Technology and the Church: Which Came First?

Mankind has a notion that with time comes authority and respect. With time the influence of an event or person is given the opportunity to have its full effect. We are hesitant to give credit where credit may not be due, and as the proverb goes, “only time will tell.”

Perhaps for this reason, we hesitate to realize the full implications of the strength of the Church of Jesus Christ in our own time. We base our teachings on ancient scripture. We revere the pioneers and early Christians as optimal examples of true believers. We give upmost priority to genealogy work. Our very concept of self-worth derives from the events in the Garden of Eden and the Preexistence. And yet despite this focus on the past, the kingdom of God on earth is larger now and stronger now than it has ever been in the history of the world.

There are over 12 million members, most of whom are striving and succeeding despite great adversity to live the gospel. For the first time we spread over almost the entire globe. Until this dispensation, the gospel was limited to a single people, country, or, at most, hemisphere. Now it is in over one hundred languages and there is every intention to see that this trend continues.

How? Technology. The organization necessary, the centralized leadership, and the magnitude of resources required are only now realized by means of computers, global networks, and revolutionary software. Called to mind is a scene from the film The Other Side of Heaven, when a young successful missionary is chastised for neglecting to keep organized the records of his work, “The Lord’s is a house of order, Elder,” the Mission President reminds. Without order, the church does not grow. Period.

Without technology, an organization (the word itself implying order) of such vast size cannot be kept in order. It is beyond important. It is vital. That this Work and this technology have emerged simultaneously in the timeline of history is miraculous in more ways than are here able to be treated. It demands that each member of the church decides for himself or herself if the miracle is the growth in the Lord’s Plan because of technology or if it is the growth in technology because of the Lord’s plan.