I Prayed have prayed
Father, Your Word commands us to be vigilant and sober minded because of Satan’s relentless effort to seek out those he can devour. Coming out of the pandemic, may we not forget the importance of interdependent, safe, loving, truthful, in-person worship and community. Help us see the enemy’s tactics to blur the lines of our sense of Christian identity and community, and of fantasy and reality online. Raise up evangelists and equip them to do outreach in the metaverse as it develops and call people into a loving relationship with You, and with each other, where they can find their true identity in Christ. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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The phrase “Blurred Lines” is famous to some as the title of an offensive song by Robin Thicke. But that is not where what we are talking about. Blurring lines is one of Satan’s favorite approaches to leading the people of God astray. Bending truth, twisting Scripture, baiting and hooking, falsifying doctrine – all the tricks in the book of him who the Bible calls “the father of lies” (John 8:44).

One of the ways that Satan is blurring the lines is through the internet, and in particular its three-dimensional digital reality future called the metaverse. IFA contributing writer Angela Rodriguez wrote an in-depth article about this new online reality on November 20th, 2021.

Just to provide a little context, the metaverse is envisaged by tech and gaming giants to be the future of the internet in which all entertainment, commerce, business, online social interaction, and more will take place in a digitally created virtual reality (VR), or in a hybrid of real environments with superimposed digital imagery, better known as augmented reality (AR).

My millennial friends don’t seem to think that this has much of a future since “Mike Zuckerberg is involved” (and they don’t think much of Zuck), and the equipment needed to access the metaverse, like VR headsets and AR glasses, is expensive. But then again, ten years ago we could not imagine paying $1,000 or more for a smartphone, nor could we imagine that the internet would become as vital to our everyday life as oxygen. And tech giants like Meta, Microsoft and Google seem to think that the metaverse is a definite direction in which our online world, is headed, judging from the tens of billions they are investing in it.

The metaverse takes blurring lines between reality and fantasy to a whole other level. It’s already easy to represent yourself on social media with an image that does not match up to the reality of who you are and what your life is like. You can portray your life as highlights while the reality looks more like a blooper reel. That is even more the case in the virtual universe where everything you do is through an avatar, a digital representation of yourself that is not the real you.

That is also the case in the metaverse church. Apparently, that is already a thing. According to an article in Christian Headline News, many churches have had to rethink how they do church during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. While most have opted to return to in-person meetings as soon as possible, others have embraced the internet world as their new environment for doing church. “The future of the church is the metaverse,” D.J. Soto, who founded VR Church in 2016, told Religion News Service in January. “It’s not an anti-physical thing. I don’t think the physical gatherings should go away. But in the church of 2030, the main focus is going to be your metaverse campus.”

According to a Newsmax article of January 31, 2021, proponents of the metaverse church say that it provides an important way for people with social phobias to worship. You can interact with real people, hear their real voices and see real emotions expressed by their avatars in the digital world. One woman stated that her avatar made a profession of faith, was baptized by the avatar of a pastor, and that the experience felt as genuine and emotional as if she had been there herself. Bill Willenbrock, who leads a Christian fellowship on the social platform VRchat, agrees. According to him, the anonymity of virtual reality can help people feel more confident about sharing deeply personal issues. That sounds deep, until he relates how he found himself preaching in a cavernous digital cathedral complete with lighted hallways and stained glass windows to a group of avatars that included a giant banana, a guy in a suit, a mushroom, and several armored knights. I’m not making this up. The fact that these experiences in a digitally created, fake environment feel real shows you how the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality works. On the dark side of that, the Dutch news service www.nu.nl reported recently that tech companies are scrambling to set up safety measures in their digital world after female avatars were subjected to inappropriate sexual behaviors from other avatars. It felt real to them, traumatized them, and led to lawsuits.

