Life Lines
what hath god wrought?
We know that one of the reasons the Lord was born on earth is because the
written word was here and so His Word could be published and preserved. But
for centuries that meant mostly monks transcribing and illustrating a Bible
that was largely unknown and unread by the masses.
With the invention of the printing press and publication of the Gutenberg
Bible in 1440, suddenly the way was open for mass communication. But it
was not until 1604 that King James commissioned the standard version of the
Bible, specifically meant to be read by the people.
It was also the printing press that made it possible for Emanuel Swedenborg
in the 18th century to publish the new revelation given through him by the
Lord.
In 1884 when Samuel Morse opened a new channel of communication
with a telegraph message from the Supreme Court chambers in Washington,
DC, to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland, he chose
for this first ever message transmitted over a wire a quotation from Numbers
23:23: “What hath God wrought?”
It is a question worth pondering as the internet and social media have
opened pathways for communication on a scale Gutenberg, Swedenborg
and Morse never could have imagined. A lot of that communication is selfabsorbed and worldly; much of it is incredibly useful and easy to access. The
internet, in the Lord’s providence, also is opening incredible opportunities to
connect people with the Writings and with the Lord. An estimated 1 billion
people throughout the world are on the Internet. Imagine the possibilities!
Within a decade of Morse’s humble question from Scripture, 20,000 miles
of telegraph cable crisscrossed the United States and helped to spur rapid
expansion across the country. And as the int ernet instantly connects people
and ideas all over the world, we are just beginning to tap into mind-boggling
opportunities to extend the reach of the New Church and the Lord’s revelation
to anyone with an iPhone, a laptop, and an inquiring mind.
In their presentations at the Boynton Beach Retreat (summarized
beginning on page 135), the Rev. Mark Pendleton and Curtis Childs got people
very excited about the way they are tapping into this potential. Mark is doing
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