What the Bible says about Information Overload
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Daniel 12:4 In the last three generations, because God has permitted the invention of electronic communications devices, humanity can send and receive information worldwide at a mind-bending, even frightening, pace that demands our attention. We must make choices about what news we should listen to. In one sense, issues like those in our time have always occurred, but as far as we know, they have never occurred at this accelerated pace for this long a time in man's history. Here in America, it almost seems as if Pandora's Box has not just been cracked open but thrown wide open. And so, we must face the unceasing necessity of making such choices. Some broadcasting stations even proclaim, “All the news, all the time.” Time is an important issue for us all, providing the context during which we accomplish the activities of life. Whatever activities we choose to do, time will be consumed. It is a reality that time waits for no one. Because we realize it is vital to our calling and growth within it, we may already have concerns about time. Most of us, especially those who are a bit older or have been “through the mill,” as the saying goes, are also aware that we are running out of it. Are we merely fretting about it, or are we resolved to do something about it? Hearing news reports can distract us and even destroy progress because it makes us aware of events of which we have been ignorant. We cannot control the making of news; events will occur as a result of the actions of millions of people living their lives. Nor, for the most part, can we control what news is available to us. However, we can exercise control over what news we choose to consider valuable enough to listen more thoughtfully to and perhaps to act upon. John W. Ritenbaugh Why Hebrews Was Written (Part Five) Related Topics: Choices | Distraction | Distractions of Life | Information Overload | Redeeming the Time | Time Management | Why Hebrews Was Written

Matthew 24:21-22 We have not reached this point in the fulfillment of these prophecies, but the evidence from our culture shows that we are on their cusp. Enough is happening for us to know that we are beyond this tribulation's preliminary stages. The times are becoming increasingly dangerous, and not just to one's physical life. The English word translated as "tribulation" comes from the Greek thlipsis. It means "a pressing pressure." We might compare it simply to "stress," but what it really describes is a stressful stress. In other words, it is not ordinary but something exceeding the ordinary. It is a stress more intense than run-of-the-mill everyday stress. In this context, even the ordinary, everyday stress is very intense, even to where life itself may hang in the balance. Because Jesus also mentions enduring in context with a spiritual love (Matthew 24:12-13), we must also consider spiritual stress due to distraction, luring one away from the Kingdom of God and God's purpose, and to strong challenges to break from the love of God as part of the tribulation. This is already occurring through the easy availability of entertainment. Now it comes right into our homes by way of television and the Internet, besides the glittering, eye-catching, desire-producing inducements to shop for goods so readily available. These things can easily lure us into time-wasting, spiritual lethargy. All of this is taking place within a framework of constant, wearying news events of fearful violence, terrible accidents, political corruption, natural disasters, disease, and economic problems that may eventually affect every one of us. Constant bad news, with little hope of relief, is an intense, wearying stress. Much of the stress of these times is being generated by information overload. Life has always been difficult for most people who have ever lived, but nobody in all of history has had to live virtually an entire lifetime under the constant intense pressures of the end time. We are living in a period unique in the history of man, according to Jeremiah 30:7, ramping up to "the time of Jacob's trouble"—a time so intensely stressful that the world has never seen its like. Jesus compared the time of the end to the time of Noah, but even here, the intense pressures will be greater than they were during Noah's day. Noah's time is just the best example of what it will be like, but Jacob's Trouble will be even worse. John W. Ritenbaugh Does Doctrine Really Matter? (Part Four) Related Topics: | Distraction | Doctrine | Information Overload | Jacob's Trouble | Lures of this World | Stress | Stress, Spiritual | Tribulation

 

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