Opponents if the idea of a metaverse church state contend that this line of thinking assumes that a disembodied church practicing a disembodied faith is possible, which would go against the biblical principles of meeting together, having face-to-face fellowship, sharing life together, having communion together and practicing the spiritual gifts as was modeled in the New Testament Church. Not to mention a profession of faith and heartfelt worship as the real you, instead of a representation in your place. The internet wasn’t around back then, but interpersonal contact is built into the human physiology by God. Church was supposed to be a safe place, built on unconditional love, where people could unmask themselves and build one another up in the faith (See 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Philippians 2:1-4). Granted, for many, this has been far from reality in the church of today. The aforementioned millennials have told me repeatedly that they will not darken the doors of a church anytime soon because they have experienced it as a place of comparison and judgment, to be weighed and found wanting. More of a place of danger and plan than a safe haven.

Satan has always been working hard to confuse and confound the church, and to attack the defined lines around who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us, our true identity. He has encouraged division between us along worship styles, modes of operation, and doctrines. He has encouraged us to become social clubs, more concerned with membership and activities than with lovingly connecting people to God and to each other.  Despite the seeker sensitive church culture of the last few decades, we are still as confused and club-minded as ever. And that has made the environment ripe for a metaverse church, where people can easily hide their true self behind an avatar to feel safer. It sounds attractive, especially for the socially anxious, but that is just a lure.

With Satan, every lure comes with a hook. And the hook of the metaverse is that churches give up control to the tech giants that run the digital world. We have recently seen their bent toward censorship and wanting to define what they consider to be “community-friendly” free speech in the two-dimensional internet. They will most certainly carry that through to the three-dimensional digital world. The ability to do church and the access of the flock is then dependent on the technologies and equipment they provide, and they can shut you down in an instant if you do not conform to their community guidelines. That has brought us a giant leap closer to government control over what churches can and cannot say since we have clearly seen that big tech is all too happy to act as enforcers of government restrictions on free speech.

How do we turn this into prayer?

First, let us pray for a spiritual awakening in the Church that leads to a return of loving and vital connection to God and to each other, and makes the Body of Christ a safe haven for all, including the socially anxious.

Secondly, let us pray for the vigilance that Peter called for, so that we do not get sucked in by the increasingly blurred lines between fantasy and reality that Satan is promoting in society and in the church.

Thirdly, let us pray that God gives us a clear understanding of who we are in Christ, and how the Body of Christ is supposed to operate.

Last, but not least: Let us pray for responsible and loving outreach in the metaverse. If it does take off and offers a place for people to find religion and community, it will be a viable harvest field for evangelism – with the caveat that we draw people from dependence on virtual reality into face-to-face worship, fellowship, faith building and doing life together, staying true to what God has designed for His Church.

Father, your Word commands us to be vigilant and sober minded because of Satan’s relentless effort to seek out those he can devour. Coming out of the pandemic of the last two years during which we were able to continue meeting online, may we not forget the importance of interdependent, safe, loving, truthful, in-person worship and community. Help us see the enemy’s tactics to blur the lines of our sense of Christian identity and community, and of fantasy and reality online. Raise up evangelists and equip them to do outreach in the metaverse as it develops and call people into a loving relationship with you, and with each other, where they can find their true identity in Christ. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Share what you think in the comments!

Author Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years’ experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the US. Born and raised in the Netherlands and pastoring his first church in Amsterdam, he moved to the US in 1986. He and his wife Jennifer currently live north of Atlanta, GA When not writing books, he blogs and assists his wife as content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Picture Credit: Canva.

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Joseph Everett
March 19, 2022

Who is Mike Zuckerberg? Is this a joke I don’t get? – “Mike Zuckerberg is involved”

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    Julie
    March 19, 2022

    Looks like a type for Mark Zuckerberg, obviously.

    Ugh! Who’d want Mark Zuckerberg in charge of their church! And that’s exactly what this would be, trusting creepy Tech Giants and cancel culture with one’s worship.

    What could go wrong?

      Julie
      March 19, 2022

      Sorry – should read:

      Looks like a typo for Mark Zuckerberg, obviously.

