Having discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of technology, now it’s time to consider what the Bible says on the topic.

Technology and the Cultural Mandate

The first biblical consideration is the “cultural mandate” of Genesis 1:28, where God tells the newly created man and woman,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Remarking on this passage, Nancy Pearcey writes,

In Genesis, God gives what we might call the first job description: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” The first phrase, “be fruitful and multiply” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music.[1]

Genesis 2 expands that job description, stating, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).

So God created man and woman to “subdue” the earth and “to work it and keep it.” In other words, God created man and woman to make something of the earth.

God created something that was good (creation), then commissioned humans to make it better. To take what was given them and shape it into something better. Subduing the earth implies the use of tools (or technology), for without tools we would be incapable of subduing the wildness of all that God created. Technology is inevitable if humankind is going to rule over that creation like God intended.

Technology is implied in the cultural mandate and in the coming Kingdom.

Technology and the Coming Kingdom

If you fast-forward to the end of the Bible, you see the New Heavens and the New Earth coming together in its most potent form in the New Jerusalem. It’s hard to imagine the New Jerusalem being possible without technology. Consider this from Revelation 21:

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal

. . . . The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev 21:9–11, 18-21 ESV).

John, the author of these words, is struggling to make any connections to real-life materials in order to explain the visions he experienced. He’s seeing the New Jerusalem, the city where Jesus will reign for all of eternity, which is part of the New Heavens and the New Earth. The Bible describes the coming together of heaven and earth as a physical reality that resurrected sons and saughters of God will enjoy.

So what John is seeing is not some ethereal, spiritualized conception of reality—it is reality. And that reality would not be possible without some form of advanced technology.

From the Garden to the City

Civilization started in a garden, but it will end in a city. The New Jerusalem is what God intended for humans to accomplish from the beginning. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden and told them to make something of it, surely this is what He had in mind.

The transformation from garden to city does not happen without technology, so the impetus for humans to create technology is inherent in our design. After all, humans are made in the image of a creator God.

John’s vision of the New Jerusalem goes beyond showing us that technology is part of God’s design, however. John Dyer writes,

“The promise of this new city tells us that God’s plan is not merely to regenerate human bodies and resurrect human souls but also to restore human creations to a world untainted by sin. . . . In the new city there will be no more sadness, pain, or death, only everlasting joy and glory to God.”[2]

What’s seen in Revelation is a vision of a redeemed technological city and people which bring glory to the God who created them and made everything possible.

Next, we’ll look at how the New Testament authors wrestled with the embodied technology of their day.

[1] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), 47.

[2] Dyer, From the Garden to the City, 138.

Published by Grayson Pope

Hey, there. My name is Grayson. I’m a husband and father of four. I serve as a writer and editor with Prison Fellowship and as the Managing Web Editor of Gospel-Centered Discipleship.