The eye in the sky - is there too much surveillance?

In 2013, it was reported that the UK has some of the most surveillance cameras per head in the developed world. The surveillance commissioner, Tony Porter – a former senior counter-terrorism officer – said ‘the public was complacent about encroaching surveillance and urged public bodies, including the police, to be more transparent about how they are increasingly using smart cameras to monitor people’.

The British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) estimated in 2013 that there are up to 5.9 million closed-circuit television cameras in the country, including 750,000 in “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals and care homes.

President Trump recently accused former president Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the US Presidential election campaign. The ex-president has denied this.

In the UK, drones are increasingly being used by the British Military, and sales of drones to private individuals are increasing yearly.

The question Is, will our privacy be constantly invaded without our permission?

These types of headlines should raise questions. We are being observed; is our privacy under threat?

I was fascinated to notice how much the Bible speaks about us being observed by God. We may not know it, but God notes our every move. Solomon, the wise man of the Bible, states, “For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths”, Proverbs 5:21. In days long before technology, Solomon understood that God had the ability and capacity to monitor all that we say and do. In fact, it goes deeper than that; the Bible teaches that God searches our hearts, Romans 8:27. The Bible depicts our hearts as the seat of our emotions and the centre of our will.

The wonderful thing is that God loves us despite what he knows about us. If we were honest, most of us would not welcome God looking into our lives. I know I am not who I would like to be, never mind what a holy God wants me to be. In the final analysis, God describes our hearts as deceitful and wicked, Jeremiah 17:9.

The fact that God loves us is quite an eye-opener when considering what He sees in our hearts. We use CCTV to monitor, control and protect society. God observes and identifies our sins so that we will understand our need for His forgiveness. His case against us is pretty convincing, but despite that, God loves us.

Finally, here are a few verses from the Bible that I want to bring to your attention. If you are interested, read them for yourself. “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:7,8.

Please take time to read some more posts. All of my blog posts aim to bring God's word, the Bible, into your world.

Thanks for visiting.