Robert Doyle
March 19, 2022

The meta verse is an attempt to pull mankind further into the median of screens. In this space, we are not human beings with five senses. We are half human at best, using only two of our senses. No fully present in the reality into which we were born or the digital reality we are all becoming so accustomed too. Not unlike a drugged state. While in this drugged state, our brains release chemicals that cause us to feel good, and we return again and again for the release of these chemicals. Over time we become addicted and dependent on this release of dopamine and fall deeper into its grip. Our families lose touch with us and eventually we our not present in either reality. Drifting between the two in a trance.

Those of us that have experience with family in the grip of addiction, know this all too well. Eventually the addict pushes every one away and begins to blame his loved ones for their absence. This may account for the explosion in “social phobias”. Not phobias at all, but addicts pushing away those who come between them and their needle. The internet has become a powerful narcotic and the meta verse is yet another form of this digital drug. Eventually the digital world will become so immersive that millions will go in and never return. They will lose the desire for human contact altogether and our species will cease to reproduce. It is already happening to male fertility, as our toxic lifestyle assaults the human reproductive system. Since the mid 70’s, male sperm counts have fallen 1% a year, every year. If we do not step away from this madness, a great flood will again wash over humanity. This is precisely what Satan seeks to accomplish. To wipe out God’s most wonderful creation, human beings. If he cannot be the most beautiful, no one can. He would rather see it all destroyed and we are walking right into his trap.

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    Mrs D
    March 19, 2022

    Messrs. Doyle and Blair,
    Thank you so much for your comments. As much as i treasure spending time OFF-line in the “secret place” with the LORD, i admit that i spend far too much time on the internet even in pursuit of “spiritual revelation,” through online teaching, prayer and Bible study. Your comments provide a great wake-up call. “Social phobias” are not “cured” through avoiding eye-to-eye/heart-to-heart contact. Even as i read this article i was alerted in my spirit about being attracted by the lie of, “it was pleasant to the eyes, and …. to be desired to make one wise,”

    Indeed as Mr. Blair has said (immediately below): “Those who are sick need real healing, not virtual healing. They need the love and compassion of real people, not avatars. They need to be in a place where the eternal heavenly realm can impact the temporary temporal realm, not some fake realm of their own making. In short, we must escape the matrix in order to live the ascended life that God has prepared for everyone who truly believed in Jesus.”

    Again, thank you both for sharing.

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Tim Blair
March 18, 2022

I have compassion for those who are sick in spirit, body or soul. My wife is recovering from MS and is currently confined to a wheel chair. Yet she makes every effort to attend (real) church whenever possible where she receives prayer and encouragement. We also have two autistic boys in our congregation who can be disruptive at times, but we accept their behavior knowing that Jesus would not turn them away. Those who are sick need real healing, not virtual healing. They need the love and compassion of real people, not avatars. They need to be in a place where the eternal heavenly realm can impact the temporary temporal realm, not some fake realm of their own making. In short, we must escape the matrix in order to live the ascended life that God has prepared for everyone who truly believed in Jesus.

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Leigh
March 18, 2022

As a person with 2 genetic diseases, the online church was a life line for me and still is. Yet, the pit falls are there and your statements concerning Satan’s efforts to permeate and mirror image all that our Lord provides and does is so true. Thank you for IFA’s continued research and for revealing truth. God bless! L

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Barbara Janicki
March 17, 2022

There is just no substitute for the real thing – there just isn’t. (real being the operative word here) this is more opportunity for the lines to blur between fantasy and reality – we create our own reality, (which if we “create” it – it is not real) not being satisfied with the real world God gave us – sound familiar? (Eve in the perfect garden, not satisfied with what God had given) Virtual church by-passes the instruction in Hebrews 10:25 – “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Encouragement happens more powerfully face to face and as “the Day” is approaching we are called to step up our endeavors, including meeting together in person, not scale back on the in person community life of the church, God’s body here on earth. This is a tool of the devil, divide and deceive – keep us isolated in real life – computer screens are ok, we are deceived into thinking we are connected at the deepest levels – which we were created for, connection with God and connection with each other. But we are not truly connecting by putting an idealized image of ourselves online (like Facebook) it isn’t real. But if Satan can counterfeit that experience He can separate us from each other and from reality. Isolated and alone we will believe any lies on the screens in front of us – God gave us five senses for a reason, to experience this life fully, but we have to get up from behind the screen and go out and be with real people in real time doing real things, not make believe things on a screen. Also, this gives big tech much more control over us as individuals, makes us dependent on them – state run religion doesn’t play well in China -why would it be any different here? so much to say – so little time. God and His living word are what’s real – let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus lest we be led away from “the way the truth and the life.” http://www.mtothe5th.wordpress.com

