Bad Rumor

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>>>>> "CDSTERRE" == CDSTERRE  <CDSTERRE@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU> writes:

    CDSTERRE> Bro Robert Brown, I am probably just playing devils
    CDSTERRE> advocate here but I would like to pose a question to
    CDSTERRE> your comments below...

I understand the spirit in which you ask this, and I will try to
answer, giving *MY OPINIONS* only.

    >> My concern was that if a mandate comes down "NO INTERNET", then
    >> we have indeed made a tremendous mistake.  Not only will it put
    >> many good saints out of work, but it will make us look like the
    >> Amish to the rest of the world, thereby destroying our ability
    >> to reach them.

    CDSTERRE> If the UPC does say "no" to the internet, yes there will
    CDSTERRE> be some who probably would be out of work.  I am sure
    CDSTERRE> that there would be others who would stay in the work
    CDSTERRE> anyways regardless.  

I will say it again because it is *SO* important, and it has been
ignored every time I have said it here before:

  "The telephone, television, and computer are going to blend together
   into a single device over the next few years."

You will get cable over the phone line from the phone company.  You
will get internet service over the cable from the cable company.  Your
computer won't need a disk for program storage because you will load
and run programs right off the internet via your cable TV, because
your computer will be your TV.  You will see who you talk to on the
phone because videophone service is here today.  When your phone is
your computer is you TV, it will be the only way.

Now that we can begin to understand that in the next few years, a
telephone and an internet connected computer will be the same thing, I
ask you:

  "How many of you out ther could refuse to talk on the telephone for
   religous reasons and still be able to earn a living?"

If we say no internet, in a few years it will mean no phone.

    CDSTERRE> Now when you say it will make us
    CDSTERRE> look like the Amish, I have to ask...doesn't having no
    CDSTERRE> tv do this?  Doesn't our modesty and belief in no
    CDSTERRE> make-up, etc makes us look "different" to the world?

Yes, but not nearly so much as refusing to drive a car.  Now does it
impact the way we earn our living.  How many of you could stop riding
in motorized vehicles and still earn a living?

    CDSTERRE> The real benefit I see from the internet is the e-mail.
    CDSTERRE> Quicker and cheaper than the optional snail mail.  We
    CDSTERRE> can live without the rest of the internet.  We have for
    CDSTERRE> many years before haven't we?  

You may be able to live without the rest of the internet, but the rest
of modern society will not.  I have depended on ftp for at least 4
years.  I have always found it more useful than just email.  Granted,
there are email ftp servers, but thats not what I am talking about.

Lately, I find that the web is almost indespensible.  I used to live
without it, but I could no longer compete in my field if I had to
forgo it and my competitors could still use it.

    CDSTERRE> Does it really matter
    CDSTERRE> what the world thinks of us?  

If it doesn't matter, then this discussion about how the internet
could affect the posture of the UPC is ridiculous!

    CDSTERRE> I thought the only thing
    CDSTERRE> that mattered was whether or not we were living
    CDSTERRE> righteously for God?  Another point I would like to
    CDSTERRE> bring up is, How did the fathers of the Apostolic
    CDSTERRE> movement bring revival?  Word of mouth, prayer, fasting,
    CDSTERRE> etc.  They didn't have internet, television, etc to
    CDSTERRE> broadcast the "movement."  They did it by good ol'
    CDSTERRE> fashion revivals and tent meetings.  The next question
    CDSTERRE> would be, did Jesus use the internet?  Did Jesus use
    CDSTERRE> television?  Jesus did not even have a P.A. system to
    CDSTERRE> preach to the thousands.  Look what he accomplished?
    CDSTERRE> Look what we have accomplished without the internet.

No other churches had these tools either.  Let me ask you a question:
what delivery techniques and communications methods did Jesus *REFUSE*
to use (because he thought they were evil)?  Jesus and the early
church used *EVERY* means available to them to reach the world.  The
did not refuse to utilize any technology.

    CDSTERRE> Notice we, oneness Apostolics, are the fastest growing
    CDSTERRE> faith at the moment.  

Can you footnote that statement with documented references?  Are you
sure that you did not mean Charismatic Pentecostals?  Who did the
survey and normalized the results?  What is meant here by the word
"growing"?

    CDSTERRE> Notice we did it all without tv,
    CDSTERRE> or internet.  God gave us an ability to spread the
    CDSTERRE> gospel and we have been using that ability.  Word of
    CDSTERRE> mouth.  

The internet, and the telephone too for that matter, *IS* word of
mouth.

    CDSTERRE> The Bible says that the word will be spread
    CDSTERRE> throughout the land before Jesus comes back.  Will it be
    CDSTERRE> by internet, television, or evangelism teams traveling
    CDSTERRE> to the lost?

It will be, and has been, by all of the above.

    CDSTERRE> C.Sterrett sterrett@juno.com

    CDSTERRE> ps. not a personal attack on you, just curious thoughts
    CDSTERRE> from me :)

I need to follow up the above discussion with the statement that I
sincerely do believe that the internet, cable TV, telephones,
etc. exist for the very important purpose of increasing the speed,
distance, and volume of communication to the point that the population
will demand improvements in the carrier service.

In 1991, I worked at Alcatel Network Systems in Raleigh North
Carolina.  I attended Bro. Wayne Huntley's church while I was there.
It is a gret church, a great pastor, and a great congregation.

For those who don't know, Alcatel is the French telephone company.
They and Dow Corning are the 2 largest manufacturers of fiber optic
cable in the world.  Dow Corning got their big thrust into the market
in the early 1980s (1982?) when MCI decided to build the first all
fiber network in the US.  Alcatel has been doing the same thing in
Europe. 

I worked on "fiber to the curb" and "fiber to the home" projects.  The
fiber to the curb was a stopgap to let the phone companies go all
fiber without having to rewire all the existing buildings with fiber
instead of copper wire.

The point is this: George Orwell wrote the book "1984" about a society
whose every move was watched by "big brother".  They had these devices
called telescreens everywhere.  The government could monitor
everything you did or said.

I read the book in the 1960s and laughed, because I knew that the
bandwidth required to do such a thing was prohibitive.  NOT ANYMORE!
The rewiring of modern civilization with fiber extends the bandwidth
ceiling so that this is now possible.  

I believe that we are "wiring the world for the beast".  I am involved
as a worker, and this gives me the ability to monitor the progress on
this project.

We are so close to the end of the Church dispensation!

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
Robert Jay Brown III  rj@eli.wariat.org  http://eli.wariat.org  1 847 705-0424
Elijah Laboratories Inc.;  37 South Greenwood Avenue;  Palatine, IL 60067-6328
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