The World Wide Christian Web Turns 10 Years Old!

It's a rare rainy Saturday in Arizona, which sets one's mind to reflecting on the last 10 years here at the World Wide Christian Web (WWCW). The WWCW's 10-year anniversary is April 15, 2005.

The Internet 10 years ago was a very different place. 10 years ago, the owners of Deja's Usenet (purchased by Google) weren't billionaires. "Yahoo" was new and was still used as a derogatory term. The Internet dot-com boom and crash was years away. A "surfer" was one who rode waves in the ocean on a surfboard. Internet technology and web site design was advancing at such a rate it seemed that if you didn't modify your web site every other week, you would be left behind. Christian web sites were starting to appear but atheists and agnostics seemingly ran the web. Pornography and sexual predators had not taken over the Internet. Everyone used early versions of Netscape's browser and the grandfather of all browsers, Mosaic. One had to use something called "Gopher" to mine the Internet for information. And 10 years ago, domain names were free, with single word domain names still available.

The World Wide Christian Web grew out of need to bring Christianity to a technological, mostly unbelieving, crowd. Christians were regularly verbally assaulted and Christianity was condemned as superstition from all corners of the Internet in those days. The WWCW has stood as a resource to Christians and a light to non-Christians. Its mission was to present "thinking Christianity" to this new community. It also held no punches when it went toe-to-toe with atheists and other anti-Christian foes. This was unnerving to many, who were used to cowering their opponent with unsupported assertions and personal attacks. Because of this, there have been many web sites and web pages over the last 10 years dedicated to personal attacks against the WWCW and its editor. In fact, the WWCW or the name of its editor still pops up in discussion groups periodically, though the editor hasn't participated much in these groups for over 5 years. In the old days, through it all, the number of visitors to the WWCW increased. People either wanted to pick a fight or wanted to see what the commotion was all about. The more personal attacks from the anti-Christian crowd, the more visitors - and the more exposure to the Christian message presented in a scientific, logical way.

Those who came to the WWCW for a fight, expecting an easy victory, were sorely disappointed. They were met, not with subjective drivel but with logic and science. This often turned their arguments to personal insults. When a person sees his belief system start to crumble, he often becomes very defensive. Some of the most close-minded people that have visited the WWCW were the very people who pride themselves as being open-minded.

The editor of the WWCW has had the privilege of debating some well know people over the last 10 years, people like Farrell Till, Michael Shermer and other atheists, agnostics and skeptics. William Lane Craig, Norman Geisler and Hal Lindsey are among some of the many Christians the editor has had the privilege of corresponding with in the past.

The World Wide Christian Web will have brought logical and scientific reasons for the existence of God and Christianity to the Internet community for 10 years this April. In that time, the WWCW has never asked for monetary support. The WWCW has been a free resource and, hopefully, has made an eternal difference in the lives of many, for the glory of Christ Jesus.

-ed
e-mail: wwcw@wwcw.org

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