This article begins with a wallop – an account of a teen who, after talking with an AI chatbot, committed suicide – and while I don’t think that’s the pressing danger we’re facing with our kids and AI, these 5 questions seem helpful conversation starters.
A Spanish woman was, reportedly, prodded towards euthanasia by a medical system that wanted her organs for transplants. If this is the direction of organ provision, Christians are going to have to choose death over having any sort of hand in these murders.
When it comes to any sort of discussion or debate, God’s people shouldn’t always feel the need to do the heavy lifting. Especially when someone, ignorant of the Bible, tries attacking it. Highlighted here is a great tactic – put the onus back on them for them to show what they claim to know. If they know the Bible doesn’t make sense because of… well, whatever, ask them to dig into it for you.
If you have liberal Christian family or friends, this is worth sharing. They need to understand that if you only believe some of the Bible, then it isn’t the authoritative Word of God governing your life – you’ve made yourself the authority, the god of your life, who decides what you will agree with and what you won’t. And we don’t make for a very good god.
“…the central quality of authentic repentance is that it features earnest productivity…. Whenever I first meet someone who is guilty of a serious offense, even after over thirty years of pastoral experience, I cannot reliably determine if they are truly sorry, particularly if the individual has been caught in sin rather than coming forward. Usually, there are lots of tears. Most people feel bad when they have made a big mistake. But if the grief is not true repentance, then soon enough it becomes clear. Such a person weeps many tears but is unwilling to follow through with something as basic as church attendance, much less memorizing and studying relevant Scripture. And it can be breathtaking how quickly someone who has committed a grave offense begins to criticize a local church. So often the speech goes something like, ‘Well, I know that I messed up, but I just thought God’s people would be more loving’ or ‘I shouldn’t have done it, but everyone is being too heavy-handed.’”
There are all sorts of tools – including AI – that can shortcut the work of studying the Bible and just find us the verse we needed. But what we need to remember is the why behind what we’re doing when we study the Bible. We study, not to complete some work sheet, or to answer whatever set of questions we might have been given. We study God’s Word to be shaped by it. It’s not about finishing the work; it’s about wanted to be shaped by the work. So yes, commentaries and even AI, might have their place, but we don’t want to find shortcuts when it comes to studying what God’s said to us. We want to “Let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly…” (Col. 3:16).
There’s something true in the expression that “all truth is God’s truth” because, after all, God is the Author of reality. But the expression can also be used deceptively and it all depends on what direction the use is heading.
Is it being used to elevate secular discoveries to being on par with the truth of God’s Word?
Or is it being used it to elevate God as the author of reality, such that in its order and awesomeness, He’s left no shortage of wonders to discover, even by unbelievers?
The former “baptizes” secular findings and, if they conflict with Scripture, then demands Scripture be reinterpreted in light of what godless Man has discovered. But we need to steer clear of compromised positions like theistic evolution, or, as this article addresses, we need to be wary of what secular psychology “discovers,” claiming to know the nature of Man without even recognizing our sinful nature.
The latter understands that secular “truths” can be true, but can only be known as such when they are tested against God’s inerrant Word in some manner or fashion.
They’ve found some ancient “trans” skeletons now that purportedly shows that transexuals have been with us throughout history. The evidence is ironically bad, teaching us not about any historic legacy for transsexuality, but instead how supposed experts are willing to forgo objectivity in the name of whatever the latest ideology might be.
