Is God on the net?

A headline in the Waikato Times on 31 May 2001, read
"Religion on the net tipped to grow". We quote in part from the information
there presented: "Some 8 per cent of adults and 12 per cent of teenagers in
the US use the internet for religious or spiritual experiences and the number is
likely to grow rapidly in coming years, according to a new study...

Activities deemed most appealing included listening to
archived religious teaching, reading on-line 'devotionals' and buying
religious products on-line.

Such figures could attract a huge potential audience and
create a market of up to 100 million adults, survey director George Barna said.
'By the end of the decade, we will have in excess of 10 per cent of our
population who will rely on the internet for their entire spiritual experience,'
Barna predicted.

'Some of them ... will be people who drop out of the
physical church in favour of the cyberchurch,' he said.

'Born-again and evangelical Christians are every bit as
likely as non-Christians to use the digital superhighway. Catholics and
mainline Protestants are slightly more likely to use the internet than are
Baptists and Protestants who attend non-mainline churches,' the report found."

In the light of the Biblical admonition found in Hebrews
10:25, we find this quite a disturbing innovation.

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the
more, as ye see the day approaching". It would appear that "the manner of
some is" could apply to those who stay at home watching television or
getting their spiritual help from the internet.

No doubt there is some power in Christians meeting together
as we are members of one particular body, of which Christ is the head.

To all readers who belong to the group entitled D.G.T.C.B.,
which stands for Don't Go to Church Boys, we recommend that a careful reading
of the scripture would lead one to go back to fellowship. Even if there are
faults, we can still find blessing in meeting one with the other and sharing our
common faith in our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.