Internet 2000 The Year, Not The Day Of The Lord

In Bible speak there's a big difference between the Day and the Year of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is apocalypse stuff. As the year 2000 drew closer I knew people would be out preaching "end of the world" theology. I never bought into their nightmares. 

YK2, some bandwidth,  and a few technical setbacks not withstanding, I think we're already experiencing not the Day, but the Year of the Lord. Remember Jesus preaching before the hometown folks in Luke's Gospel? He was asked to preach so he opened the text to the Isaiah and read:
    The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring good
    news to the poor.
    He has sent me to proclaim release of
the captives and recovery of site to the blind,
   to let the oppressed go free, and to
proclaim THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR.

Jesus finished by the telling the astonished locals that this prophesy had just been accomplished right before their eyes by his reading. Unlike the Halloween flavor of the Day of the Lord, the Year of the Lord was understood to be something like Christmas and Easter rolled together. A day of grace with good things being handed out by God. Welcome to the end of our century and the beginnings of the internet.

OK, so maybe it's a little rash to compare the development of the internet with The Year of the Lord. But hey, some people are wondering if the net will become God. (I'm not kidding!) This much is certain, the net has changed, and is changing, the world forever.

Giving the power of communication and learning to the masses has radically changed the world before. Jesus did it by replacing temple worship with salvation from the soul. Martin Luther did it by translating the Bible into common German. And the invention of the printing press was another example. Now the power of common communication provided through net technology seems to be providing a lot of the advantages folks expected from the Year of the Lord.

There are people who fear the internet and the future it may bring. They are right to do so. Not unlike other technologies and revelations which have empowered humanity, the net enlarges opportunity for amplifying both the good and bad of our nature. The world and our lives are being turned upside down and shaken. If you haven't  felt or noticed the difference yet, you soon will.

But I must confess I really feel good about the internet. Like the Year of the Lord the net, and its sister World Wide Web, are providing opportunities for the little guys and people with good ideas. Also like the Year of the Lord, the net levels the playing field for everybody. It brings the same power to communicate to everyone who can afford a computer and a telephone line. And communication is the most valuable, most powerful, raw resource of this generation.

As a self anointed "Net Prophet" I'm going to try and help us make sense of all this on the local and not so local level. Welcome to the new frontier.

Monty Keeling
February 15, 1999
slightly updated June 8, 2000

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