An isolationist approach to the acquisition and development of biblical knowledge in the community is not possible now that the Internet Age is upon us. That is, you can certainly bury your head in the sand, if you want to, but we are counselled to live in the world while not being of the world.
Perhaps in the past isolationism was possible, since people would have to spend a lot of time acquiring knowledge through extensive book reading, doing academic research in libraries, at the same time as holding down a job and/or raising a family. Some certainly did this labour. Hence, people relied on Christadelphian authors and speakers for their knowledge as recently as the late 1980s, precisely because of the personal labour involved in knowledge acquisition. This has now changed forever because of the Internet and because of computer aided bible tools.[1] People read less print material (books and magazines), but access more ‘knowledge’ on the Internet. Hence, writers and speakers in the community have a different kind of younger audience today. It is an audience among whom there is much more varied ‘knowledge’ sloshing around.
Speakers face younger audiences (<40) which read and listen to many competing voices. They can no longer assume that the audience will rely on them for knowledge, nor can they assume that their audience has the same background in reading (i.e. a similar range of Christadelphian books and magazines). They may very well know more than them and already know what they say before they have begun to speak. Having good oratorical skills is not enough; it may even be that with the age of YouTube, the platform has lost its role.
While all levels of material are needed in the community, because of the ephemeral nature of the writing product, an editorial policy today that publishes only introductory level material and devotional material is a mistake. It fails to address the freely and easily available advanced material on the Internet; it supposes that this source of information is not being used in the community, whereas in reality it is now prominent among the younger audience. The policy also leads to isolationism and an inability to engage with the world in preaching. While all levels of material are needed in a community, it is always a mistake to exclude the publication of more advanced material from the output of the community. If people are not being fed with advanced material from within the community, they will look elsewhere.
The community in the UK became more isolationist during the mid to late 1980s and this was reflected in its writing output at the time changing to a focus on more introductory and devotional material. This was reinforced by a corresponding change in the level of content delivered by speakers. The mistake at the time was to give up the responsibility that we have to do the more advanced writing needed (and scripturally warranted) by our being in the world and having to combat the thinking around us. The mistake was to give up the work of advanced study and give in to an anti-intellectualism. The balance that the immediate post-war generation had maintained (of publishing advanced and introductory material) fell away. Had this mistake not been made, we would be in a better position today to combat error as it comes to us through the Internet. Why it happened is difficult to know; perhaps, it was the increasing time needed at work in pursuing a career; perhaps it was the greater pursuit of leisure activities; perhaps it was because studying became harder to do once it fell into abeyance; or perhaps an ideology took root in which only the simple gospel was valued along with good works.
Things change; fashions come and go; and circumstances often come about that highlight the mistakes of a former generation. This is not to say that the new generation will not have its mistakes exposed in the future should the world turn. The Internet Age has exposed the mistake of the former generation in turning the community exclusively towards the introductory (ever-repeated) and towards the devotional (ever lesson-based). There is today a need to change the approach, so that there is a new balance that also includes more advanced thinking, writing and speaking. Isolationism may be a comfortable choice, and people will still make that choice, but it will not secure our identity in the world. Faith always will have to be held against the thinking of the Serpent. Whether the new generation can undo the mistakes of the outgoing generation or whether it follows them remains to be seen.
Prophecy is not an end unto itself