The Wikipedia Effect

The WIKIGOSPEL… 'Quick, Easy, Convenient'

As many already know, Wikipedia is a website, setup in 2001, considered a Top 40 Web site with broader reach than the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC.com, Wall Street Journal, and Chicago Tribune combined. Wikipedia has about 2.4 billion page views a month, and is visited by 7 per cent of ALL Internet users everyday. Despite this success Wikipedia is still hampered by its inability to guarantee that information appearing on the website is true. It includes more than two million entries in English and covers 252 languages. However, its unique structure, by which anybody can add, remove or edit information, is at once its strength and weakness.

The “wiki” format, which takes its name from the Hawaiian word for “quick”, means it can draw on a vast pool of expertise from individuals all over the world, it is also vulnerable to deliberate abuse. Many companies and individuals are known to keep an eye on their own entries, inserting promotional material and removing potentially embarrassing details. More insidiously, some users engage in deliberate vandalism, deleting whole passages of text or inserting errors.

The gospel is the good news of God's saving grace to all mankind. It is the message of the cross and sacrifice Jesus gave on Calvary. Jesus death is the example of the process of salvation for all Christians everywhere to follow. It illustrates suffering, rejection, sacrifice, pain, subjection to a higher authority.
Jesus was in every way born to die. This was His purpose and essence. It is also our purpose and essence to die out to our own sinful desires.

The mix-up occurs in the nature of gospel as good news. This does not mean it is quick, easy, or convenient, only that it is good. The gospel provides the only way of escape… it never claimed to be easy. In fact those who carried the gospel initially faced great martyrdom, persecution, and public ridicule. The Apostles were not without warning- as Jesus constantly warned of the difficulty in carrying the gospel to the world. He said if the world hated Him, they would also hate His followers. He said in Acts 1:8 that those carrying the gospel would give their lives in the process.

This is the old way of doing "Christianity". The appeal was in the passion, commitment, and desire to know the truth. It was established firmly in martyrdom and it worked every time. It was approved by God Himself.

Compare it to yesterday's the Encyclopedia Britannica sold door to door which sat on the shelf waiting for the reader to use it, unlocking its secrets and information and guidance. Like the 12 volume set in the bookcase, the gospel is bound and established. Its methods of spreading and relating information are updated generation to generation with newer volumes but the information is still the same. The definition of a cat is still a cat.

In 2001 things changed for the encyclopedia business. Gone are the door to door salesmen, proclaiming the greatness of their information. Even the existing copies of encyclopedias have been rendered mere relics decorating library shelves collecting dust, its information unused and undisturbed by seekers.

The Internet killed the business with it's creation of the largest encyclopedia in the history of the world, Wikipedia. But Wikipedia is not like the encyclopedia before it.

In its effort to be a quick, easy, and convenient resource the game has been changed for every of life… namely the world of Christianity and religion, which has been searching for its identity to present to a new and uncertain generation. In doing so… religion, Christian churches everywhere, to keep up with the times, have begun to forsake the old gospel, for the new quick, easy, and convenient WIKIGOSPEL.

Text: 2 Timothy 3:1-7
1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come .
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4. Traitors, heady, high minded , lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away .
6. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7. Ever learning , and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Paul gives a long list of how people will be in their lifestyle in the last days… but what most people fail to comprehend is that he is not referring to the world or sinners or even the Antichrist… Paul makes clear in verse five that he is referring to the Church of the living God, those who have a form of godliness but deny the information… the power that Godliness reveals!

How wikipedia has destroyed the encyclopedia, the wikigospel will attack the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Already gone are the door to door expressions and lifestyles of faith… replaced with fancy music and life style programs. Gone are the hills of crucifixion, martyrdom, and the Roman arenas of persecution… replaced with large fancy buildings and houses of worship, buildings the early church could not have even comprehended. Most importantly, gone are the messages of suffering, rejection, sacrifice, pain, and subjection to the will of God.

The WikiGospel will seek to replace the pain of Christ's sacrifice… with an easy 'blessed' overcoming life free of problems (Prosperity Doctrine), replace the authority of God with the authority of man, (Paul in Romans 1:they are lovers of themselves and pleasure more than lovers of God, they are traitors to the gospel, intellectuals always searching but never able to find truth because they have already rejected it as hard, slow, and inconvenient).

The gospel says go. The wikigospel says follow and enjoy the journey.

Remember wikipreachers of the wikigospel are always ready to lead away 'silly' people captive in their sins… by preaching a gospel of no sacrifice, no change, no requirements… follow, learn, journey… but never find!

Blog One: Wiki Gospel
Blog Two: WikiTruth
Blog Three: WikiChurch
Blog Four: WikiJesus
Blog Five: WikiFaith