Educational Futurists and Globalization Part 2

Welcome to podcast #38. We have been exploring the idea that every educator needs to become a futurist because we are preparing the minds of the future. Before we jump in I want to let you know that we will send you a free copy of my book or an MP3 audio version of, Disciplining this Generation for a Digital World, to anyone that sends us an email. I will have the details at the end of the podcast.

Last week we began to consider that the future of our world is undergoing an enormous shift in our political, economic and social structures towards Globalization. We examined the story of the first worldwide movement towards globalization found in Genesis 11:1-9. As we know, this first movement brought on God’s judgment. Verses 6-9 describe this judgment: “The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."  So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.”

First, let me suggest that the reason for the judgment wasn’t because the people in the time of Babel could all speak the same language. Nor was it that they were finding new technologies. It is my opinion that the real reason they were judged is that Babel represented a direct disobedience to the Lord’s command to the peoples of the earth given to Noah over 100 years earlier. In Genesis 9:1 they were commanded to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Instead of filling the earth, the entire earth was coming together. God confused their languages in order to continue their spread throughout the planet. The other obvious point of judgment was the extreme humanistic motivation that seemed to captivate everyone exemplified in the phrase, “let us make for us name, lest we be scatter…” Genesis 11:4. One other important point to make from this story is the involvement of a new technology. They had discovered the building properties of mortar. Through faith in themselves and faith in their technology they would make for themselves a name and they believed that they could somehow countermine the command of the God of Noah to “fill the earth.”

Today we see these same factors at work in our world. First we see the return of a one world language. As pointed out last week, English is fast becoming the common tongue of the world. Its ability to flex and grow has made it, by far the most spoken second language in the world. Secondly, the new technology of the internet and the communication revolution has brought the world to our homes. Thomas Friedman, author of the World is Flat, highlights the role of technology in this phenomenon: “…the dynamic force in Globalization – the thing that gives it its unique character – is the newfound power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. And the lever that is enabling individuals and groups to go global so easily and so seamlessly is not horsepower, and not hardware, but software – all sorts of new applications – in conjunction with the creation of a global fiber-optic network that has made us all next-door neighbors.” Finally, the slow but steady shift in worldview through western postmodernism, eastern mysticism and subtle synchronizing of beliefs worldwide is altering how we see the world politically, socially and economically.

It is clear that the first and most dramatic influence of this communication revolution is Globalization and the erasing of the old boarders. How should we be thinking about this a Christians? Is Globalization evil? Will it bring the same judgment of God that fell upon Babel or worse, does it mark the end of the world as we know it?

As we have seen in the world of Genesis 11 the people of the earth were directly disobeying God’s command to fill and replenish the earth after the flood. It is my belief that this was the most serious aspect of this first globalizing event combined with the shift in worldview. As a result of God’s judgment the migration and populating the earth has continued till this day. In fact one could argue that we have fulfilled God’s command and have successfully achieved this command. Nearly every inhabitable part of the globe has been settled. This is not to say that we have reached our final population levels but we have filled the earth. This begs the question, is God against our coming together today through unifying language and the technologies of travel and the internet?

This is an important question because it will determine our attitude as Christians regarding Globalization and how we respond to this present day phenomenon. If indeed the command of God in filling and replenishing the earth has been completed then it stands to reason that a unification of language, communication, commerce, socialization should not be thought of as evil but in fact should be encouraged. It is my opinion that this would be true if it wasn’t overshadowed by one all pervasive truth about the human condition: man is fallen. Any globalizing event or phenomenon will lead men into self exaltation, greed, and the dissemination of humanistic ideals that will place us at the center of the universe.

