©2011-2026, David E. Robinson: At the Gates of Yerushalayim Ministries

 Lessons from the Wilderness, Volume 72

Point of View^{[i] [ii] [iii] [iv] [v]}

This month, the month of June, has many things happening all at once. At the church I visit, we have programs and fund raisers for the children; we have graduations; we have a wedding approaching, and of course, Father’s Day. So while I continue to work on my previous series, I would like to take a moment and address something that needs attention.

Depending upon your point of view, all these different things may come with baggage, some good, some emotional, some financial. How do we navigate all these different events depends upon our point of view. Now what is a “point of view”? It is, by definition, a person's specific opinion, attitude, or standpoint regarding a subject. In life it can simply be that which represents your personal stance on a topic. It encompasses your values and biases. It can be how you just look at the world around you today.

Now there is a wide group of people here today, seniors, parents, young adults and, of course, tthe children. While I am not able to react to all that is going on, there are matters in our world today that do influence how we respond to situations, and how that response changes our point of view, So, then, this message is for all, but I am focused on the young.

Some of you are graduating, leaving high school and faced with new challenges. Others will be moving on to the new phase of their education. All will see change, and there are many issues that each individual will face. What I want to do today is warn our youth about the noise of the world and encourage them to take principled stands for God and themselves.

I am willing to bet all of our youth have phones or access to them. All more likely than not have access to computers also. So, they are all faced with and take part in a battle for their minds and hearts. It is here that I’ll focus my attention. No matter what one does, there are competing influences on your decisions, even the way you think and react to the world. I would like to lay out for you what I think are the danger spots that affect one’s point of view.

First, we must beware the cultural blind spots:

The highly influential websites and platforms that most people, young and old, look to today—are primarily video and discovery hubs like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit, just to name a few—all which suffer from systemic cultural blind spots. Because these platforms prioritize user retention, engagement metrics, and ad revenue, their designs inadvertently distort reality. Instead of offering a complete point of view, these digital spaces create profound blind spots:

• The Flattening of Global Culture: Platforms foster a cultural monoculture. Algorithms push hyper-curated, globally standardized aesthetics, stripping away regional depth, local accents, and cultural differentiation. Individual taste and localized traditions are flattened into a singular, shareable "internet style".
• The Anglo-Centric Illusion: There is a severe language and geographic bias built into Western tech platforms. Because the largest tech companies are based in the West, algorithms default to assuming the English-speaking internet represents the entire world. This completely hides rich intellectual, political, and cultural discourses happening in other languages.
• The Elimination of Self-Reflection: Recommendation engines act as mirrors that reinforce a user's existing biases. When young people encounter content that challenges their worldview, they simply swipe past it. This creates a blind spot where users overestimate their understanding of complex issues while lacking the critical skills to seek out diverse, opposing perspectives.
• Outrage Valued Over Nuance: Algorithms are mathematically engineered to reward virality, extreme viewpoints, and emotional outrage because they drive traffic. Complex cultural, historical, and spiritual nuances are systematically buried in favor of short, polarizing, and "provable" soundbites.
• The Commodification of Authenticity: While youth seek out "unpolished" and relatable creators over traditional celebrities, the platform structures quickly turn authenticity into a commercial product. Real human connection is routinely clashing with generative AI content and corporate algorithmic shifting, leaving a hole where it is incredibly difficult to tell what is genuinely human versus what is optimized for marketing.

Second: we must ask ourselves (young and old) what is the cure for this? Well, for a believer there is this:

(2Co 5:14-21 ESV)

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Third: For our youth, Scriptures provide extensive guidance on raising children with a righteous mindset, emphasizing the importance of teaching, modeling, and establishing faith within the home.

Teaching and Daily Integration

• Deuteronomy 6:6-9: Instructs parents to diligently teach God's commands to their children, weaving these values into every aspect of daily life—when sitting at home, walking, lying down, and getting up.

Guidance and Long-term Character

• Proverbs 22:6: The foundational verse on child-rearing, advising parents to "Train up a child in the way he should go," so that the moral, ethical, and spiritual foundations endure into adulthood.
• Proverbs 23:24: Highlights the immense joy a parent feels when raising children who embody wisdom and righteousness.

Modeling and Instruction

• Genesis 18:19: Notes that parents are chosen to command their households after them, keeping the way of the Lord by doing "righteousness and justice".
• 2 Timothy 3:15-16: Reminds parents of the value of teaching holy Scriptures from childhood, noting they are useful for "teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness".

Fourth: It is here where we begin to recognize the true villain. Cultural creep.

