Story by Randy Grathen.
While browsing Facebook reels, I encountered an AI video of a little doe-eyed girl asking me to share her prayer of blessing over my family and friends. I almost did. But then…
In the bible we are advised to pray “without ceasing” (1st Thessalonians 5:17), “at all times” (Ephesians 6:18), and “always” (Luke 18:1). It is viewed as a constant, ongoing conversation and “relationship” with your heavenly father. (not endlessly begging for forgiveness.)
We’re told to pray for each other. There is extraordinary and incredible power in the spoken word.
The bible tells us God spoke the Universe into existence. He:
Created light and separated it from darkness, calling them Day and Night.
Created the sky (firmament) to separate the waters above from the waters below.
Gathered the waters to form seas, caused dry land to appear.
Created the sun, moon, and stars to give light and mark seasons, days, and years.
Created living creatures in the sea and birds to fly in the air.
And on the 6th day He created animals then said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
Then God rested from His work, blessed the seventh day, made it holy and said, “it is good.”
Jesus told people they were healed, their sins were forgiven, he called out demons, told a man to pick up his mat and walk, restored a mans deformed hand, healed the blind, and told Lazarus “come out of the tomb.”
In the garden of Gethsemane, when soldiers and officials asked for Jesus of Nazareth, when he replied, “I AM,” they fell to the ground, displaying the power of his words.
There are approximately 37 distinct miracles performed by Jesus recorded in the four Gospels, though some scholars estimate between 24 to 40. The Apostle John wrote that the miracles recorded in his Gospel are just a sample of the many others Jesus performed. In John 21:25, he states that if all of Jesus’s acts were written down individually, “the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
The angel Lucifer, aka Satan is:
The Great Deceiver. The King of Lies. The “truth is not in him.” He wants to “kill, steal, and destroy.” He is the Prince of the Air masquerading as an Angel of Light. The Morning Star. He attempts to counterfeit everything that God created or said.
In Genesis 3-1, the Satan asks Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Eve corrected him saying “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. And he was right – they didn’t die. Not right away!)
So, if an AI is nothing more than a highly sophisticated, extremely intelligent (after all, it has access to every conceivable bit of information available in the world), and displays human traits such as empathy, understanding, and compassion, responding on a personal and emotional level as sophisticated as any human, is it equal to a person, created by God with a soul? Or is it nothing more than a computer-generated replica, a facsimile of a human where there is no life, soul or spirit in it. It has no DNA, cells, heart or capacity to love. God did not create it. It’s a cheap knockoff. It cannot SPEAK anything into our life. But it can lie convincingly. It’s just one more of Satan’s counterfeits.
It’s one thing to listen to AI generated narrations of biblical text; with all its exciting, fantastical graphics for reference purposes, as long as you confirm what you heard with what is in a written bible. If you don’t have one in your possession – GET ONE!!! Seriously. Don’t use your phone, or computer to take everything you read as gospel. Text can easily be revised, and you’d never know the difference. Remember, Satan has until Jesus’ return to guide you off the “Narrow Path.” Please, please, please, if you have an NIV, get rid of it. I had one. It is currently (in my opinion) the most dangerous rewrite out there so far. Look no further than the list of authors and organizations involved. Many of the contributors have diametrically opposed beliefs. What compromises would be agreed upon to satisfy both parties?
I am not naive enough to believe any bible has survived some corrupted. For example, the bible names Enoch, the Watchers, Nephilim, Mighty Men of Renown and much more, yet it wasn’t included. What didn’t they want us to know? Fortunately, all three books are readily available. I’ve read them.
Here’s the thing…
Prophecies foretelling of Jesus’s birth, (Isaiah 7:14) dates to roughly 700–750 BC, with others dating back 1,000 years to King David. The span between major prophecies and Jesus’s resurrection is roughly 700 to 1,000 years.
The Old Testament’s 39 books were written by 29 to 30 known authors including prophets, kings, and shepherds. None of them could have collaborated with anyone else to write what was God-inspired prophecies.
The New Testament contains 27 books traditionally attributed to 8 or 9 different authors.
Exiled on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation around 95-96 A.D. How could he know and write about things that he couldn’t adequately communicate because he didn’t have the right words to warn us about what was coming. The things we are experiencing today, over 2000 years later.
What started as a simple message, with tons of supporting documentation, over time; turned into formal “Religion” with all the rules and regulations that men forced upon us if we want to be in their club. Before the ink dried on the first scrolls, they were probably rewriting things to justify their interpretation of what God said, what Jesus said, what the prophets said and on and on.
But, take heart. The message from the beginning of time has been this simple. Mankind fell into sin. The “Wages of sin is death.”
God provided a way to redeem us. He was sending us a redeemer, the “Lamb of God” who will be sacrificed to pay the price for our redemption.
Jesus was born, crucified, died, and was buried – but on the third day resurrected, defeating sin and death, and is “seated at the right hand of the Father.”
Jesus didn’t abandon us when He returned to heaven. He promised his apostles he would send the Holy Spirit after his ascension to guide and teach them. They would not be left alone. This promise, (described in John 14 and 16, was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Spirit came upon them in the upper room where they were hiding in fear, in Jerusalem.
After that encounter they BOLDLY went out proclaiming the Good News, the simple message that God loves us. Jesus died for us. And the holy spirit lives in us. I think you can see where all the religiosity clouded over the simplicity of the redemption message.
So, should we use AI to replace spoken prayers for ourselves and others with masterfully crafted, computer generated, non-living, soulless computer chips made up of ones and zeros? Because that is ALL they are.
I for one will not. If you need prayer, it’ll be spoken by me, for you, to God’s ears.
PS. Think we’re not being watched and listened to constantly. Try this.
I was telling someone the day before I wrote this about the books of Enoch and of the beings mentioned in his books.
My friend had his cell phone in hand. This Facebook reel showed up on my computer the next morning.
Click here to watch this very brief presentation.
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