Let me venture into territory I rarely go. Our Christian eschatology, end time teaching, seems to indicate that the world embarks on a political globalization before the end of the age as we know it. The Bible speaks of unifying events that could bring the world under one global leader, the anti-christ. There is an indication of a one world currency or more accurately a one world economic system based on a cashless currency. There are events that are witnessed worldwide which modern day communication technology make possible. And what I consider to be the most important of all predictions by Jesus in Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.“ If you have listened to these podcasts for very long you will note that I am not a big proponent of our modern Christian approach towards eschatology, nevertheless, one could argue that globalization is a necessary element of the last days and I would have to agree. Again does this mean we as Christians should be for or against globalization? That’s the real question for us, not when Jesus is going to return. We can’t do anything about when he will return but we can do something about our attitude and beliefs when he does come and we can do something about who will be waiting for him when he does decide to return.

First we have to keep in mind that we are truly not citizens of this world but are in fact citizens of heaven. If you go as far back as my 3rd podcast you would remember my teaching that we are dual citizens putting our citizenship in heaven as our first and foremost priority. 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. And Philippians 3:20 “our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;”. This means that in a very real sense we are to think of ourselves outside of the political, social and economic structures of this world. Our Canadian citizenship is secondary to our heavenly citizenship. We are first Christians and secondarily Canadians or Americans and this should be a far second place. This means that the affect of globalization upon Canada and the rest of the world is really not our fight. In my research for this podcast I came across several websites that encourage teachers to fight against globalization. The argument is that globalization will cause us to lose our identity and ability to control and sustain our own distinctive approach towards education. In a real sense this is true. Globalization has had some very significant affects upon human rights and values. One example is the United Nations Charter for the Rights of the Child. It has had some influence in how we think and legislate child rights in Canadian culture. It has empowered the State to take a much stronger position on the rights of the child over the rights of parents. As Christians we have to always measure our response to how something affects our ability to build the kingdom of God and propagate the gospel. Globalization on a theoretical scale, if measured by the sentiments of the United Nations, is a mixed bag.

A global mindset does create an openness to other’s values and beliefs, but this is often at the direct discouragement of taking a strong dogmatic view of any belief. In short it lends itself to syncretism, the idea that we should somehow synchronize all of our theologies into some ecumenical system of faith. Anyone who holds to a strong belief system that teaches they have found “the truth” is label as fundamentalist and dangerous. We cannot forget that, like the first movement of globalization in Genesis, this present movement does not come without worldview implications. Postmodern relativism has brought a necessary shift in worldviews that robs religion and faith of any true power to proclaim the truth. So in this sense we must find ourselves opposed to the underlying philosophies that are fuelling the modern movement towards globalization. As Christian educators we have to consistently address these unifying ideologies by proclaiming loud and clear that Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life and that no one comes to the Father except exclusively through him.

There are aspects about Globalization that I think has opened up huge options for the gospel and the kingdom of God. Because we are now in a world that is close and flat we have opportunities that have never been available to the Church. We have the ability to reach out to the world like never before. I tell the story of my brother Ken Bitgood in my book and it illustrates how small our world has become because of technology. Here is the expert:

Who is My Neighbor?

Jesus was asked this question in a conversation with a lawyer about what he must do to receive eternal life. The answer that any learned Jew would make was “…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Trying to trap Jesus in a slip of theology, the lawyer took it a step further and asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus then gives us the famous story about a robbery and beating and who would help this beaten man. The religious elite did not help him. The busy bureaucrat did not help him. It was the Samaritan, a Jewish half-breed, who was the true neighbor. He went way out of his way to help this hurting man.

Jesus defined a loving neighbor as one who helps those in need. In our world of fast, convenient transportation and worldwide communication, our neighbor is probably not the person who lives next door.

In the new global world your neighbor may live in China, as my brother discovered.

In spiritual matters, my little brother, Ken, has always been more of a big brother to me. He was very instrumental in leading me to Christ. He was my first true discipler, getting me started in a serious devotion to learning the Word in my early years as a believer. He has always been committed to following the Lord, often in some very interesting directions. Thanks to our dad, Ken and I both developed an interest in computers. Ken has always stayed up-to-date with the latest computer technology for the purpose of studying the Word. He always had the latest and greatest computer with the most sophisticated Bible Software he could find. In the nineties, Ken found Logos Bible Software and began to work on ways he could use their materials more efficiently. In the year 2000, a dream began to form in his mind. We could use this to reach people who are without the Word of God. We could reach China!

