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October 13, 2006
New Religions of the Internet Age
As of October 1st, our new Internet TV website went on-line. We had a little trouble at first with visitors who couldn't create new member accounts, but we got that smoothed out and everything's functioning normally now. Much thanks to the large number of you folks who registered for free accounts with us to watch Harvest Time on-line. This is a real groundbreaking development in Harvest Time's history. It makes me feel like we're really "plugged-in" to the times. Visitors to the site can access and view our programming (with English sub-titles included) from anywhere in the world and at any time of day. We currently have about 200 of our past programs available on-line with plans to make it 500 programs in the near future. We'll also be adding an Internet Radio section featuring various audio presetations, as well. Access it for yourself by going to www.harvestinternet.tv and sign up for a free account.
With all this interest in the Internet, I thought I'd share with you some information I recently came across about a new religious movement just made for the Internet Age. Have you ever heard of "Yoism"? Yoism is a new religion proposed by American psychoanalyst Dan Kriegman in 1994. Here's what it's all about:
This kind of new religious thought, of course, is an outright rejection of biblical authority. No matter how much finite thinking you pile up, it will never become the Infinite. The wisdom of sinful human beings will never equal the wisdom of God Almighty. The well-known truth is that the Wikipedia contains plenty of errors. The way things are these days makes one realize how close we're getting to the "Great Tribulation" period of history that the book of Revelation prophesies about.
- The governing principle of Yoism is known as "Open Source Theory." This theory and its application seeks to incorporate various standards and information from a wide range of spheres into itself. Average people participate in the movement to seek out truth and cobble together an authoritative system based upon group thought. One example of how the theory works is the "Wikipedia" website. The number of people who reference the various Wikipedia sites for everyday research is quite large.
- Applying Open Source Theory to religion works like this: in traditional religion, doctrine is handed down from authoritative sources and accepted passively by the body of believers. However, with Yoism, participants put their energies together and create the doctrine out of whatever mutually acceptable or beneficial ideas they can come up with.
- New religions like this typically take on various forms, but Yoism touts itself as the world's first "Open Source Religion." Of course, in the background of all this is the growth of the Internet itself.
- Adherents refer to themselves as "Yoan" and typically reject the authority of traditional religion and, in its place, emphasize such diverse ideas as community, evolution, democracy, environmentalism, development, etc. Open Source software continuously changes and improves as regular folks participate in its development. In the same way, they maintain, adherents of Yoism pool their personal experiences in an attempt to develop their own faith and community scriptures. "The prospects for our pursuit of truth," they say, "depend upon whether or not the diverse life experiences of many people can be fully integrated together."
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (I Tim. 4:1, NIV)It's in times just like these that the necessity of proclaiming the unchanging Word of God -- over the Internet or by any other means -- becomes so very clear. Please pray with us that the Harvest Time Internet TV website would be greatly used of the Lord.
In closing, I'd like to mention two important items. First, we're still needing more participants for our 39th Harvest Time Holy Land Tour: "New Years in Israel 2007." We have about 10 open slots, so if you're interested, be sure and write us for a pamphlet as soon as possible.
The other item is an announcement that the final volume in The Bible For the Japanese (sub-titled, The Nations) is complete and will go on sale in bookstores around the country the first part of November (Japanese-language only). Our publisher, Bungeisha, has plans to make all four volumes available in a special boxed set which includes a set of commemorative postcards featuring the book's artwork as drawn by water-color artist Katsuyuki Fujii. I'm so grateful. Rich blessings upon you all in Y'shua's precious name!
Kenichi Nakagawa
Posted by HarvestTV at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)