The Rise of the Individual
The last 500 years have seen the rise and fall of the individual.
The Rise
500 years ago, we would have been serfs scratching out a living on land owned by a Nobel man. We would have a portion of his land we could grow our food on, but we were required to work to bring in his harvest before our own; we were also forced to pay a tax on the food we grew on the land we had, but he owned, forced to pay a tax at the mill to grind our wheat to flour, and forced to send our sons off to war when he had a dispute with a neighboring Nobleman.
Then, along came the Gutenberg printing press in 1440. Books went from being in their hundreds to in their millions, maybe still in the hands of noblemen, but not for long.
Information begets knowledge, knowledge begets understanding, and understanding creates generational wisdom.
Then came the bible in English, for which Tyndale was tied to a stake, strangled with a rope, and torched. (Outside a castle near Brussels on Oct. 6, 1536.)
The Noblemen knew what was happening but could not stop it; the information revolution had begun.
The Bible, available to the common man, sparked a learning revolution, a literacy revolution, and an individual sovereignty revolution. The Bible broke the back of a church corrupted. Sins went from being forgiven with coins to an outflowing of grace, with scripture alone, the cross alone, Jesus alone.
Salvation is a cooperative experience. It is also an individual experience.
The printing press and the Bible in English broke open the power of the salvation of the individual, just like in Acts.
The world became literate. The individual became literate. We started to read the bible ourselves, and we were found by God, transformed by God, and became followers of the teachings of His Son, Jesus, the Christ, and so we were transformed.
The Fall
It is sad to think that our literate capacity did not last long, for today, we have become illiterate literate people.
We might be able to read.
But we do not read.
We can navigate our world of signs and instructions, headlines, and tic-tok titles, but we watch, we do not read.
And in being an illiterate literate people, we have once again become the serfs of a new band of techno noblemen, scratching out an existence in their fields, becoming their property, reduced to working on their terms.
All because we are once again illiterate.
Do you think Facebook, Instagram, X, Tic-Tok is free?
It is not. It is costing you – you.
Your are now the prodcut.