In 2001, Ken started the Digital Bible Society and is its president to this day. Their vision posted on their website sounds like the first chapter of this book.

“In the twentieth century another printing press came on the scene – the personal computer. And in the space of two decades, the PC dramatically transformed the economic and social order of our world. But the revolution is just beginning. … We believe another reformation is at hand. Huge segments of the world community are still without Bibles and Christian literature. In China alone, the Bible League estimates that some 45 million Christians still do not have a Bible they can call their own. We believe the new ‘printing press,’ will change everything. …

“We purpose to assist in the worldwide distribution of  digital Christian media that every believer in every nation will have free access to explore and understand the Scriptures in their own language - whether through the printed page, the spoken word (audio), or visual presentation (video).”

These were ambitious goals for an air traffic controller living in Spring, Texas. Ken was not a part of a worldwide mission’s network. He was not the head of some dynamic TV ministry. Ken is a guy who loves the Word of God and knew enough about digital communication to get this started. To date, they have distributed over 30,000 CDs in China and Taiwan. But it hasn’t stopped there. I estimate that for every CD produced over 100 copies are distributed. When a CD makes its way to a pastor, he is encouraged to make copies for everyone in his congregation and then encourages them to distribute the Word to anyone who will take it. The Chinese are the world’s greatest copyright violators; so making copies comes naturally to them. The great thing about digital technology is that it suffers almost no degradation in the copying process. One CD can be copied to another then the copy can be copied and so on. A copy made from ten generations of other copies will yield the same quality of data as the original.

This technology has facilitated a global distribution of the Word of God in the Chinese language. Recently, one of the Society’s partners was visiting a Chinese-speaking church in Panama. He discovered that they had distributed the Bible CD to all of their members. Another partner visited a similar church in Brazil. He went to install the software on the pastor’s computer only to find a more current version of the software already installed.

They are just getting ready to release Version 4.0 in both Chinese and Arabic! It will have hundreds of discipleship training books, The Hope Video built into the software that integrates with the scriptures, 476 worship songs, three versions of the Chinese Bible and a multitude of commentaries and dictionaries. When finishing my interview with Ken about the Digital Bible project he quoted me from a conversation we had years ago:

“You said to me years ago, Greg, ‘Every generation has a sound. In order to reach that generation you must learn the sound and fill it with the Word of God.’ The world becomes smaller every day – it really is a new digital generation – they learn differently and think differently. The new Global sound is Digital.”

In a global world, with instant communication and transportation that puts any part of the world within a day’s reach, we have a huge responsibility to love our neighbor. It is a great transgression of Jesus’ command when Christians stay ignorant of the world around them.

As you can see from this expert I believe that it is crucial that we begin to use the Global opportunities that are now available to us to reach our world for Christ. I believe it is a crucial time to equip our children to become the navigators of the global communication systems so that we can reach the people groups that have never been reached before. A helpful website is the Joshua Project which calculates that we have yet to reach 41% of the people groups of the world. Most of these groups are in places that are very difficult to bring the gospel because of political and religious barriers. If economic crisis or some other worldwide catastrophes do not prevent us from spreading the gospel then it is possible that our children could be the ones who complete the prophesy of Matthew 24:14. So when it comes to promoting the kingdom of God then I am a huge advocate of globalization even if it means that our North American culture goes through huge changes and the boarders mean less than they ever have before.

Next week we will continue to consider the implications of Globalization and how this affects Christian education. I hope to interview two of our most influential Social Studies teachers on this phenomenon and how they have responded. We would love to hear from you and I deeply value your comments. If you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.