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Augie
March 17, 2022

This is truly Orwellian DoubleSpeak. “Proponents” (Satan’s minions) of the metaverse church (A make believe world where truth and reality do not exist) say that it provides an important way for people (imaginary characters) with social phobias (woke people suffering mental illness or fears that true human faith connections can overcome) to worship (be lorded over by Big Brother).

Double Speak version:

Proponents of the metaverse church say that it provides an important way for people with social phobias to worship.

What they are really saying:

In the Metaverse, a non-existant place, Satan’s minions encourage imaginary characters to worship in a safe space so they can avoid human contact and be told what to do so they never suffer the pain and streaa of making a real decision as to their beliefs.

Lord, Satan is the Father of Lies and his followers in Silicon Valley and the media are leading the weakest among us down a dark path. Shine your light into that darkness and blind them as you did Saul that they may be reawakened into you love and the light or your truth.

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Suzy
March 17, 2022

Sounds to me like man’s attempt to again build the Tower of Babel where he hopes that he can reach heaven by touching the sky; in this case, using the various satellites in the universe to touch each other thinking somehow, they are touching God in some virtual reality sense. The scripture is clear that God wants us to worship Him together, (assemble), building each other faith especially as the day is approaching (Hebrews 10: 25).
For those that are socially challenged, they need the healing power of God and not to be isolated so satan can further torment them with fear and anxiety.
Father God, we take authority in the Name of Jesus over the devices of satan that are targeted to split and divide Your Church. We are not deceived. Jesus demonstrated the miraculous power of touch and how we are to touch others in laying hands on the sick. God, you made us social beings, to fellowship with one another and not to exist as some type of artificial being with an artificial intelligence. You made us in Your image and now man is trying to reconstruct what it means to be human. You will not tolerate! Show man how insufficient and reprobate we are without You. You tore down the Tower of Babel and sent the people scattering, You can do it again. Amen.l

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Sharon Lee McHone
March 17, 2022

We must stay vigilant with in person worship. We grow stronger with God and others by loving people and praying with people in person.

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Peggy J Twining-Prentice
March 17, 2022

Mathew 24:24, For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great miracles to deceive even the elect-if that were possible. Psalm 119:125, I am your servant, give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.

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carrie
March 17, 2022

yes I am believing and praying pastors and churches wake up to this evil metaverse church. There is no way God wanted us to be isolated and why He would not want us to gather and praise together . Where 2 or more are gathered in my name , tells us that we were meant to join together and for those with anxiety which most have been caused by the phone and media , church is the healing place.
Those churches do not know the real God and they should repent ! Sad so many woke christians that have been deceived.

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Maynard Beck Sr.
March 17, 2022

Outstanding article!
Intersection of technology and faith…
I am an 80 year old prayer warrior who spent 40 years in the IT field as a software engineer for major companies. The “Metaverse” is actually man’s attempts to do the opposite of what our Lord and Saviour did when He stepped into the space/time continuum.
Allow me to share a story:
I was working at a large Software Lab in the development phase of a significant product – the proverbial “death march” of non-stop overtime. One member of the team had emergency heart by-pass surgery and came back to work before he was adequately rested (his face was ashen-grey and he was in a state of complete exhaustion)
I went to 3 different managers and pleaded with them to send him home but they all refused – typical “fear of man”, so I went into my office, closed the door and began to pray in the spirit. My prayer was interrupted by a knock on the door. When I opened the door I was told “we can all go home – the system is down.” That system not only had redundant processors, but also backup power sources to make it as impenetrable as humanly possible. To God goes the Glory.

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