Artificial Intelligence (AI) has experienced an exponential surge in capability and popularity lately, thanks to Open AI’s ChatGPT. While it wasn’t the only AI system around, it became one of the easiest for everyday people like you and me to access and play around with. Naturally, our human tendency to fear that which we don’t understand took hold immediately and everyone wants to know what jobs, or more importantly if their job, will be replaced by our smarter, more efficient, and less whiny robotic counterparts. Similar to any technological leap, many jobs will be impacted. But will AI’s influence stop there or cross into the spiritual realm? Can AI advise on spiritual matters? How about matters of the heart? Is it a noisy gong of “head knowledge” or a reputable advisor with more scriptural backing than most Christians?
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Eighteen Inches
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? ‘ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”
Matthew 7:21-23
There’s a classic saying that many people miss God by 18 inches – the average distance from the brain to the heart.
It’s a fun way of saying people can know about God but not really know God.
People can know about you or me without really knowing us.
They have head knowledge but not heart knowledge.
The Bible says in Matthew 7 that there are people who will do things in God’s name that God never knew.
It’s self-deception.
This author clarifies what the Bible says about self-deception, “James 1:22 warns us against deceiving ourselves: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” The self-deception that James has in mind relates to an inappropriate response to truth. God’s Word is meant to change us (see Psalm 119:11 and John 17:17). We can sit in church for years, listening to sermon after sermon, but if we never allow the Word we hear preached change us, then we are self-deceived. We can read the Bible from cover to cover, but unless we put its commands into practice, we deceive ourselves.”
Scripture confirms how easy it is to be deceived, despite the simplicity of God’s calling.
“If you love me, obey my commands, and my commands are not burdensome…Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”
1 John 5:1-5
The Problem with the Pharisees
Unless you grew up in church or studied the Bible yourself, you may not be familiar with the pharisees.
The Pharisees were religious leaders of their day and held authority and power in the community.
Pharisees new the law, the commandments, the rules, and all the traditions.
But they historically focused more on the letter of the law than the heart of the law.
Pharisees rejected Jesus for a few main reasons but chief among them was His ability to transcend the law with authoritative truth that undermined their ability to maintain power.
As an insult, someone who is a pharisee knows about God but doesn’t know God.
If they did know God, they would care more about people and the fruits of the Spirit than piling burdens on people that they themselves could never carry.
How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Become the Ultimate Pharisee
AI is incredible.
It’s ability to parse data and generate astute recommendations is mind blowing.
It can articulate ideas and concepts most people can’t even comprehend.
AI can create opportunity, provide encouragement, and see things we can’t or don’t want to.
But AI does not have the breath of life.
It has no spirit.
No soul.
It has no sin and requires no salvation.
AI is no heir to the kingdom of God any more than a brick of clay.
It’s a tool in a messy toolbox we call life.
AI will know the Bible better than most people.
It will know scripture verses and every theory connecting the Biblical timeline.
AI will store data on every available theological commentary, historical document, and sermon illustration.
It will arrive at well researched recommendations.
Many people will ask AI about eternity, life, time, God, and the entire created world.
And it will tell people everything it knows.
It will know everything it can.
But unfortunately, it can never know God.
This doesn’t mean it’s evil.
But it also doesn’t mean it’s good.
It’s just head knowledge
Just facts (though that will be debatable).
Artificial intelligence will become to ultimate pharisee – knowing everything about God without knowing God.
And people will flock to it in droves to be led by its superior intelligence.
People will try to do what it says or they may rail against it.
And may one day many may find the sad difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing someone.
“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-11
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