Redeeming Technology: How Technology Fits into God’s Story

Since the beginning, Logos has existed to apply advances in information technology to the Bible for the good of the church (and by extension, the world)—and we’ve often led the way in doing so (e.g., as one of the earliest adopters of Unicode for multilingual text display).

We’ve expressed that mission in different ways over the years—at one point with the tagline “advanced technology for eternal truth.” But at its core, our mission hasn’t changed. Today we capture it in this statement, which we crafted in 2016: Our mission is to

use technology to equip the church to grow in the light of the Bible.

This mission is comprised of four primary components:

• Technology as a tool
• The Bible as the centerpiece
• The church as the user
• Growth as the goal

In this article, I want to focus on the first in this list—technology—explaining both why and how it features so prominently in Logos’s mission. I’ll do this by grounding our convictions in the storyline of Scripture and, through it, what the Bible teaches about God, humanity, redemption, the mission of the church, and the new creation. In doing so, we’ll lay a theological framework for properly applying technology as well as avoiding and being aware of its abuses.

The etymological origin behind our modern English word technology relates to technology as the practical application of skill.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll adopt the Concise Oxford English Dictionary’s definition. It defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.”

The Bible provides no chapter-and-verse that directly tells us what to believe about technology. Nonetheless, as we’ll find, the theological concepts that undergird it are woven throughout the Bible’s overarching creation-to-new-creation storyline. Let’s briefly survey this thread in an effort to establish a theological framework for technology’s appropriate use, along with guardrails against its abuse.

Creation: the establishment of technology

The theological foundation of technology is rooted in the image of God (Gen 1:26–27; 5:1–2; 9:6) and the creation mandate (Gen 1:28–30; 2:15; Ps 8:5–8). It is wrapped up in the concepts of humanity as his image-bearers, representatives of God’s authority, creativity, and care through the creation mandate.

As the eternal and infinitely skillful designer and Creator of the universe and all that’s in it, Yahweh owns, rules over, and cares for all that he has made. He created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness and appointed them to represent him on the earth. They were to exercise their derived authority and imitate his ingenuity by exerting dominion, bringing order and stewarding creation in partnership with him (cf. 1 Cor 3:9). God calls humanity to use their divine-like and divinely given intelligence and skill to fill, subdue, rule over, work, and watch over the created order (Gen 1:26, 28; 2:15)—in a way that reflects Yahweh’s ownership, authority, and gracious care for his good creation, especially for those who are in his image.

So the foundation of technology is the infinitely masterful skill, sovereign authority, and loving care of the Creator. Technological development is the creative outworking of this God-given and godlike wisdom and skill, rooted in both an indicative (i.e., who we are, God’s image and representatives) and imperative (i.e., the creation mandate to subdue, rule, and watch over creation). As a result, technological development is both unavoidable—we can’t not be who we are—and a moral duty given to us by our Creator.

Fall: the sinful distortion of technology

But the use of technology, like everything else, plunged into ruin at the fall and its curse (Gen 3:1–19).

While we were made like God and made to reflect God, we are not God. The creature isn’t the Creator. When we get that wrong, the use of our skill and creativity runs amok.

• We attempt to be like God in ways that are uniquely his.
• Instead of glorifying him by pointing others to him, we usurp him and set ourselves up as his rival.
• In our blindness, we establish our own authority and deny our dependence on him and his provision.
• Instead of using technology to do good, we use it to pursue our selfish goals, and as a result harm others.

Tragedy in Eden

The serpent deceptively promised Eve that she’d be like God—but in ways that weren’t compatible with his authority and provision (Gen 3:5; cf. vv. 22–24). Since that dreadful day, our godlikeness (1:26–27) and dominion (1:28–30) have been repeatedly distorted and used in ways that don’t honor his authority and provision as the eternal, infinite, unique Creator, glorious sovereign, and omni-benevolent giver.

In a sense, much of our technological pursuit is an attempt to close the gap between the finite and the infinite; that is, it is an attempt to be and become godlike—exercising godlike attributes and imitating our Creator’s creative genius to bring about new things. Consider the technology that you rely on daily.

1. Cars, air travel, telecommunication, video conferencing, virtual and augmented reality, and space travel all attempt to close an omnipresence deficiency.
2. Machinery, medicine, robots, and genetic engineering are ways of reducing our lack of omnipotence.
3. Digital storage, big data and analytics, vector embeddings and semantic search, large language models and generative AI, machine translation, and brain-computer interfaces aim to help us with our lack of omniscience.
4. Humanity has also been on an endless quest to live forever, to achieve eternality.

Much of our technological pursuit is an attempt to close the gap between the finite and the infinite; that is, it is an attempt to be and become godlike.

None of these is inherently evil, so long as they’re exercised under the authority of and in humble dependence on the provision of the eternal, infinite Creator and used in the service of our neighbor (Lev 19:18). But they’re all ripe for the fallen human heart to vie for authority, knowledge, and power that belong to God alone and to pervert for selfish ends that harm others.

