Pax Romana ("Roman Peace" in Latin) is a term historians use to describe a period covering most of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. During this time much of the known world was connected by a single government, a single language, and a road system. Relative peace throughout the Roman empire and the ability to travel unmolested from Hadrian's wall in Britain to the Euphrates River in modern day Iraq aided the spread of Christianity (portrayed above as a mold growing across the face of the ancient world). This has got me thinking about the age of the internet. There is no doubt that social media sites and the internet in general are ushering in a new era of connectedness, but could this represent kind of a Pax Zuckerberg? Waddaya think? (I read yesterday that if Facebook were a nation it would be ranked as either 7th or 8th in size overall.) I tend to view the rise of the internet as a shadowy and vaguely sinister thing, an invasion of privacy, a great collector of information, intent on unknown purposes. (Sometimes I feel as if the whole world is on the verge of vomiting.) Perhaps the internet is even a necessary precursor to end-time events prophesied in the Bible- maybe so, but on the bright side it undoubtedly represents an incredible opportunity for the spread of the gospel today. These very words I am typing here could be accessed and read by someone in Moscow (assuming they could read English), and that connection is so easy today- no air fare, no travel time, no passports.
Pax Zuckerberg!!! (I might have to rethink my abstention from facebook.) Go ye into all the nations and make disciples of men.
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