Cultural creep is the gradual, often unnoticed adoption of outside societal values, beliefs, and behaviors that erode an individual's or group's original core standards over time without one’s conscious awareness.

Here is why cultural creep is dangerous and how it impacts individuals, families, and faith:

1. It Happens Through Gradual Compromise

• Slow Shift: It rarely involves a sudden, dramatic abandonment of your beliefs.
• Desensitization: Repeated exposure to unbiblical ideas makes them feel normal.
• Boiling Frog Syndrome: Small, daily concessions accumulate until your mindset has completely shifted.

2. It Blurs Moral Boundaries

• Moral Relativism: Absolute truths are slowly replaced by "what feels right" or what is popular.
• Justification: It pressures you to excuse behavior or language you previously rejected.
• Cognitive Dissonance: It forces a compromise between what you profess and how you actually live.

3. It Mimics and Counterfeits Truth

• Deceptive Language: Worldly mindsets often use noble-sounding words like "tolerance," "freedom," or "self-care" to mask unbiblical ideas.
• Syncretism: It tempts believers to mix secular philosophy with scripture, diluting the power of the gospel.

4. It Targets the Next Generation

• Targeted Influence: Media, education, and peer groups aggressively shape children's worldviews.
• Parental Blind spots: If parents are compromised by cultural creep, they cannot effectively guard their children against it.
• Loss of Legacy: It breaks the multi-generational chain of passing down a righteous mindset.

Biblical Warnings Against Cultural Creep

• Romans 12:2: Commands believers: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
• Colossians 2:8: Warns to see to it that no one takes you captive through "hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition."
• James 4:4: Plainly states that friendship with the world's corrupt values is enmity against God.

Fifth: How does one combat this cultural creep? By going to the Scriptures. There are several places in the Bible that discuss the human perspective and how our point of view shapes our lives. The scriptures address both the limitations of our own viewpoints and the call to adopt a higher, more eternal point of view. Here are a few:

• Our View vs. God's View: In Isaiah 55:8-9, the Lord emphasizes that His thoughts and ways are vastly higher than human ways, reminding us of the limits of our own understanding.
• The "Worldly" Point of View: 2 Corinthians 5:16 specifically urges believers to no longer regard anyone or anything from a "worldly point of view", but rather to see things through the lens of a "new creation".
• Walking by Faith: 2 Corinthians 5:7 establishes a foundational concept for a spiritual point of view: "For we walk by faith, not by sight".
• Wisdom vs. Human Logic: Proverbs 14:12 warns about human perspective, stating, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death".
• Renewing Your Mind: Romans 12:2 calls individuals not to conform to the pattern of the world's viewpoint, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
• Respecting Different Opinions: In Romans 14:1-5, the apostle Paul discusses how to handle differing viewpoints and opinions within a community without passing judgment on one another.

We also are given warnings:

(Deu 30:11-20 ESV)

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

 But the word is very near you.

It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

This is backed up in Matthew:

(Mat 22:34-40 ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

To maintain an independent point of view against modern algorithms, you must intentionally resist digital conditioning. Both ancient philosophy and scripture offer timeless frameworks to protect your mind from algorithmic manipulation.

Scriptural Frameworks: Guarding the Mind

Scripture frames independence of mind as a spiritual duty, warning believers to actively guard their thoughts from cultural conformity.

• Non-Conformity and Mind Renewal: Romans 12:2 commands, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." This requires you to actively reject the pre-packaged opinions of the digital crowd.
• The Discipline of Filtration: Philippians 4:8 establishes a strict mental filter: focus only on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable. Algorithms feed on outrage; this framework demands you seek excellence instead.
• Active Testing of Information: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 instructs to "test everything; hold fast what is good." In a digital age, this means treating viral trends and online narratives with immediate skepticism until verified.
• Intellectual Humility: Proverbs 18:17 notes, "The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." This highlights the danger of online echo chambers and the need to seek out the other side of a story.

Philosophical Frameworks: Reclaiming Sovereignty

Classical philosophy provides structured methods to dismantle cognitive biases and reclaim intellectual autonomy from tech platforms. While we should trust in the guidance of the Lord, it is also helpful to see how the secular world deals with the same situations.

             Epictetus's Dichotomy of Control which seeks to highlight the sharp division or contrast between two things that are opposed, completely different, or mutually exclusive, such as the choice between good and evil in theory and actual practice can be seen in the example below.

