about – Soul Liberty

ChurchMag Top 20 and A Note to New Readers

Today, a popular church tech blog, ChurchMag, listed my site as number 14 on their 2012 list of “Top 20” blogs in that class based on website stats, social media networks, and Google PageRank. Newcomers here may be wondering how this site fits in among that list since most of my posts are not focused on gadgets, social media, or apps designed to help your ministry. So, here’s a quick introduction to SoulLiberty.com and why I think it belongs in the “tech” category.

I tend to be a “power user” or even a creator of technology meant to help spread the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I share ideas on a very wide range of topics of concern to Christians. I have covered abortion, science, design, prophecy, data visualizations galore, and created a handful of simple apps. My communication style is mainly oriented toward demonstrating new concepts instead of discussing them. For instance, I could have written a post on how useful I thought Wolfram|Alpha could be and linked to a couple of things there. But, I didn’t. I wrote on the size of the New Jerusalem and embedded a Wolfram|Alpha widget that lets you type the size of one person’s “house” and let it tell you how many of those “houses” could fit in that city.

Most of the time the “tech” part of this site is subtle like that. The main exception is MetaV, my ever-expanding project to collect, visualize, and communicate data on biblical people, places, and periods of time. Some of the visualizations using the data in MetaV are featured on the home page. Others can be found under “Tools.”

Years ago when I started this site, I wrote this about the internet:

As we marvel at the technological achievements of our time, God finds a new way every day to remind me that the inventors of this virtual universe are worthy only to worship at the feet of the Creator of the actual universe.

I still feel that way all the time (you can read more on the “About” page). My hope is that readers would come to see things that way, too, but also recognize the rich opportunities before us. I want to make the most of the achievements in the Information Age to evangelize a lost world and train up disciples that grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth. If you’re a new reader or just someone I haven’t heard from before who feels the same way, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below or on Google+.

Our Vision for This Website

We started with a lot of ideas and relatively few web design skills. It wasn’t until after we got started that God saw fit to bestow upon us the knowledge we’d need to take things further. In the process, I (the web designer) have discovered even more amazing possibilities. What we have now is the tiny beginning of what I believe will be a very big endeavor, Lord willing.

Just think about what is now possible with the latest web technology and available free of charge. With one simple search box, I can instantly find any information I want in many forms: words, pictures, video, and even interactive presentations. It is possible to find videos based on the speech content, 3D panoramas of many places on a map (including 3D terrain), charts of any historical data, instant pricing and info on anything money can buy, and on into infinity. It almost seems the possibilities are only limited by the size of our imagination.

As we marvel at the technological achievements of our time, God finds a new way every day to remind me that the inventors of this virtual universe are worthy only to worship at the feet of the Creator of the actual universe. It’s all too obvious that the web is used mostly for anything but service to the Lord. Just try searching for an answer to some simple question and you’ll spend far too much time wading through blasphemy and perversity just to find some coherent commentary or useful illustration.

Now imagine if just some of these advancements were put toward the everlasting reward of knowing God more intimately and understanding our times in a way only he can help us to see. What if, with that one little search box, you could do a whole Bible study knowing that the only information you’ll have to sort through is from people who believe and defend every word of God?

Search a Bible character’s name and see his genealogy, the verses with his name, the places he’s been, artistic renderings, video or audio commentary. Click a verse in the Bible to see where it fits in the timeline of history and read articles from many different Bible teaching websites. Click a word to see its definition, search a concordance, and everywhere else that word or its root is found. Move around a realistic 3D rendering of structures like the Tabernacle or Noah’s Ark. See churches near you on a map – but not every church, mosque, temple or synagogue – just those which are recommended by Bible-believing Christians. You can even get current news that’s relevant to a biblical worldview from multiple websites, all in one news reader.