God loves us unconditionally, but God gave us the law and God expects us to do our best to abide by that law. Two things he asks of us; repent and believe. It is very simple.

We are living in a time in which God’s Word is being distorted and dismantled in more ways than one. The time has come for believers to stand up for the one and only Bible, and to defend the faith that we have been given so freely. God loves us. He wants us to come to Him. He wants us to bow on our knees and ask Him for forgiveness. He wants us to develop, grow and mature as Christians and He wants us to be as spotless as we can possibly be before we meet Him face to face.

How do we do this? Read the Bible. Study the Bible. Memorize the Bible. Treasure the Bible. Make the Bible your Bible. And let’s be clear--that is The Holy Bible. Glad I never had to witness one of those biblical cicada bug plagues.

Camilla