Epictetus's Dichotomy of Control

┌──────────────┴──────────────┐

▼                             ▼

[ External Inputs ]           [ Internal Judgment ]

• Viral Outrage               • Conscious Choice

• Algorithmic Feeds           • Independent Beliefs

• Digital Noise               • Emotional Restraint

│                             │

( IGNORE )                    ( CULTIVATE )

• The Stoic Dichotomy of Control: Epictetus argued that we must divide life into what we can control (our beliefs, desires, and judgments) and what we cannot. The algorithm's output is outside your control; your reaction to it is entirely up to you.
• Socratic Irony and Questioning: Socrates championed the dismantling of unexamined, popular assumptions through relentless questioning. To apply this today, ask of every trending topic: "Do I actually believe this, or has the internet just repeated it to me enough times?"
• The Cartesians' Radical Doubt: René Descartes advocated for stripping away all preconceived notions and beliefs that could possibly be doubted to find absolute truth. Applied digitally, this means pausing, logging off, and rebuilding your worldview from first principles rather than feed recommendations.
• Nietzschean Intellectual Isolation: Friedrich Nietzsche warned against the "herd mentality," where individuals adopt collective opinions out of fear or laziness. He argued that true independent thinkers must occasionally withdraw into solitude to develop their own values, free from the noise of the masses.

Sixth, the cure: The Digital Fast

To defeat this encroachment of the mind and soul, try to practice digital asceticism —the intentional, temporary withdrawal from platforms. By stepping away from the constant stream of notifications and infinite scrolling, one will starve the algorithm of data and give your brain the quiet environment it needs to think deeply and independently.

             Study the word instead. Make it a practice to read to your children and answer their questions. Be honest with them if you do not know the answer but try then to have them help you find it. This will encourage them to think – do not go running to your digital asset – actually try to find the answer.

               Young people, wean yourselves off of the digital world. While it has its advantages, it also dulls your mind and your desire to learn. Begin to think – ask yourselves broad questions, then pick up those old dusty books and search till you find what it is you are looking for. Think carefully and cautiously. Sometimes there are more than one answer to your question. Critical thinking is essential in this new digital age of Artificial Intelligence and corporate manipulation of the mind. In conclusion, prepare yourselves for a new age – and turn off the phone. Your mind will thank you.

Shalom and Amein.

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[i]NOTICE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: Unless otherwise cited, all material found on this blogsite (original text, opinions, conclusions, and other material not related to cited sources remains the collected intellectual property of the author of this site, David E. Robinson, Elder, teacher, and minister, and are owned and controlled by myself and are protected by copyright and trademark laws and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws of the United States, foreign jurisdictions, and international conventions. Any errors found within, rest solely upon me; please do not blame the Father for my mistakes. I am teachable and correctable, not infallible. 😊

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[iii] Author’s note: This site is for education only and is not affiliated with any institution, organization, or religious group. It is the sole production of its editor/author. Use of information from Jewish-themed websites (or any other source material) should not be construed as these sites endorsing or confirming any thesis introduced by the author of this epistle. I present the information from their respective sites for instructional purposes only and/or to aid in the readers understanding of the subjects discussed.

[iv] Author’s note:  Throughout these studies, I will be using the NET Bible® and the NET Notes®: within the notes you will see symbols like this: ( א B Ψ 892* 2427 sys). These are abbreviations used by the NET Bible® for identifying the principal manuscript evidence that they (authors and translators of the NET Bible®) used in translating the New Testament. Please go to https://bible.org/netbible/  and see their section labeled “NET Bible Principals of Translation” for a more complete explanation on these symbols and other items pertinent to the way the NET Bible uses them. This is not to say that the NET® Bible will be our only source of God’s word but will be used as seen fit.

[v] Author’s Note: In these studies, I have used the notes that come along with the passages I cite from the sources that I cite: these need a bit of a disclaimer though. As in all things, not everything that is footnoted is something that I necessarily agree with, especially if it contradicts what I believe pertains to any matters of the Torah or the commandments of God. I give you the notes as they are written by the authors of the material I cite from, so that you can see the information contained within them. It truly is not my place to edit them; if they state anything that is in opposition to what I teach, then so be it. I will address these issues if requested. That is not to say I should not challenge something I believe, in my humble opinion, might contradict the truth of God’s word; that I will do in the main body of my epistles for that is where my gentle dissent belongs. Most (but not all) of the differences will come when I quote from a source that displays a decidedly Western/Greek mindset, as opposed to a Hebraic perspective. I must be intellectually honest – I am biased toward the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and His son, Yeshua the Messiah. I pray then we all can find common ground as we study the Scriptures. Also, some may be put off by the length or depth of the notes; not everyone has access to the references I do, therefore I try to include the notes that come with the material I use, so each can see for themselves the information the originator has pointedly gleaned. I hope you avail yourselves to these inclusions – they help us to understand how the material in scripture is laid out – the thought process of the original writer.