Dear Jon,
If there weren't any online ministries I would never have awaken from my mediocrate mainstream charismatic slumber. Thanks for all those ministries and individuals who post free edifying Christian content on the web. I sent the links to mainy of my friends and they in turn got blessed.
My teenage daughter now listens to online sermons instead of pop music.
I admit that there is a lot of junk and phoney Christian content on the web but there are some great morsels among them. Pride and greed always tries to pervert God's genuine work and draw attention to men or use godliness as a means for personal gain. I agree with you, there is no substitute for true holy ghost inspired bible backed discernment to avoid being led astray by false ministries.
I am also very blessed by a number of discernment ministries who helped me to see the errors of some popular trends in Christianity. They have a commitment and true calling into this ministry and do some very through research. These resources simply are not always around in the context of the local church and are best published online to make them available to the wider body of Christ.
In the same way as God inspired Johannes Gutenberg to invent the printing press at the time of the reformation to make biblical truth available to the masses, the internet came into existence as a medium to make biblical truth, encouraging testimonies, news from the mission field, prophetic words, intercession request etc, known to the wider body of Christ.
No doubt, the internet is also one of the most perverse media that ever existed.
I long for the time when we will all know the Lord and do no longer need the internet (and even bibles) because our fleshly body has been replaced with a glorious resurrection body.
Until we get there, I guess we have to arrange ourselves somehow with the internet. I believe propper use is the answer.
Narrowpath of London