Rebellion at Babel

The story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9) illustrates one of the dangers of technology in a fallen world—when it’s in the wrong hands and used for the wrong purposes. The sin of Babel was the pursuit of human glory rather than God’s: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves, otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4 NIV). It was also the refusal to obey God’s command to fill the earth (Gen 1:28; 9:1). Humanity was created to reflect God’s glory (Col 1:16; cf. Ps 19:1; Rom 8:29; 11:36) to the ends of the earth—not to establish its own.

Hubris with Uzziah

The English word technology doesn’t occur in any English Bible translations, but it is used once in The Message paraphrase of 2 Chronicles 26:11–15, where King Uzziah installed “the latest in military technology on the towers and corners of Jerusalem for shooting arrows and hurling stones” (emphasis added).

However, commenting on Uzziah and his military technology, the text continues, “His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God” (vv. 15–16 NIV, emphasis added; see also 20–21). Technology can bring power and fame, which can bring pride, autonomy, self-sufficiency, and rebellion, resulting in God’s judgment.

Eden, Babel, and Uzziah all provide us with warnings we must be careful to heed: Technology must be applied under God’s sovereign authority for his good purposes and great glory.

Cross: the redemption of technology

The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are God’s eternal answer (Acts 2:23; 4:28; 1 Pet 1:20; cf. Eph 1:4) to the perversion of his good design for humanity and the gifts and responsibilities he gave them. Through death, resurrection, and union with Jesus (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:11), the Image of God (2 Cor 4:4), God restores the image that was marred. As a result, all of his renewed image-bearers can once again serve their original purpose of being pointers to their preeminent older brother (Rom 8:29; cf. Col 1:15, 18).

New creation has broken into the present age (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15), and God has begun to establish his already-but-not-yet kingdom. Towards this end, he uses his church—and their redeemed use of technology—to advance the Great Commission (Matt 28:16–20) as he reclaims all the nations as his inheritance (Gen 12:3; Pss 2:8; 82:8; cf. Heb 1:2) and builds his multi-ethnic church from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev 5:9; 7:9).

The cross recalibrates our application of technology in the service of advancing God’s saving message of self-sacrificial love to all the nations.

In this new covenant era, the mark of God’s people is faith working through love (John 13:35; Gal 5:6)—a radical kind of love, the love of Jesus (John 13:34; 15:12), of not just neighbor but enemy (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35). The cross recalibrates our application of technology in the service of advancing God’s saving message of self-sacrificial love to all the nations.

We apply technology rightly only when we do so under the authority of King Jesus (Matt 28:18; John 17:2) and in service of the advancement of his gospel and kingdom.

New creation: the restoration of technology

The Christian hope is anchored in God’s promise to establish his eternal kingdom (Rev 11:15). Scripture describes this as a new heaven and earth (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1) marked by righteousness and peace (Isa 9:7; Rom 14:17), where sin, suffering, sorrow, death, and Satan have been finally and fully defeated and eradicated. In this holy celestial city (Rev 21:2, 10; 22:19), heaven and earth unite and God again dwells with his creatures in intimate, endless fellowship. We will at last fully live out what it means to be God’s image, reflecting his glory, as we exercise creative dominion in partnership with him (Matt 19:28; Rev 2:26–28; 3:21; cf. Eph 2:6) in a way that exalts him as the thrice-holy triune Creator (Rev 4:8; cf. Isa 6:3).

Application: the proper use of technology

As we live in this fallen world between Eden and Zion, the dangers of technological abuse remain as ominous as the opportunities for good are exciting. The task of carefully applying technology in our ever-changing contexts calls for wisdom, humility, dependence on God, and radical, selfless love.

Avoiding all technological advances isn’t the answer. Neither is carelessly embracing the latest fad without a robust biblical and theological framework. We must chart a path that avoids both extremes, neither missing the opportunities to redeem the time (Eph 5:16; Col 4:5; cf. John 5:17; 9:4) and strategically advance God’s good purposes nor inadvertently playing into the hands of the evil one who steals, kills, and destroys (John 10:10).

Therefore, as we walk away from this brief high-level survey of the Bible’s good-news storyline, we can synthesize its insights into the following theological themes. As we’ve traced the place of technology within the story of Scripture, we’ve observed:

1. Yahweh is the infinite Creator, and we are finite creatures, made in his image and commissioned to represent him.
2. Technological advance isn’t optional, but part of the obligatory outworking of the image of God and the creation mandate.
3. We innovate rightly only when we humbly imitate God, point others to him, and operate as stewards under his authority, in alignment with his good purposes and in dependence on his provision.
4. The fall of humankind into sinful rebellion against God has resulted in conditions ripe for the misuse of technology, and we must constantly be on guard against its use for evil—even in the hands of his redeemed.
5. In the death and resurrection of Jesus we find the solution to using technology for God’s good purposes: loving neighbor and enemy and making disciples of the nations.
6. The church, as the redeemed, ought to be at the forefront of technological innovation, leading the way in its right application to the fulfillment of the Great Commission, the good of humanity, and the glory of God.

These truths have guided Logos for the past thirty-three years as we leverage advances in information technology for the good of the church and the glory of God. We remain committed to doing the same with generative AI and whatever comes next in our rapidly changing world.

For more on a theology of technology, consider Phil Gons’s recommendations

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