Greetings!
How is it that culture can lightheartedly embrace sex, violence, and debauchery as a standardized norm? This, my fellow reader, is accomplished through digitizing our sin.
Even though parents of Generation Z fear the overuse of the internet by their children, they as parents are not able to make the connection that they are the ones who set the stage for their children’s addictions to cyber-connectivity. Parents are not making the connection to this mindless ideology due to their own addictions. Sins that were formerly committed in private are now available to our 4-year-old’s – on their parent’s smartphones. These parents lack absolutes, and they lack conviction; they’re mindless in their discernment, so everything must be cute and funny – including sin. These parents express a dislike for their children’s access to inappropriate information and images, as well as social networking sites, while they themselves continue to model these vulnerabilities. While these parents say “no” to their child, the child observes the parent running off to the kitchen to use their Smartphone. There’s something very wrong here.
Gen-Z children frequently feel annoyed with their parents, and they complain about their parents being overly controlling when it comes to their internet usage. I believe the reason for this is that it reminds parents of their own cyber-dependence. Generation Z believes that the use of social media and other sites helps them educationally, emotionally and relationally. As bizarre as that sounds.
What would it be like if we no longer were nagged by text messages, emails, and social connections, with all their little thumbs-up rewards? Or pestered by tweets containing someone’s opinion on something that doesn’t matter? Do you realize just how much peace would be brought to the human mind, to our society and the church? Research has already proved that the digital world creates anxiety. This does not include the enemy’s objective of digitizing sin. We are being set up to violate, “
be anxious for nothing, but in everything give thanks in prayer.” The enemy has established his platform to produce anxiety-ridden people. The enemy knows that anxiety quickly turns to sin for comfort and relief. With that predictable madness, he sets the stage for digitized sin.
What exactly is a digitized sin?
Since sin is conceived in the mind, the enemy has mastered the art of planting conceptual seeds of sin through the fastest, most available and reliable method today – the digital world. It has been stated that every form of conceptual sin/evil is at the finger-tips of every digital user today. Satan has exposed every form of private & hidden sin, digitized it (put it on the internet) and made it available to our present day culture, including our children. What used to take a lifetime to discover certain sins, now takes moments. Sin at the tap of a finger.
Remember the day when the norm was “as innocent as a child?” Remember when Jesus said that you cannot have Eternal Life unless you have the faith of a child? Remember when He said you cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless you are as of this child? Folks, hopefully, you see the deceptive ploy of the enemy. He is always seeking to destroy the children, if not by way of their lives (birth control, abortion & euthanasia), it certainly will be through stealing their innocents. This new digital age is the “perfect” platform to accomplish this. Our children, at a young age, have been exposed to more sin than most of us were exposed by the age of 30.
Here is our challenge, exposure to sin mandates two primary responses/reactions; repentance or betrayal and betrayal usually turns into violence. The reason our youth today are bending toward aggressive behavior is due to this problematic reality. The irony, Satan knows this truth, but your average Christian is clueless.
The Z generation is literally the first generation to grow up having the internet as their sin provision. Their loyalty is evidenced online versus toward family or face-to-face mentors. If the enemy lacks success in euthanizing the “wise old men” in death, he certainly has accomplished this feat in separating the youth from the wisdom of their parents and grandparents through cyber-dependency.
One of the leading forms of digitized sin is exposed in the Millennial and Generation Z’s religious pluralist views, which perpetuates that all paths lead to “god.” Christian researchers agree that this is the single most degrading factor the digital age has had on our generation. Even though SimilarWeb Research reveals that pornography is the top internet sites visited by the digital age, this digitized sin is much easier to front. Even to the most deceived of minds, knows it's wrong. Whereas the sin of pluralism, even to the most innocent of minds, believes they're “right.”
The Journal of Psychology states: “Generation Z’s lower cognitive regions within their brain, which stimulate impulse, are constantly being activated by the bombardment of neurological arousal provided by text messages, Facebook updates, and video games. At the same time, the so-called Google culture of learning — finding answers to questions within seconds — continues to change the way Generation Z youth concentrate, write and reflect. Their capacity for linear thinking has been replaced by a new mode of thinking, in which they need to take in and dish out information in a fast, disjointed, overlapping manner.”
For the simple purpose of keeping apples with apples, I would like to reword their findings, Generation Z’s lower cognitive regions within their brains, which stimulate sin, are constantly being activated by the bombardment of sinful arousal provided by digitized sin. At the same time, the so-called digital age – finding answers to questions that should be asked of their parents and pastors – continues to change the way Generation Z views man and God. Their capacity for Godly thinking has been replaced by the new mode of thinking, in which they need to take in and dish out sin as fast as it is provided for them within the digital age.
What is a parent to do? They can start by not allowing their children to have smartphones until they are 18 years of age. What is a Christian leader to do? Start educating your people with the statistically proven Truth about digitized sin. As Jesus said multiple times, those who have ears to hear, let them hear. It’s your turn to act in saving our children.
Until next time... (Up and coming topics, Investigating An Illusion & Criminalizing Christianity)
Stephen Phinney
Content is taken from,
Discipling The Post-Truth Church, by Dr. Stephen Phinney 2018
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